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Upcoming
Seminars, Workshops, and Symposia
Deus Ridens: The Redemptive Power of Humor,
April 20-21, 2009, University of Antwerp, Belgium. The
University Centre Saint-Ignatius Antwerp
will hold a conference to look at the role that humor plays world religions. Paper proposals will be considered
through December 1, 2008. Call for paper information is available here on the ISHS website. For
more information, contact Heleen Van Nyen at
heleen.vannyen@student.kuleuven.be.
Comics in the Frame: International Conference on International Comedy,
June 4 to 5, 2009, University of Salford, Greater Manchester, United
Kingdom. The Communication, Cultural, and Media Studies Research
Centre at the University of Salford will hold a conference to look
at comedians who have made the transition from the stage to the screen. Paper proposals will be considered
through January 9, 2009. . For
more information, contact C. P. Lee at c.lee@salford.ac.uk or Andy Willis at a.willis@salford.ac.uk or visit the CCM website.
Recent Seminars, Workshops, and Symposia
Eighth International Summer School & Symposium on Humor and Laughter,
June 23-28, 2008. University of Galati, Romania. The International
Summer Schools are intended to provide 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 2008 Summer School, contact Diana Popa at Diana.Popa@ugal.ro or
Willibald Ruch at w.ruch@psychologie.uzh.ch.
For information on previous International Summer Schools, visit
the Summer
School homepage. ISHS
Endorsed Symposium.
Emotions behind Smiles and Laughter: From Facial Expression to Literary Descriptions,
May 19 & 20, 2008, University of Bologna, Italy. Paolo Santangelo,
Professor of East Asian History, at the University La Sapieza, Rome,
will host a conference on the representations of emotions. This
meeting will focus on humor-related manifestations of emotion, such
as smiling, laughter, giggling, chuckling etc., both from their
representation in East Asian cultures and in experimental psychological
studies. For more information visit the Conference website.
At
Whom Are We Laughing?: Humor in Romance Language Literatures,
April 10-12, 2008, Hofstra Cultural Center, Hoftra University,
Hempstead, New York. If humor is transgressive, what has been overturned?
If corrective, what progress has been made? Must humor serve a higher
purpose? Or can there be a humor for humor's sake alone? Together,
within the scope of seven language paradigms, this Conference will
attempt to answer these questions and pose many more, even as we
wonder: At Whom Are We Laughing? Papers submissions are welcomed,
and should focus on literature (poetry, prose, theater, related
art, etc.) but can include references to film, opera and other media.
The deadline for paper proposals is June 1, 2007 with completed
papers due November 15, 2007. For more information, visit the Hofstra
Cultural Center or write to hofculctr@hofstra.edu.
Comedy
and the Loss of Identity at the 32nd Comparative Drama Conference,
March 27 to 29, 2008, Los Angeles, California. Miriam Chirico is
organizing a panel for the 32nd Comparative Drama Conference on
"Comedy and the Loss of Identity." Scholars working on
comedy's ability to represent dramatically (i.e. through plays,
films, television shows) how identity can be deconstructed or undermined
are invited to apply to present on this panel. Papers and
research should examine how the genre of comedy, whether it is farce,
satire, or stand-up, puts into question basic elements of identity,
forcing characters or individuals to question who they are and how
their selves as constructed. Please send 250-word abstracts
and/or questions to chiricom@easternct.edu
by December 1, 2007.
Third Annual Conference of the Canadian Association of Therapeutic Clowns,
Nov. 8 to 11, 2007, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Hosted by SickKids
(The Hospital for Sick Children, affiliated with the University
of Toronto), the third annual CATC Conference will offer a four
day program of presentations and workshops. Wellington Nogueira
(Doutores da Alegria, São Paulo, Brazil) will be this year's
keynote speaker and will present on Clown Doctoring: Cool Gig
or Profession of the Future? On November 8, Grindl Kuchirka
will also lead a pre-conference workshop on clown performance and
dance. For more information, visit SickKids on the internet at www.sickkids.ca/therapeuticclownprogram,
or contact Susan Ridell, CATC Conference Coordinator, at susan.riddell@sickkids.ca.
