Programme
Aims and Objectives
Interest in research on humour as well as practical
applications of humour has been growing significantly over
the past twenty years. In the course of this period, the
field of humour research has expanded its scientific and
scholarly basis and has established itself as a fertile,
challenging, and exciting field of inter- and
transdisciplinary inquiry.
The programme of the International Summer School and
Symposium on Humour and Laughter is designed to provide both
advanced students setting out on a research project and
experienced researchers considering to enter the field of
humour research with a thorough foundation in humour studies.
It is our ambition to acquaint course participants with
current theoretical models, with methodological issues and
with factual knowledge to give them a sense of the complexity
of the issues involved, and to steer them away from the
pitfalls that are commonly encountered in the scientific
study of humour.
To those interested in practical applications of humour
in a variety of applied settings, the course offers an
introduction to the approaches that are being used around the
world to put humour to work and to deliver the benefits of
humour and laughter.
Structure of Course
The course programme consists of different structural
components which are intended to address the various
interests and needs of the participants in the best possible
way.
Lecture classes by a selected group of exerienced
international scholars make up the bulk of the programme (see
the main
Summer School site for information about previous events).
These "talks" are supplemented by workshops, a symposium, and
opportunities for individual discussions with the speakers
("Meet the Lecturer"). Sessions are held from Monday morning
to Saturday afternoon. One afternoon is set aside for
relaxation and sight-seeing.
Lectures / Talks: Most of the presentations
in the summer school programme are "talks" in the format of
an academic lecture. They last for 45-50 minutes and are
followed by a 10-15 minute period for questions and
discussion. "Talks" constitute a single slot on the
timetable.
Workshops: A "workshop" is a double slot
(lasting from one to two hours) which gives presenters an
opportunity to explore and examine their specific topics with
greater depth. Traditionally, there have been parallel
workshops with different topics so that participants are
given a choice to pick a specialisation that is closest to
their own work. A workshop may involve activities other than
traditional lecturing, for example discussions, debates, or
exercises performed by the audience.
Symposium: The "symposium" is a format in
which participants present their planned, ongoing or
completed research. They may also present ideas on how to
implement and use humour in applied settings in any format
that is suitable for this academic meeting. Depending on the
total number of presentation, a time slot for an individual
presentation in the symposium is limited to 15 or 20 minutes.
Participants will be given the opportunity to sign up for Meet
the Lecturer sessions in which they can discuss questions
regarding their individual projects with a lecturer of their
choice.
Speakers and proposed lectures
|
Prof Christie Davies
Department of Sociology
University
of Reading
Reading, England
|
- Testing hypotheses about jokes;
the ubiquitous jokes about Stupidity
- The appearance and evolution of
the disaster Joke
- The importance of history in the
understanding of ethnic jokes: Jokes about the French,
the Italians and the Australians
- Jokes and social classes
|
|
Dr Elena Hoicka
Department
of Psychology
University of Sheffield
Sheffield,
England
|
- Children's understanding of
humour: cognitive and socio cognitive perspectives
- Children's generation of jokes
|
|
Dr Sharon Lockyer
Sociology and Communications
Brunel
University
London, England
|
- Critical perspectives on
stand-up comedy
- Comic constructions of
disability
|
|
Dr Jessica Milner Davis
School of Media, Arts and
Letters
University of Sydney
Sydney,
Australia
|
- Humour in pranks and hoaxes: The
failed(?) Australian radio prank and other cases
- The fool and topsy-turvydom:
Comic heritage from the middle ages
- Laughter: Time, freedom and
Henri Bergson's theory of the comic
- Can't take a joke? The etymology
and practice of "piss-taking"
|
|
Prof Gina Mireault
Behavioral Sciences
Johnson State College
Johnson,
Vermont, USA
|
- In the beginning: Smiling,
laughter and the emergence of humor in infancy
- What's so funny? Infant humor as
a social process
|
|
Dr Graeme Ritchie
Department of Computing Science
University
of Aberdeen
Aberdeen, Scotland
|
- An overview of humour research
- Incongruity-based theories of
humour
- The methodology of testing
humour theories
- The role of language in humour
|
|
Prof Willibald Ruch
Department of Psychology
University
of Zurich
Zurich, Switzerland
|
- Comic styles from
Schmidt-Hidding until now: How many can we distinguish?
- The new view on gelotophobia
|
|
Dr Natalia Skradol
Russian & Slavonic Studies
University of
Sheffield
Sheffield, England
|
- Obscene verses turned
politically correct: Stalinist fake-lore>
- The fate of garden gnomes in
National Socialism: An unintended joke of Nazism
|
|
Prof Daniel Weiss
Slavic Linguistics,
University of Zurich
Zurich,
Switzerland
|
- Humour in a frustrated
Parliament: the case of the Russian State Duma
- The sense of humour of those in
power: President Putin's record of verbal aggression
|
|
Dr Alessandro Valitutti
Department of Computer
Science
University College Dublin
Dublin,
Ireland
|
- Introduction to computational humour
- Playful dissection of humorous machines
|
Preliminary
Schedule
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