Humour and laughter will be the order of the day when a symposium being held at the University of Aberdeen begins this week (Monday, July 9 - Saturday, July 14).
A number of leading scholars in the growing field of humour research will be in Aberdeen giving lectures and workshops at the 7th International Summer School and Symposium on Humour and Laughter, which is being hosted by the University.
About 25 students and researchers from all over the world (including South Africa, the USA, and Hong Kong) will be attending a week of classes on subjects ranging across anthropology, sociology, psychology, linguistics, as well as many other areas.
The classes touch on such diverse issues as the imaging of brain activity in response to jokes and the analyses of TV programmes such as 'Brass Eye'.
The Summer School and Symposium was founded in 2001 by Professor Willibald Ruch, now at the University of Zűrich, who is still centrally involved, but this year's event is being organised by Dr Graeme Ritchie, of the Computing Science Department at the University of Aberdeen.
Dr Ritchie said: "Interest in both research on humour and practical applications of humour has increased sharply in the past decade. The aims and objectives for the summer school are to ensure that both new research students just beginning their research careers or those already-trained researchers considering a first research project on humour will 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."
Sessions will be held from Monday morning to Saturday afternoon inclusive, with one afternoon free for relaxation and/or sight seeing, 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 from across the globe, including Amsterdam, California, Zurich, and Germany.
One of the lectures this week will analyse television comedy and will examine how the diverse and, sometimes subversive, representations of gender, class, race and ethnicity have been studied and discussed.
Another will look at humour in conversations, or on television, or in films can sometimes cause considerable social tension and moral controversy. In recent years examples of humour that has 'gone too far', or has been 'in poor taste' or simply outright 'offensive' have dominated public debate. But, why are people offended by what is, at least ostensibly, intended in fun?; How should they deal with the offence?; What kinds of topics, or comic treatment of topics, cause people to take offence? These are just some of the questions that are raised when we consider the limits of humour. This lecture will explore these questions by drawing on illustrations from contemporary television and film.
The humour summer school was first held at Queens University, Belfast in 2001 and since then has been held annually at different locations, co-organised by the hosting institution and the Section on Personality and Assessment at Zurich University.
The 7th International Summer School and Symposium on Humour and Laughter will be held in the MacRobert Building at the University of Aberdeen from today, Monday July 9 until Saturday July 14.