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Hi All,<br>
<br>
I'm forwarding this CFP from a colleague at York U. They've extended
their deadline to <b>Feb 15</b> and have asked that I emphasize
their interest in topics related to drama/theatre/performance.
Please circulate.<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
Robin.<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">Robin C. Whittaker, PhD
Assistant Professor, Drama
Department of English
St. Thomas University
Fredericton, NB E3B 5G3
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:rwhit@stu.ca">rwhit@stu.ca</a></pre>
<br>
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<h1 style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10pt"><span
style="font-size:16pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(204,51,204);background:none
repeat scroll 0% 0% white" lang="EN-CA">Snickering
Scholars: Humour and the
Humanities</span><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"></span></h1>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma"><b><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);background:none
repeat scroll 0% 0% white" lang="EN-CA">Graduate
Student Conference</span></b><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma"><b><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);background:none
repeat scroll 0% 0% white" lang="EN-CA">Friday,
March 16-Saturday, March 17, 2012</span></b><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma"><b><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);background:none
repeat scroll 0% 0% white" lang="EN-CA">Graduate
Program in Humanities, York University, Toronto,
Ontario</span></b><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);background:none
repeat scroll 0% 0% white" lang="EN-CA"> </span><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10pt;margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA">The discipline
of the humanities has included from its beginnings a
large helping of humour,
and major scholars and critics from Ancient times
onwards, within the Western
tradition and outside of it, have taken full advantage
of its capacity to
engage, persuade, and amuse audiences. Yet humour is
also often ignored,
and occasionally denigrated, as a rhetorical and
educational technique in much
of the scholarly world. This conference is dedicated to
bringing to light
and exploring where, how, and to what effect humour is
used in and around the
humanities, both in primary texts and performances and
in the works that
comment on and elucidate them. We invite submissions
from graduate
students working in the Humanities, as well as
Interdisciplinary Studies,
English, History, Philosophy, Theatre Studies,
Comparative Literature,
Education, Anthropology, Classics, Fine Arts,
Psychology, Linguistics, Queer
and Gender Studies, Art History, and other fields.</span><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"></span></p>
<p style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10pt;margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10pt;margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt"><b><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA">Possible
panel and paper topics include but are not limited to:</span></b><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"></span></p>
<p style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10pt;margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);background:none
repeat scroll 0% 0% white" lang="EN-CA">1) <b><i>Humour
and the human condition</i>.</b> How does humour's
“universal”
character relate to the projects of the humanities? </span><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA">Does humour
itself change through the centuries and millennia and
across (or between)
linguistic, ethnic, national, and cultural borders, or
only our attitudes and
approaches to it? <span style="background:none repeat
scroll 0% 0% white">What about humour
in animals or in imagined non-human beings? Is humour
as “human” a
feature as it is often claimed to be?</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);background:none
repeat scroll 0% 0% white" lang="EN-CA"> </span><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);background:none
repeat scroll 0% 0% white" lang="EN-CA">2) </span><b><i><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA">Humour and
aesthetics</span></i></b><b><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA">. </span></b><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA"> Humour is a
major element of numerous artworks, but only rarely
touched upon in “serious”
discussions of aesthetics. Does it have a place in
theories of art?
If so, what sort of place? How do mockery, parody, and
farce relate or
correspond to beauty, craftsmanship, and art in the
works in which they
appear? Is irony any different? What about other kinds
of humour?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);background:none
repeat scroll 0% 0% white" lang="EN-CA"> </span><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);background:none
repeat scroll 0% 0% white" lang="EN-CA">3) <b><i>Anti-humorists</i>. </b> What
does
humour damage or destroy? Do those who advocate the
dismissal of
humour from “serious” academic discussion have a point?
