International Society for Humor Studies
1996 ISHS Conference

Hosted by

University of New South Wales

Sydney, Australia


Daily Programs

Day 1: July 8           Day 2: July 9          Day 3: July 10           Day 4: July 11


 

OPENING DAY: MONDAY, JULY 8, 1996

Conference Welcome
Central Lecture Block, Room 7, 9:00 am to 9:30 am

University Welcome

John Niland, Vice Chancellor, University of New South Wales

Pleanary Session #1
Disaster Humour: From Tokyo to Port Arthur
Central Lecture Block, Room 7, 9:30 am to 10:30 am

Chair

John McCallum, University of New South Wales
Panelists

Goh Abe, Tokushima Burni Universtiy, Japan
Bruce Keller, The Vietnamese-Australian Contemporary Theatre Company

Morning Tea
10:30 am to 11:00 am

Pleanary Session #2
The Comedy of Business and the Business of Comedy
Central Lecture Block, Room 7, 11:00 am to 1:00 am

Chair

Harry Heseltine, Australian Defence Forces Academy
Panelists

Campbell McComas, Comic Speechmaker, Australia
Robert Wood, University of New South Wales
Simon Morgan, Harold Park Hotel and Comedy Venue, Australia
Art Gliner, Humor Communication Company, Maryland, USA

Lunch
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm

Breakout Session #1
Various Rooms, 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm

Paper Session 1A
Literature

Paper Session 1B
Management

Paper Session 1C
Gender

 

Thomas Pynchon, Frederic Jameson, and Comic Irony: An Approach to Postmodernism

Elaine Safer

University of Delaware

Thalia and Miss Groby: Pedagogie Humor in Modern American Fiction

D. G. Kehl

Arizona State University


Sara Binks Revisited: A Canadian Classic after a Half Century

John Batts

University of Ottawa

 

Humor Styles vs. Burnout Rates

R. Wiburn Clouse
Vanderbilt University
& Karen L. Spurgeon
Catoosa County Public Schools, USA

Schoolhouse Humor: Trends and Implications for Administrators
Kathilyn D. Philbrick
Seminole County Schools
& Ronny A. Williams
Nashville Public Schools, USA

 

Truthtellers or Gadflys?: Women as Humorists—Do they Create a Difference?

Beth Randall

University of Melbourne

Gender in Humour—
Constructed or Constricted

Annie McGregor
Waikato Polytechnic University

 

Workshop 1D
Laugh Aerobics: Living and Working with Laughter and Humour

Helene Grover, Director of Laughter Strategies, Sydney, Australia

Afternoon Tea

3:30 pm to 4:00 pm

Breakout Session #2
Various Rooms, 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Paper Session 2A
Political Humour

Paper Session 2B
Management

Paper Session 2C
Cross-Cultural Humour

 

Political Satire in the 1996 Australian Federal Elections and Since

Robert Phiddian

The Flinders University of South Australia

Jokes about the Political Change
in South Africa

Pieter DeBruyn

Potchefstroom University, South Africa

 

Managing the Unmanageable: The Chicken, the Stork, and the Banana Skin

Harry Heseltine

Australian Defence Forces Academy

Establishing a Laughter Room in a Rural Hospital Setting: A Mirthful Birth
The Moruya District Hospital Team

 

Multicultural, Ethnic Comedy:
Does it Exist? Who Cares?

Gerald Matte

Australian Catholic University

Careful, Your Sense of Humour
May Go Down Like a Lead Balloon
in Other Countries

John Hirshman
University of New South Wales

 

Workshop 2D
Political Correctness: Funnyside Up

Joyce Saltman, Southern Connecticut State University, USA

 


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DAY TWO: TUESDAY, JULY 9, 1996

Breakout Session #3
Various Rooms, 9:00 am to 10:30 am

Paper Session 3A
Literature

Paper Session 3B
Business

Paper Session 3C
Cartoons

 

Joyce's and Becket's Word Play:
Overstated vs. Understated Distortion

Don Nilsen

Arizona State University

Therapy or the Healing Power
of Laughter

Aida Diaz Bild

University of La Laguna


Wit and Wisdom:
Hail the Androgynous Mind!

Marjorie Lightfoot

Arizona State University

 

Measuring Humour in Advertising

Carolyn Costley

University of Waikato

Making Selling Fun
Derren Adams
Business FUNdamentals, Melbourne

Business Show—
Applying Humor Seriously
Pete Crofts
Humourversity, Melbourne

 

The Impact of Australian
Cartooning in the World

Lindsay Foyle

Australian Black & White
Artists Club

Imagine a Man who is Note Sensitive
and Melody Deaf: Knowing and
Being in the Wizard of Id

Jere C. Moorman
The Polanyi Society

What Made
Calvin and Hobbes So Popular?

