Course Director: Professor Willibald Ruch

Local Organisers: Professor Pirjo Nuutinen, Professor Seppo Knuuttila


Interest in both research on humour and practical applications of humour has increased sharply in 
the past two decades. 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 study of humour.

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 http://www.humoursummerschool.org/ 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. Most of the presentations are Talks.

Workshops: A Workshop is presentation which goes 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, either as a talk or as a poster.

This year's lecturers include

     * Christie Davies (University of Reading)
     * Jessica Milner Davis (University of Sydney)
     * Seppo Knuuttila  (University of Eastern Finland)
     * Liisi Laineste  (Estonian Literary Museum)
     * Gina Mireault (Johnson State College, Vermont)
     * Graeme Ritchie (University of Aberdeen)
     * Willibald Ruch (University of Zurich)
     * Sven Svebak (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim)

Further lecturers will be announced later.