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Gordon Burghardt is a play scholar whose work is rigorously scientific and startlingly original in scope. His landmark book The Genesis of Animal Play (MIT Press, 2005) is the most comprehensive biological treatment of play across species, covering reptiles, fish, invertebrates, and mammals. He developed the 'surplus resource theory' of play and coined the concept of 'primary process play' — activity that emerges when animals have energy and safety to spare. Alumni Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, he continues to document play in species previously thought incapable of it.
Gordon Burghardt, PhD
Most Influential Work
The Genesis of Animal Play: Testing the Limits (MIT Press, 2005)
Play in Fishes, Frogs and Reptiles (Current Biology, 2015)