Diana L. Mahony
Brigham Young University, Hawaii

 

Workshop 3D
A Riddle a Day Keeps Boredom Away

Kopi Saltman, Lewin Joel Elementary School, Connecticut, USA

Morning Tea
10:30 am to 11:00 am

Pleanary Session #3
Laughter and Censorship
Central Lecture Block, Room 7,
11:00 am to 1:00 am

Chair

Elaine Safer, University of Delaware
Panelists

Robbie Swan, Editor, Kookaburra Magazine, Australia
Jill McKeogh, University of New South Wales
George Smilovici, Australia
Christie Davies, University of Reading, United Kingdom
Paul Lewis, Boston College

Lunch
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm

Breakout Session #4
Various Rooms, 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm

Paper Session 4A
Literature

Paper Session 4B
Political Correctness and the Law

Paper Session 4C
Postmodernism

 

Setting Limits: Humour and
Australian National Identity

Dorothy Jones

University of Wollongong

Peter Carey's Tristam Smith
as Paraplegic Picaro

Don Fletcher

University of Queensland

 

Humour and Political Correctness

Paul Lewis

Boston College

Sexual Humour, Environmental
Harrassment, and the Law
Stuart Ainsworth
University of Strathclyde

Joking about Lawyers through History
Stan Ross
University of New South Wales

 

Postmodernism and the Study of Humour

George Paton

Aston University, United Kingdom

Postmodernism as a Joke
and Vice Versa

N. J. C. Vasantkumar
Susquehanna University, USA

 

Workshop 4D
Cartooning, Humor, and Creativity

Ian Dalkin, Founder of "Stop Laughing, This is Serious Business"

Afternoon Tea

3:30 pm to 4:00 pm

Breakout Session #5
Various Rooms, 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Paper Session 5A
Literature

Paper Session 5B
Ethnic Joking

 

Humor as a Tool against Prejudice:
A Case Study of Twenty Young
Adult Novels by E. M, Kerr

Alleen Pace Nilsen

Arizona State University

Innocents Abroad: Immigrant Humour
in Saknab Rushdies' East-West

Evangeline Manickam

Indian Institute of Technology

 

Humor as an Expression of Cultural
and Linguistic Variation

Aleya Rouchdy
Wayne State University
Hani Fakhouri

University of Michigan at Flint

Ethnic Joking and
its Social Function in Hawaii

Kimie Oshima

Aoyama Gakuin University

 

Workshop 5D
Theory and Practice of Humour and Absurdity in Psychotherapy

Stephen Brigham, University of Wollongong, Australia

   


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DAY THREE: WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 1996

Breakout Session #6
Various Rooms, 9:00 am to 10:30 am

Paper Session 6A
Australian Comedy in the UK

Paper Session 6B
Health and Education

Paper Session 6C
Metaphysics

 

From Invisibility to Crudity:
Australian Humor as Viewed
from Britain

Christie Davies

University of Reading

Laughter through Clenched Teeth:
The Humour of Barry Humphries

David Mount

Australian Regular Army


A 'Quite Spellbinding Conversationalist':
The Monologues of Reg Livermore

Nadia Fletcher

 

The Cognitive Therapy of Emotional
Disorders: Is There a Place for Humour?

Carmen Moran

University of New South Wales

Die Laughing? Why Not?
Art Gliner
Humor Communication Company

'Letting it Come Naturally': The Use
of Humour in Group Work Interactions
F. Regina Osten
University of New South Wales

 

Between Heaven and Earth:
Theological View of Humour

Heather Thomson

St. Mark's National Theological Centre
Canberra, Australia

The Four Humours
and the Fun Revolution

Ian Channell
The Wizard of New Zealand

 

Workshop 6D
Off Our Rockers!: A Humour and Health Workshop for Retired People

Hall Duncan & Lois Smith, International Center for Humor and Health, Oklahoma, USA

Morning Tea
10:30 am to 11:00 am

Pleanary Session #4
Cultural Approaches to Laughter in
Japan, India, Sri-Lanka, and Australia

Central Lecture Block, Room 7,
11:00 am to 1:00 am

Chair

Randall Albury, University of New South Wales
Panelists

Eitarow Masuyama, Takushoku University, Japan
Goh Abe, Tokushima Bunri University, Japan
Bob Ellis, Writer and Director, Australia
Yasmine Gooneratne, Macquarie University, Australia

Lunch
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm

Breakout Session #7
Various Rooms, 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm

