A two-day interdisciplinary conference at The University of Kent
Friday 16th and Saturday 17th January 2015.
The School of Arts, University of Kent, is circulating the following call for papers for a two-day comedy conference taking place on 16 and 17 January 2015. This event will stimulate the dialogue between the theory and practice of comedy, and hopes to bring together theorists and practitioners, academics and performers, on the topic of politics and humour. The conference will host two days of papers alongside workshops, with stand-up comedy performances on the evening of Friday 16th and a concluding roundtable discussion in the late afternoon of Saturday 17th.
Confirmed participants include Dr Oliver Double (University of Kent), Dr Brett Mills (University of East Anglia), Dr Louise Peacock (University of Hull) and keynote speaker Dr Sharon Lockyer (Brunel University).
We invite participants from various disciplines and backgrounds (including non-academics) to submit proposals for participation in the event. This CFP is open to all, and we specifically encourage postgraduate students and practice-based researchers to submit proposals for presentations. We invite proposals for presentations of 20 minutes, but are willing to consider proposals that diverge from this format. Possible topics for presentations include, but are not limited to:
• Political stand-up comedy (such as the work of Mark Thomas, Tony Allen, Lenny Bruce)
• Political cartooning (such as the work of Jules Feiffer, Tom Tomorrow, Jen Sorensen)
• Political comedy in audio-visual media (such as Have I Got News For You?, The Daily Show, One Hundred Years of Evil)
• Political comedy in magazines (such as Private Eye, Mad, The Onion)
• Political comedy and real-life politics (such as Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement, Bassem Youssef’s ‘Egyptian Daily Show’ and the Arab Spring)
• Political comedy and digitalisation (such as the satire boom on TV, effects of social media)
• The political efficacy of political comedy (such as Colbert at the White House Correspondents Dinner)
• The politics of representation in comedy (such as representation of disability, gender, race or sexuality)
Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words to kentcomedy2015@gmail.com by Wednesday 1st October 2014, along with a brief biography and an outline of any technical or other requirements your presentation may have. For any proposals that diverge from the 20-minute format, we advise to contact us in advance of the deadline to discuss the options. For any further information, do not hesitate to contact us via email.
Conference organisers:
Dieter Declercq, Tory Gillespie, Shaun May, and Maja Milatovic-Ovadia