CONFIRMED SPEAKERS:
- Luvell Anderson, Assistant Professor of
Philosophy, University of Memphis
- Noël Carroll, Distinguished Professor of
Philosophy, CUNY Graduate Center
- Eva Dadlez, Professor of Philosophy, University of
Central Oklahoma
- Oliver Double, Senior Lecturer and Deputy
Head of the School of Arts, University of Kent
- Tanya Rodriguez, Assistant Professor of
Philosophy, Sacramento State University
- Aaron Smuts, Associate Professor of Philosophy,
Rhode Island College
- Cynthia Willett, Professor of Philosophy,
Emory University
- Jason Zinoman, Comedy Critic for The New
York Times
CONFIRMED WORKSHOP LEADERS:
- Amy Seham, Professor of Theatre and Dance
and Women’s and Gender Studies, Gustavus
Adolphus College
- Oliver Double, Senior Lecturer and Deputy
Head of the School of Arts, University of Kent
We invite submissions for paper presentations, thematic
panels, workshops, and offers to serve as commentator
or chair. Submissions are welcome on
any topic in the
aesthetics and ethics of stand-up comedy, broadly
construed.
POSSIBLE TOPICS INCLUDE (but are by no means limited
to):
Aesthetics of Stand-Up Comedy: theories of humor, satire,
irony, style, theories of emotion and affect, self-conscious
emotions (shame, embarrassment, guilt, pride), reflections
on the state of the art, relations with other arts (e.g., poetry,
spoken word, pantomime, music, improv), analyses of joke
structure, boundaries of aesthetic taste, appropriation and
originality, case studies of particular stand-up comedians,
cross-cultural comparisons, historical reflections on the art
form, public persona and comic identity.
Ethics/Social Political Issues of Stand-up Comedy: alternative
stand-up comedy, political stand-up comedy, ethnic humor,
identity (gender, race, age, etc.) and performance, racism,
sexism, ableism, homophobia, bigotry, feminism, anti-racism,
censorship, law, political correctness, agency and subversion,
nationalism, stereotypes and tropes, political efficacy and
limitations, the politics of representation, the ethics of heckling,
hostility, aspects of identity in stand-up comedy, such as race,
ethnicity, ability, gender, sexuality, ability, age, and/or class,
performance and appreciation, social movements/activism.
SUBMISSIONS AND OFFERS TO PARTICIPATE: Please
send either a 3000-word full paper draft or a 1000-word
extended abstract outlining the paper, workshop, or panel
via the conference website:
http://www.bustandupcomcon.com.
Include the paper/panel/workshop title, contact information
and current affiliation (if any) of all participants. Please bear
in mind that the papers should be suitable for a twenty-minute
presentation; panels for less than 90 minutes; and workshops
from 60-120 minutes. Submissions will be evaluated for their
clarity of content, strength of central arguments, relevance to
the conference themes, and potential interest and use of
content. The submission deadline is December 20, 2016. We
aim to make decisions within 6 weeks.
ACCESSIBILITY AND INCLUSIVITY: We are adopting the
BPA/SWIP-recommended good practices. We aim to host an
inclusive conference and we will do our best, within our
budgetary constraints, to accommodate all participants.
We are committed to lowering the barrier of participation for
disabled participants and will do our best to make the
conference fully accessible and welcoming. To this end we
will anticipate needs and aim to make accommodations in
response to all requests. Upon acceptance of proposals,
participants will be invited to identify any needs in this regard.
Childcare will be made available as needed. In the meantime,
please feel free to email with any questions or suggestions.
GRADUATE STUDENTS AND UNDERWAGED ACADEMICS:
We will provide travel assistance, within our budgetary
constraints, for student and unwaged academics. Upon
acceptance of proposals, participants will be invited to
identify any needs in this regard. In the meantime, please
feel free email us to with any questions or suggestions.
ORGANIZERS: Sheila Lintott (Bucknell University); Jason
Leddington (Bucknell University); Meenakshi Poonuswami
(Bucknell University); Alex Skitolsky (Goddard College);
Nikki Young, (Bucknell University); James Haile, (Bucknell
University); Aaron Meskin (University of Leeds); Steven
Gimbel, (Gettysburg College).
SPONSORED BY: Bucknell University and the American
Society for Aesthetics.
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed at this
conference do not necessarily represent those of Bucknell University or the
American Society for Aesthetics.
