Paulette Richards is an independent researcher and co-curator of the Living Objects: African American Puppetry exhibit at the University of Connecticut's Ballard Institute and Museum with Dr. John Bell.

Hazel Briar is an independent scholar with a PhD in theatre historiography from the University of Minnesota, USA. Her research examines performances of the dead, considering practices involving spiritualism and matter.

Alissa Mello is an award-winning editor, scholar, theatre artist, and Marie Sklodowska-Curie individual fellow (2022-2025) at the University of Exeter, UK. Their interests include women and performance, gender, identity, and practice.

Laura Purcell-Gates is a reader in theatre and performance at Bath Spa University in the UK and co-artistic director of Wattle and Daub, through which she conducts practice-based research on puppetry and non-normative bodies.