Teaching Humor

Numerous courses on humor research are taught at various academic institutions. There is also an annual International Humor Studies Seminar (endorsed by the ISHS) andjournal papers on teaching of humor as an academic subject (Let me of further links suitable to be listed here).

Teaching humor-I: Courses at universities

Links to web-sites containing information (i.e.,course syllabus, selected readings, etc.) on courses held on humorand laughter 

• Humor and laughter by Dr. Michael K. Cundall Jr., The Honors College, Arkansas State University, USA,
• The Rhetoric of American Political Humor by Michael Phillips, Department of Communication, University of Maryland, USA
• Humor in the Workplace (Link to the original course (MSD187) extinct) by Clyde , Portland Community College, USA. by Clyde . Blog archive for Humor at Work.
• Communication and Humor (SCTA 380) (link extinct) by Todd T. Holm, Ph.D, at Concordia College in Moorhead MN, USA
• COMP LIT 70 "Rabbis, rogues and schlemiels: Jewish humor and its roots" (pdf) by Lewis Glinert, Dartmouth College
• PSY356: The Psychology of Humour and Laughter (Spring 2002) (link extinct) by Willibald Ruch, Queens University of Belfast
• The arts and science of humor (doc) by Janet Davis, Ph.D, Truman State University
• LIN 591: Seminar in Linguistic Humor (Spring 2001) by Don L.F. Nilsen
• Psychology of Humor (Spring 2001) by Jon Mueller
• Ethnic Humor by Ruth Schwartz (Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute)
• Comedy & Laughter by G. Neil Martin
• Enhance Your Teaching With Laughter (University of California Extension, Santa Cruz; June 2000) by
• Educa desde el humor (Educate through humor) at the Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, Spain, (July 26th to 30th) by German Payo
• Satire, Irony, and Gallows Humor (Spring 1999) by Don L.F. Nilsen
• Psychology of Humour by Rod A. Martin
• Linguistics of Humor (The University of Texas System, linc extinct) by Jocelyn Cohan
• Writing for Electronic Media Genres: Situation Comedies by Arthur Asa Berger
• Humor: An Interdisciplinary Approach (link extinct) by Martin Lampert (Teleconferencing Humor course for Kaiser nurses and students at Holy Names College).
• Literature of Laughter by John A. Dowell
• Linguistic Approaches to Humor by Neal Norrick
• Developing a psychology of humor by Mark Mitchell
• Television Situation Comedy by Angela M. S. Nelson
• The comic theater Comparative Literature College, Cornell University
• American Political Humor and Political Humor by Brett S. Sharp, Ph.D.

Not (yet) on the net but the syllabus is availablefrom the course director:

• American Humor (summer 1996) by
• Perspectives on Popular Culture: Television Situation Comedy (summer 1998) by

Teaching humor-II: Summer schools

International HumorStudies Seminar at University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, Oklahoma, USA.

• Contact: Amy Carrell
  Department of English
  University of Central Oklahoma
  Edmond, OK 73034-0184, USA
  Phone: , ext. 5609; fax:
  E-mail:

  Past Seminars

• 1st International Humor Studies Seminar: July 1996 (Faculty: Don Nilsen & Willibald Ruch)
• 2nd International Humor Studies Seminar: July 1997 (Faculty: William Fry & Rod Martin)
• 3nd International Humor Studies Seminar (link extinct): July 1998 (Faculty: Elliott Oring & Amy Carrell on Humor Studies ; Michael Titze & Waleed Salameh on Humor and Health)
• 4th International Humor Studies Seminar (linc extinct) June 21 - 26, 1999 (Faculty: Rod A. Martin & Amy Carrell)
  

  The Humour Lab, a Summer Course (August 6-14, 2001) organized by Sibe Doosje, M.Sc.

  contact: Sibe Doosje
  Department of Health Psychology
  P.O. Box 80140
  3508 TC Utrecht
  The Netherlands
  e-mail:
   
   

  International Summer School and Symposium on Humour and Laughter: Theory, Research and Applications

• ISS01 at Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland 25th - 30th June 2001.
  • Teaching faculty: Paul McGhee & Willibald Ruch
  • Guest Teaching Faculty: Dr. Christie Davies, Dr. Frank A. Rodden, Dr. Barbara Wild
    • Topics covered: What is Humour? Universality of Facial Expression, Evolution of Smiling, Laughter and Humour, The Development of Humour in Children, The Facial Action Coding System--FACS, Morphology and Dynamics of Smiling and Laughter, Humour and Health, Humour Skills Training Programme, Theories of Humour, Humour, Laughter and the Brain, Humour in the Workplace, The Comparative Study of Jokes, The Sense of Humour: Approaches and Measurement

    Report on the Summer School. The summer school received considerable attention by the local and national media. International coverage was provided by a documentary produced by from VPRO-television, a public television channel. She and her Dutch TV crew filmed the school's progress and produced a 25-minute science show on humor and laughter. The report was broadcasted on September 6th as part of their weekly science program, called Northern Lights.

• ISS02 at Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland, 24th - 29th June 2002.
• ISS03 at University of Edinbugh, Scotland, UK, 15th - 20th September 2003
• ISS04 at University of Wolverhampton, England, UK, 6th -11th September 2005
• ISS05 at University of Tübingen, Germany, July 25th - 30th, 2005
• ISS06 at University of Fribourg, Switzerland, July 10th - 15th 2006
• ISS07 at University of Aberdeen, UK, July 9th - 14th, 2007
• ISS08 at Dunarea de Jos University, Galati, Romania, June 23th - 28th, 2008
• ISS09 at University Granada, Spain, June 29th - July 4th, 2009

   

Teaching humor-III: Humor literature on the net

• Humor Databases
  • Laughingly Referred To (An Interdisciplinary Bibliography of Published Work in the Field of Humour Studies and Research) compiled by Jason
    Laughingly Referred To is now searchable!
  • Literaturliste des Pragmatischen Kolloquiums Freiburg (link extinct)
  • Theorizing Satire: A Bibliography by Brian A. Connery
  Individual articles and reports
  • Jason Rutters Thesis (pdf)
  • Proceedings of International Workshop of Computational Humor Enschede, NL.
  • Free humor book (link extinct) by Warren E. Shibles
• Humor material and demonstrations
  • Humour & Creativity (Ian Dalkin)
  • Kim Binsted's Joke Analysis and Production Engine (J A P E, link to demo version extinct)

Teaching humor-IV: Reflections and a survey

• Endlich, E. (1993). Teaching the psychology of humor. Teaching of Psychology, 20, 181-183. (Reference to teaching the psychology of humor)
• Wycoff, E.B. (1999). Humor in the academy: An international survey of humor instruction. HUMOR, 12, 427-456.

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