UC Santa Barbara

This dissertation examines intersections of performance and the production of scientific knowledge, uncovering performatic strategies within scientific epistemological practices and highlighting the influence that theatrical performances can have in bringing science to the public. In particular, I contend that thought experiments stage imagined scenarios within the minds of the audience, allowing for a mentally enacted form of performance that translates new scientific concepts through recuperating familiar embodied experiences. Engaging performatic means to prompt the reenactments of discovery, thought experiments are a particularly distinctive practice in physics; as such, my dissertation focuses on thought experiments designed to share theories of physical laws, from Galileo to Einstein to contemporary theoretical physics. I interrogate this practice through the lens of performance, developing new theorizations of the relationships between performance, embodiment, repetition, and cognition. In uncovering the overlooked performance strategies that underlie processes of scientific discovery and communication, this dissertation brings together scholarship from performance studies, theater studies, science and technology studies, and the philosophy of science, working across disciplines to intervene in extant understandings of the production of scientific knowledge.I first examine research lectures at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, identifying performance within the practice of thought experimentation and the cognitive processes of discovery; synthesizing scholarly conversations across humanities fields, this analysis highlights the heuristic and epistemological capacities of performance and leads to theorizations of new understandings of performance traits such as embodiment and repetition. I further investigate how lay-oriented publications and outreach talks encourage audiences to enact discovery through engaging with thought experiments based on familiar experiences. I then turn to works of science theater from the Cold War, namely Galileo, The Physicists, and Einstein on the Beach, to highlight how theater can stage scientific discoveries for broad audiences; additionally, I analyze their thematic deliberations of the social responsibility of science in light of nuclear weaponization to demonstrate how theater can also contribute timely ethical considerations of the potential sociopolitical implications of scientific research. Finally, I examine the contemporary MACH 33 Festival of Science-Driven Plays to demonstrate the power of theater in making science more accessible and reshaping the stereotypical image of the scientist. Throughout, in analyzing processes of scientific knowledge production and communication through the lens of performance, this dissertation seeks to illuminate science in action, bridging the sciences and the humanities and demonstrating the fruitfulness of interdisciplinarity.