Richard Shusterman

Richard Shusterman is the Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the Humanities and Director of the Center for Body, Mind, and Culture at Florida Atlantic University. He is the leading theorist of the interdisciplinary research field of somaesthetics, which he originated in the late 1990s, based on philosophical ideas but also on his practical experience with different body disciplines. A professionally certified Feldenkrais teacher and therapist, Shusterman has frequently given practical workshops in body consciousness to professional dancers, choreographers, musicians, designers and visual artists. His major authored books includeThinking Through the Body; Body Consciousness; Surface and Depth;Performing Live; Practicing Philosophy; and Pragmatist Aesthetics (now published in fifteen languages). Shusterman received his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Oxford and has held visiting professorships in France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Austria, China and Japan. The French government honored him as a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques, and he was awarded research grants from the Fulbright Commission, the Humboldt Foundation, UNESCO and other prestigious institutions.