The University of Cambridge Graduate Student Conference in the History of Art will be held on 30 April 2010 at the University of Cambridge. The conference will provide a forum for graduate students in all academic disciplines to present and discuss their research on the theme of humour in visual culture. We encourage submissions on a broad range of subjects – political, philosophical, historical, social, literary, art historical – that investigate humour, satire, and irony in visual media. Possible paper topics may include, but are not limited to, caricature and cartooning, vaudeville, humour in performance art, propaganda, and children’s book illustrations.
Each presentation will be 20 minutes long with 10 minutes reserved for questions and discussion. The sessions of the conference will be chaired by senior scholars within the Cambridge History of Art department, and will feature a keynote address by Dr. Robin Simon, editor of The British Art Journal and author of Hogarth, France & British Art.
Additionally, Dr. Dean Mobbs, a post-doctoral fellow in Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, will present an introductory lecture on how the mind processes humour and laughter.
Please submit a 300-word abstract and CV as Word document attachments, to CambridgeArtHistoryConference@googlemail.com by 20 November, 2009.
If you have any questions, please contact Susanna Berger or Galina
Mardilovich at CambridgeArtHistoryConference@googlemail.com.