Course Director: Professor Willibald Ruch

Local Organiser: Dr. Liisi Laineste

Interest in both research on humour and practical applications of humour has increased sharply in the past decade. For new research students just beginning their research careers or those already-trained researchers considering a first research project on humour, this course will ensure that they enter the field with a strong foundation in existing theoretical and methodological issues, and are well versed in the pitfalls confronting the scientific study of humour. For those interested in practical applications of humour in a variety of applied settings, the course will introduce them to the kinds of approaches that are being used around the world to put humour to work and to deliver the benefits of humour and laughter.

There will be sessions from Monday morning to Saturday afternoon inclusive, with one afternoon free for relaxation, sight-seeing, etc., and about half a day during the week for the Symposium. For the rest of the time, classes will be presented by a number of lecturers. (See the main Summer School site for information about previous events in this series.)

The sessions are of two types:

Talks: These usually last about 45-50 minutes with a further 10 minutes or so for questions and discussion. These constitute a single slot on the timetable. Most of the presentations are Talks.

Workshops: A Workshop is a double (1 or 2 hour) slot, so that the presentation can go into more depth and specialisation, and will usually be in parallel with some other very different session(s), so that participants have a choice between specialisations. A Workshop may involve activities other than traditional lecturing, for example discussion, debate, or exercises carried out by the audience members.

There will also be a small number of Meet the Lecturer sessions, where a participant can sign up for a short one-to-one discussion with a lecturer of his/her choice.

The Symposium is where participants may present their planned or finished research, or ideas on how to implement and use humour in applied settings, in any form they like.

This year's lecturers include

     * Dr. Dorota Brzozowska (Polish Philology Department, Opole University, Poland)
     * Dr. Wladislaw Chlopicki (Institute of English Philology, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland)
     * Professor Christie Davies (Department of Sociology, University of Reading, England)
     * Professor Holger Kersten ((Amerikanistik, Universitet Magdeburg, Germany)
     * Professor Arvo Krikmann (Department of Folkloristics, Estonian Literary Museum, Estonia)
     * Professor Alexander Kozintsev (Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, St. Petersburg, Russia)
     * Professor Seppo Knuuttila (Department of Folkloristics, University of Joensuu, Finland)
     * Dr. Sharon Lockyer (School of Social Sciences, Brunel University, London, UK)
     * Professor John Morreall (Religious Studies, College of William and Mary, USA)
     * Dr. Graeme Ritchie (Department of Computing Science, University of Aberdeen, Scotland)
     * Professor Willibald Ruch (Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Switzerland)
     * M.Sc. Clare Watters (Italian Studies, University of Birmingham, UK)