The East Carolina Humor Festival and Conference,
Nov. 1 to 3, 2007, Greenville, North Carolina, USA. East Carolina
University will hold its first humor festival and academic conference
in Fall 2007. In addition to offering an academic conference in
which scholars explore humor in literature, dance, film, theater,
therapy, and art, the three-day inaugural event will feature joke
contests and stand-up and improv comedy, and a film festival. Featured
presenters will include North Carolina native and author Jill McCorkle,
Texas songwriter and author Kinky Friedman, and poet and NPR commentator
Andrei Codrescu. The conference invites scholarly papers/presentations
(15-20 minutes each) that focus on humor. For more infomation, contact
Tom Douglass at ECUHUMORFEST@ecu.edu or visit the Festival and Conference
website.
Michigan College English Association Conference on Humor,
October 12, 2007, Dearborn, Michigan
(Theme: Humor, Joy, and Performance). The Michigan
College English Association seeks proposals for individual papers
and for complete or open panels on Humor for its Fall 2007 meeting.
The Association encourages a variety of papers, including pedagogical
and scholarly essays, as well as welcomes poetry, drama, fiction,
and nonfiction from creative writers. The Conference will award
$25 prizes for the best scholarly and creative writing by graduate
students. The
deadline for paper submissions is September 20, 2007. Paper proposals
and requests for information should be sent to the Program Chairs,
Janet Heller, Engish, Western Michigan University, at janet.heller@wmich.edu
or Anne G. Berggren, Sweetland Writing Center, at agbergen@umich.edu.
No Laughing Matter: Visual Humor in Ideas of Race, Nationality & Ethnicity,
Sept. 15
to Nov. 16, 2007, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USA. In Fall
2007, the Leslie Humanities Center at Dartmoth College will host
an international Institute on Visual Humor. The two-month Institute
will will bring together scholars from a wide range of academic
disciplines to discuss the role that visual humor has played from
antiquity to the present in disseminating ideas of race, nationality
and ethnicity. The Center will also host an international conference
on visual humor between November 8 and 11. For additional information,
visit the No Laughing Matter
homepage or contact Angela Rosenthal at Angela.Rosenthal@dartmouth.edu.
International Symposium on Humor, Linguistics, and Folklore,
Sept 14-16, 2007, Szekszárd, Hungary. This Symposium seeks
proposals for paper on any topic that examines humor in relationship
to linguistics or folklore. For more information, contact Anna Litovkina
at litovkin@terrasoft.hu
or visit the Symposium website.
Interdisciplinary Workshop on Phonetics of Laughter,
August 5, 2007, Saarland University, Saarbrüken, Germany. The
workshop will be a satellite event of the 16th International Congress
of Phonetic Sciences in Saarbrücken, Germany. Its aim will
be to bring researchers together from various disciplines to present
their data, methods, findings, research questions, and ideas on
the phonetics of laughter (and smiling). For
more information, contact Jürgen Trouvain at laughter@coli.uni-sb.de
or visit the Workshop website.
Laughing Matters: An International Conference Exploring Humour, Health, and Learning,
June 18, 2007, LACE Conference Centre, Liverpool, United Kingdom.
As part of the Liverpool Comedy Festival (June 7 to 24), the Comedy
Trust is hosting its third international conference on the beneficial
effects of humour and laughter on health and well-being. Speakers
will include Stuart Smith, Executive Director of Children’s
Services for the Liverpool City Council, and Patty Wooten, internationally
recognized for her work in the field of therapeutic humour. For
additional information, visit the Comedy Trust
website or contact the conference center at conference@liverpoolcomedyfestival.com.
Fourth European Workshop in Humour Studies: Humour, Language, and the Media,
May 24-26, 2007, University of Bologna, Bertinoro, Italy.
The aim of this
workshop is to explore and examine different facets of the humour
in the media, ranging from theoretical problems, the issue of global
humour and current problems, with particular reference to whether
and, if so, how humour travels and is perceived cross-culturally
by audiences. For more information contact Delia Chiaro at delia.chiaro@unibo.it
or click here
to visit the Workshop website. ISHS
Endorsed Workshop.
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