Upcoming ISHS Conference

25th Annual Conference of  the International Society for Humor Studies Conference, July 2 to 6, 2013, College of William and Mary, USA. Conference organizer: Larry Ventis, Psychology Department, College of William and Mary. For more information, contact the Conference organizer at ishs@wm.edu or visit the Conference website.

Upcoming Annual, Biennial, and Quadrennial Conferences
     
Nineteenth AHSN Colloquium, University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, February 7–9, 2013. The 19th Colloquium of the Australasian Humour Studies Network (AHSN) will be held at the University of Newcastle, NSW and be convened by Prof. Michael Ewans and Mr. Michael Meany. The conference theme is “Humour and Creativity.” For Call for Papers and Workshops, see the AHSN Conference website.
           
Third North East Texas Humor Research Conference, February 22-24, 2013, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, USA. The 3rd North East Texas Humor Research Conference 2013 invites submissions for a multidisciplinary three day conference in Dallas, TX. The conference theme is “Humor in the Professions, Psychology, Pedagogy: Intercultural Perspectives.” While submissions on the theme are strongly encouraged, all submission in humor research are welcome. NETHRC 2013 will include an opening plenary roundtable and reception, paper sessions, panels, posters, and workshops. The deadline for submissions is January 3, 2013. For more information, contact the Conference Organizers, Christian Hempelmann at c.hempelmann@tamuc.edu or Owen Hanley Lynch at olynch@mail.smu.edu, or visit the Conference website.

Thirty-Ninth Annual Meeting of The Association for the Study of Play, March 6-9, 2013, University of Delaware, USA. The 2013 TASP Conference will be held jointly with the 2013 Conference of the American Association for the Child's Right to Play. The theme of the 2013 Conference will be Play as a Pathway. Papers proposal should be e-mailed to Myae Han, Human Development and Family Studies, University of Delaware at myaehan@udel.edu. The proposal deadline is September 30, 2012. Acceptance notifications will be sent out by October 31, 2012. For more information, visit the Conference website.

Third LAFAL Symposium, University of Lódz, Poland, March 21–23, 2013, The theme of the third LAFAL symposium is “Entertainment Discourse Beyond Humour Studies.” The symposium provides a forum for linguists who are interested in concepts and language issues of relevance to humor research. Plenary Speakers are Rachel Giora (Tel Aviv University), Miriam Locher (University of Basle), Dr. Brett Mills (University of East Anglia), Prof. Paul Simpson (Queen’s University of Belfast), and Prof. Elizabeth Stokoe (Loughborough University). For more information, please visit the Symposium website.

Twenty-Sixth Annual Conference of the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor, April 4-7, 2013, San Diego, California, USA. The theme of the 25th AATH Conference is Beat the Humor for Health, Happiness, and Peace. The Conference will be held at Buena Vista Palace Hotel 7 Spa and Conference discounts are available to ISHS members. For more information, visit the AATH Conference page at http://www.aath.org.

Second International Gelological Conference: History of Studying Laughter in Russia, May 16-19, 2013, Russian Institute of Art History, Saint-Petersburg State University, Russia. The aim of the conference is to examine basic scientific, philosophical and historiographical works on laughter. It is expected to analyze what Russian thinkers (or scientific schools) have contributed to studying laughter. To participate, please send an application including your full name, affiliation, contact information (e-mail), report subject, and abstract to the Organizing Committee at 3015958@gmail.com by March 15, 2013. If your paper is accepted, you will be sent a letter of invitation and asked to send the text of your paper by March 30, 2013 for inclusion in the Conference proceedings.    

Recent Annual and Biennial Conferences
      
2nd International Conference on Humour in Conventional and Unconventional Politics. November 6-8, 2012. Dunarea de Jos University of Galati, Romania. The aim of the conference is to bring together researchers with varied views on humour and politics. The central question raised is whether humour influences politics and shapes both political figures and political acts. The Conference welcomes paper proposals on humour in political speeches, humour in political campaigning and political conferences, humour in parliamentary debates, humour and democracy, humour and leadership, military humour, humour in totalitarian societies, humour in wartime, political humour in the media, translation and political humour. For more infomation, visit the Conference website. ISHS Endorsed Conference.

Thirteenth Annual Conference of the International Society for Luso-Hispanic Humor Studies, October 17-19, 2012, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal. The International Society for Luso-Hispanic Humor Studies announces the call for papers for its 13th Annual Conference and invites paper and panal proposals on any aspect of Luso-Hispanic humor. Proposal abstracts should not exceed one page, and may be submitted in English, Spanish, or Portuguese. Abstracts should be sent to Laura Areias at lauraareias@hotmail.com by the proposal deadline of March 31, 2012. For further information on the Society and membership, please contact Dr. Paul Seaver at pseaver@axs2000.net.

