Amy Cook

Dr. Amy Cook is the Dean of the School of Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies. She joined Emerson College after an extensive career at Stony Brook University, where she served as Vice Provost of Academic Affairs, Associate Dean of Research and Innovation, Chair of the Department of Art, and Professor of English.

Cook is also the Founder and Executive Director of the Teagle-funded Academy of Civic Life, a free pre-college summer program for low-income high school students on Long Island. She also serves as Board President of the Myrifield Institute for Cognition and the Arts and is co-editor of Bloomsbury/Methuen Drama’s Performance and Science series.

Cook’s scholarship integrates research from the cognitive sciences into critical questions within theatre and performance, with particular attention to Shakespeare. She is the author of Shakespearean Futures: Casting the Bodies of Tomorrow on Shakespeare’s Stages Today (Cambridge Elements, 2020), Building Character: The Art and Science of Casting (University of Michigan Press, 2018), and Shakespearean Neuroplay (Palgrave, 2010), and co-editor of Theatre, Performance and Cognition (Methuen, 2016).

Prior to pursuing her PhD, Cook worked as a theatre director in Los Angeles and New York City and held a role at Random House, where she helped establish its original website and online sales program. She earned her PhD from the University of California, San Diego and her BA from the University of Michigan.