Reading the Ventriloquist's Lips: The Performance Genre behind the Metaphor

Received his PhD from the University of Washington School of Drama in 1998. His dissertation “Ventriloquism: Identity and the Multiple Voice” is an analytical study of the reciprocal relationship of voice and identity as inscribed in the cultural history of ventriloquism. Publications include “Performing Theories of Consciousness” in an upcoming issue of Performing Arts International and “There Is No I after the Eye: The Cyclops As Dramatized by Euripides and Derek Walcott” in Text and Presentation (1995). He has presented papers at the conference of the International Federation of Theatre Research, the Mid-America Theatre Symposium, the Comparative Drama Conference, and was part of a panel on the work of Anna Deavere Smith at the 1996 ATHE conference. Before graduate school Davis worked variously as a high school drama and Latin instructor, jazz musician and songwriter, composer for theatre and dance, monologist, puppeteer, dramaturg, and director. His poems are published in a variety of smallpress journals, including Hard Pressed and Landing Signals. He has recently accepted a postdoctoral fellowship in the Humanities at Stanford University