Humor Project's 55th Conference on the Positive Power of Humor and Creativity, June 1-3, 2012. The Humor Project celebrated its 55th International Program on the Positive Power of Humor and Creativity at the Silver Bay Conference Center in Silver Bay, New York. For more information visit the Humor Project.

9th International CORHUM Conference, October 13-15, 2011, University of Versailles-Saint Quentin, Yvelin, France. The 9th CORHUM Conference was hosted by the Centre for Reseach on the History of Contemporary Societies at the University of Versailles, and its theme was Humor and Teaching.. For more information, contact Corrine Francois-Deneve at Corinne.Francois-deneve@uvsq.fr.
          
Quadrennial Conference of the American Humor Studies Association, December 9-12, 2010, San Diego, California, USA. The 2010 AHSA Conference was held at the Bahia Hotel and Resort. For more information, contact Jan McIntire-Strsburg, Department of English, St. Louis University, at mcintire@slu.edu or visit the AHSA website at www.slu.edu/academic/ahsa.
   

Upcoming Seminars, Workshops, and Symposia

     
Laughter: Interdisciplinary German Studies Conference, Dwinelle Hall, University of California at Berkeley, March 8-10, 2013. This conference invites research that interrogates laughter in German literature and film, from jest and ridicule in courtly culture to reports of Kafka’s macabre laughter to Werner Herzog’s chuckle. We welcome proposals that focus not only on humor as genre, but also explore the affective dimensions of reading, watching and participating in the comical. Possible paper topics include but are not limited to laughter’s relation to the following: affect theory; parody and performativity; semiotics and protosemiotics; psychoanalysis; theater and catharsis; theories of incongruity and superiority; cynical reason vs. cynicism; the sacred and profane; satire and poetry; the Culture Industry, politics, and German-language comedy. The deadline for paper submissions is January 10, 2013. For more information, contact the Conference organizers, Jacob Johnson, Alexander Lambrow, and Seth Elliott Meyer at berkeleygermanconference@gmail.com.

On Mind and Mirth: The Philosophy of Humor, April 5-6, 2013, Colby College, Waterville, Maine, USA. The Mind and Mirth Conference will focus on different aspects of the philosophy and humor. Planned keynote speakers will be John Morreall (College of William and Mary) and Daniel Dennett (Tufts University). Paper sessions will include topics, such as the logic of humor, humor and cognition, humor and culture, the aesthetics of humor, gender and humor, comedy and community, and humor and human nature. Paper proposals between 200 to 300 words in length should be sent to Dan Cohen, Department of Philosophy, Colby College, at dhcohen@colby.edu. The deadline for proposal submissions is January 10, 2013. Acceptance Notifications will be sent out on February 5, 2013.

Thirteenth International Summer School & Symposium on Humor and Laughter, July 22-27, 2013, Universität Magdeburg, Germany. The International Summer Schools are intended for students and established investigators, planning research projects on humor, an opportunity to develop a strong foundation on the existing theoretical and methodological issues related to the scientific study of humor. For more information on the 2013 Summer School, contact Willibald Ruch at w.ruch@psychologie.uzh.ch or Holger Kersten at organiser13@humoursummerschool.org. For information on previous International Summer Schools, visit the Summer School homepage.
ISHS Endorsed Symposium.

Recent Seminars, Workshops, and Symposia

American Humor Studies Association at MLA, January 3-6, 2013, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. AHSA will hold a symposium on Laughing to Keep from Crying at the 2013 Modern Language Association Conference. For more information, contact Sharon D. McCoy, Department of English, University of Georgia, at sdmccoy@uga.edu or visit the AHSA website at www.slu.edu/academic/ahsa.
       
Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Symposium on Aritificial Intelligence of Humor, November 2-4, 2012, Westin Arlington Gateway, Arlington Virginia, USA. Human ability to communicate is incomplete without the use of humor. If a computational system is ever to approximate human communication ability or act as a competent partner in a conversation with a human, humor must be accounted for. The general goal of the proposed Symposium is to advance the state of the art in the direction of developing an AI system capable of understanding the mechanism of a joke at a level sufficient for providing a punch line to a human generated setup (even if unintentional) and conversely, for computer reacting competently to a human generated punch line that follows a setup, generated by either participant. The effort is multidisciplinary in nature, and the participants from all of the contributing disciplines, viz., computational semantics, knowledge representation, computational psychology, AI theory, humanoid robotics, human-computer interface, human factors, to name just a few, are invited to participate. Paper and panel proposals should be submitted to the Symposium Co-Chair, Julia M. Taylor, at jtaylor1@purdue.edu by May 25, 2012. For more details, contact Julia Taylor or visit the Humor Symposium website.    