Paper Session 7A
Humour in Asia

Paper Session 7B
Cartoons

 

A Psychometrical Analysis
of Conclusions in Rakugo

Eitarow Masuyama

Takushoku University

Mark Twain's
Acceptancein Japan

Junichiro Sano

Soka University

 

Cross-Cultural Comparisons
of Cartoons

Kristen Murray

University of New South Wales

Transporting Humour via Hooks,
Scripts, and Frames
Meg Hart
University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

American Cartoons, Communication,
and Socially Constructed Reality
Alan Harris
California State University, Northridge

 

Workshop 7C
How to Laugh Your Way Out of a Paper Bag

Jon Doust, Leigh Farnell, and Don Smith

Afternoon Tea

3:30 pm to 4:00 pm

Breakout Session #8
Various Rooms, 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Paper Session 8A
Humour in Asia

Paper Session 8B
European Humor

 

The Himalayan Heritage of Humour

Ram Kumar Panday

Tribhuvan University, Nepal

The Play of Culture – the Culture of Play

Elaine Gerbert

University of Kansas

 

Praga Comica – The Comic Prague

Vladimir Borecky

Charles University, Prague

Being Different is Nice: Laughwithnotat

German Payo Losa

Colegio Antonio Machado

 

Workshop 8C
M.B.F.A.: Management by Fooling Around

Barbara Adams, President of Business FUNdamentals, Melbourne, Australia

 


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DAY FOUR: THURSDAY, JULY 11, 1996

Breakout Session #9
Various Rooms, 9:00 am to 10:30 am

Paper Session 9A
Russian Humour

Paper Session 9B
Psychology and Physiology

Paper Session 9C
Theory

 

The Peculiarities of Mikail Bulgakov's
Dramatic Humor in his Play,
Zoyka's Apartment

Tamara Vaserstein

State College, Pennsylvania

Black humor in Saltykov's Satire

Dora Burton

Arizona State University


Russian Ethnic Nicknames,
Proverbs, and Sayings

Emil Draitser

Hunter College, New York

 

The Physiology of Laughter:
Respiratory Effects

Rosemary Giurialto & David Garlick

University of New South Wales

How is Sarcasm Understood?
Clues from Studies of Brain Damage
Skye MacDonald
University of New South Wales

Manic-Depression and
the Pathology of Humour
Peter Birrell
University of New South Wales

 

A Theory of Humour and Laughter

Moses Bainy

Humour in Music

John Carmody

The Australian Humour
Ethos Theory

Pete Crofts
Humourversity, Melbourne

 

Workshop 9D
Comedy Techniques

Lennie Kovner, Professional Actor/Clown/Director

Morning Tea
10:30 am to 11:00 am

Pleanary Session #5
Humour and Health
Central Lecture Block, Room 7, 11:00 am to 1:00 am

Chair

Carmen Moran, University of New South Wales
Panelists

Hall Duncan, International Centre for Humor & Health, USA
Jean-Paul Bell, The Humour Foundation, Australia
Bob Ellis, Writer and Director, Australia
Bruce Alcorn, Australian Cerebral Palsy Association
Bernard Saper, Florida International University

Lunch
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm

Breakout Session #10
Various Rooms, 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm

Paper Session 10A
Film and Performance

Paper Session 10B
Science

 

An Attempt at Formulating
a Typology of Film Comedy

Peter Gerdes

University of New South Wales

In a Devil-May-Care World,
who Cares about the Devil?
A Study of Evil and Comedy
in Recent American Film

Mary Ann Rishel

Ithaca College, New York

The Woman I Could've Been:
The Comic Performance of Sandra Bernhard

Merryn Johns

University of New South Wales

 

Humour in a 'New Light'

Randall Albury

University of New South Wales

Empirical Evaluation of
Computer-Generated Riddles
Graeme Ritchie, Kim Binsted, & Helen Pain
University of Edinburgh

 

Workshop 10C
Promoting Laughter as an Alternative Medicine

Bernard Saper, Florida International University

Afternoon Tea

3:30 pm to 4:00 pm

Final Plenary Session and Workshops
Various Rooms, 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm

 

Plenary #6
Whither
Australian Comedy

Rodney Marks (Chair), Hoaxes and Jokeses
Vince Sorrenti, Comic
Katherine Brisbane, Currency Press
Lawrence Jackson, Age of Leisure Org.

 

Workshop
Fun and Facts
of Humour

Kim Davis
Director of How About Humor
& Helen Grover

Director of Laughter Strategies

 

Workshop
Humor in Creative
Writing Courses

Paul Lewis

Boston College

 


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