Are there
“objective” objections to humour, or is it only ever an
issue of style or
taste? Who benefits from the presence or absence of
humour in the
humanities? </span><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);background:none
repeat scroll 0% 0% white" lang="EN-CA">4) </span><b><i><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA">Humour,
performance, and spontaneity</span></i></b><b><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA">. </span></b><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA"> Humour
and laughter are often associated with spontaneity,
perhaps one of the chief
reasons that they are is often deemed unsuitable for
serious, planned
discussion. Yet some of the most widespread and
successful (and
ostensibly spontaneous) humour is minutely planned,
rehearsed, and scripted -
as, for example, in vaudeville, stand-up comics, film,
radio, etc. What
is the relation of spontaneity and performance to humour
and to the social,
academic, and political interactions in which it
appears? <br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA"><br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA">5) <b><i>Humour and health</i>. </b> Humour
is
often connected with mental and/or physical well-being:
it is used as a
barometer to evaluate health and state of mind, and we
are deeply disconcerted
by either a complete absence or a notable excess of
humour. What are our
assumptions about how humour relates to well-being?
What is the range of
“allowable” variation in humour, and where is the border
between “healthy” and
“unhealthy” laughter? What changes do we expect in
humour when a person’s
physical or mental state is permanently altered? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA">6) <b><i><span style="background:none
repeat scroll 0% 0% white">Humour in academic
articles, book reviews, textbooks, and other
scholarly materials</span></i><span
style="background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% white">. </span></b><span
style="background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% white">What
sorts of humour appear in scholarly work, and who
writes it? With what goals? What can be learned
about academia and
the humanities through humour that cannot be learned
any other way, and what
can be accomplished that would otherwise be left
undone? Is humour used
in the same ways and for the same purposes by the
parvenus and the triumphantly
tenured, the cultural theorists and the classical
philologists? How
is the humour of the humanities different from that of
other fields? </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);background:none
repeat scroll 0% 0% white" lang="EN-CA"> </span><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);background:none
repeat scroll 0% 0% white" lang="EN-CA">7) <b><i>Humour
as a vehicle of critique</i>. </b>Voltaire’s <i>Candide</i> is
only
one of the many attempts to use humour to create a
sustained argument for
or against a philosophy, approach, or academic school.
What are the
characteristics and techniques of this kind of humour?
Does it vary by
discipline or region or over time? What has caused it
to come into or
fall out of favour? </span><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);background:none
repeat scroll 0% 0% white" lang="EN-CA"> </span><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma"><b><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);background:none
repeat scroll 0% 0% white" lang="EN-CA">Other
possible paper topics include:</span></b><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10pt;margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA">-Multicultural
and multiethnic humour in the humanities</span><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"></span></p>
<p style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10pt;margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA">-Translation
and humour, cross-cultural exchanges of humour</span><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"></span></p>
<p style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10pt;margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA">-Jokes as
self-positioning</span><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"></span></p>
<p style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10pt;margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA">-Censorship and
humour</span><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"></span></p>
<p style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10pt;margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA">-Linguistics/language
and humour</span><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"></span></p>
<p style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10pt;margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA">-Knowledge/epistemologies
of the funny</span><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"></span></p>
<p style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10pt;margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10pt"><b><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA">Creative submissions</span></b><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA">, in the form of text,
visual art, or performance will also be considered. All
participants will
be invited to join the organizers at a comedy event in
Toronto on the evening
of the 17<sup>th</sup>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10pt"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10pt"><b><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA">Keynote speakers:</span></b><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10pt"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10pt"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA">1) Prof. David McGimpsey, Creative
Writing, Concordia
University, Montreal</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10pt"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA">2) TBA</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10pt"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="font-family:Tahoma;font-size:10pt"><b><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34)"
lang="EN-CA">The Proposals Committee invites
submissions of 200-300
word abstracts to <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:humourandthehumanities@gmail.com"
target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(17,85,204)">humourandthehumanities@gmail.com</span></a> by
Jan.
15, 2011. Submissions in English and French are
welcome. Abstracts may be in Word or RTF format and
should include, along
with the abstract, a title, the author’s name,
affiliation, email address, and
a short biographical statement (max 50 words).
Proposals for panels will
also be considered: the proposal should include a
tentative title, short
description, and list of proposed participants and the
titles of their submissions.
Notification of acceptance or rejection by the
Committee will be provided by
Feb. 5, 2012.</span></b><span class="HOEnZb"><font
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