The Taboo Conference 2012, October 25-27, 2012, University of Bologna, Forli, Italy. In a world that seems continuously to be pushing the envelope of what is acceptable to the inhabitants of specific linguistic and cultural contexts, this interdisciplinary conference acknowledges the importance of investigating taboos and their reinforcement/breaking in various areas of language, culture and society, and across different cultures. We propose to explore the delicate balance and subtle boundaries between the need for inclusion and respect for different ethnic, religious, sexual, etc. backgrounds and a (un)conscious push towards the breaking of existing taboos, for example for shock value, as in the case of humor. Abstracts should be submitted through the Conference website at http://taco2012.sitlec.unibo.it/call4papers.asp by the proposal deadline of February 15, 2012. For further information, contact Chiara Bucaria at dipsitlec.taco2012@unibo.it or visit the Conference website.
ISHS Endorsed Conference.   

Thirty-Fifth Colloquium on Literature and Film: The Language of Humor in Literature and Film, September 13-15, 2012, West Virginia University. Proposals for papers and panels will be accepted for this colloquium through April 1, 2012. For submissions and information, write to wvucoll@mail.wvu.edu.
             
Twelfth International Summer School & Symposium on Humor and Laughter, July 2-7, 2012, University of Eastern Finland, Savonlinna, Finland. The International Summer Schools are intended for students and established investigators, planning research projects on humor, an opportunity to develop a strong foundation on the existing theoretical and methodological issues related to the scientific study of humor. For more information on the 2012 Summer School, contact Willibald Ruch at w.ruch@psychologie.uzh.ch or Pirjo Nuutinen at Pirjo.Nuutinen@uef.fi. For information on previous International Summer Schools, visit the Summer School homepage.
ISHS Endorsed Symposium.

SPSP Preconference on the Psychology of Humor, January 26, 2012, at the 13th Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, January 26-28, 2012, San Diego, California, USA. This preconference provided three sessions on humor and psychopathology, the dark side of humor, and the interpersonal dynamics of humor. For more information, contact Sean Guillory, Psychology & Brain Sciences, Dartmouth University at seanguillory1925@gmail.com.

Laughter in Renaissance Painting, March 1-3, 2012, University of Paris I, Paris, France. This symposium addressed the different expressions of laughter in the visual arts as well as the images of 15th and 16th century Europe that were expected to produce laughter. For more information, visit the Conference website.

Laughter and Humor in Interaction Conference, June 23-24, 2011, Emerson College, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Presentations addressed topics such as the sequential organization of laughter, humor in everyday talk, and how laughing and humor-related actions shape identities and relationships. For more information, visit the conference site at www.emerson.edu/academics/professional-studies/courses-and-workshops/laughter-and-humor-conference.

Sound at Play: Music, Humor, and Games, March 5, 2011, Columbia University, New York City, New York, USA. The 8th Annual Columbia Music Scholarship Conference had as its theme Music, Humor, and Games. For more information contact the Conference Organizers at SoundatPlay2011@gmail.com.
              
Playtime: Formes, Fonctions, et Théries du Jeu, September 30-October 2, 2010, University of Sydney, Australia. For its 18th conference, the Australian Society for French Studies hosted a conference to explore French and francophone manifestations and strategies of play, across disciplinary and generic boundaries (literature, cinema, theatre, linguistics, philosophy, sociology, art), with particular emphasis on the social, ideological, pedagogical and aesthetic dimensions of ludicity. For more information, write to french.asfs2010@usyd.edu.au by January 21, 2010.

The following is a list of websites that belong to ISHS members who offer workshops for businesses, organizations, and groups. We provide these listings solely as a service to our members. A listing here does not imply ISHS endorsement or sponsorship.

Allen Klein—Humor for Workplace Wellness - Offers keynotes, breakout sessions, workshops and retreats
on how to use humor to deal with changes, challenges, and not-so-funny stuff in the workplace and in life. (Founder: Allen Klein).

The Humor Project — Organization devoted to helping people tap the positive power of humor and creativity (Founder: Joel Goodman).

HumorRx – Provider of  professional seminars, books, articles, and other products related to humor and health (Founder: Karyn Buxman).

HumorWorks – Provider of professional seminars that explore the benefits of humor in the workplace (Founder: John Morreall).

Jest for the Health of It – Provider of humor and health resources and workshops (Founder: Patty Wooten).

L.A.U.G.H.S. – Provider of seminars to help people develop their humor and laughter skills to reduce stress and promote physical well-being.  (Founder: Dorothea Keeling). 

Laughter Remedy — Provider of humor and health resources and workshops (Founder: Paul McGhee).

Laughter Works — Provider of keynotes, in-services, professional development trainings, employee appreciation events, and retreats (Founders: Kay Caskey and Laurie Young).

Stand Up For Mental Health — Provider of stand-up comedy courses for people with mental illness as a way of building self-esteem (Founder: David Granirer).

Steve Kaplan's Comedy Intensive — Provider of professional seminars and workshops for screenwriters, directors and actors exploring comic performance theory and techniques.