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Cultural Impact Conference 2013

Friday, February 8, 2013 – Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza

350 West Mart Plaza, Chicago, IL 60654

Faces of Humor

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Humor is traditionally defined as a tendency of particular experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. However, one person’s comedy can be another’s tragedy. As we explore the faces of humor, we encounter liberation and vulnerability, shame and validation, empathy and aggression, connection and alienation, and joy and pain among other dichotomies. In a new era of multiple identities and realities, humor can be seen as a mirror that reflects the complexity of human experience and its paradoxical character. Dialogical by nature, humor can be used well or badly; it can engage or exclude individuals, communities, or groups. Can humor be used intentionally and successfully as a tool toward positive goals such as change and empowerment of individuals and human systems? In brief is humor “healthy” biologically, psychologically, spiritually, and socially, and, if so, what kinds of humor and in what contexts? Can humor be purposefully studied or applied and still be spontaneously generated and enjoyed?

TCSPP’s Seventeenth Cultural Impact Conference is intended as a forum for a dialogue, from an applied psychological perspective, on these and other questions related to the multifaceted role of humor in human societies. Join us as we explore humor together, through the following areas of interest: the psychology and neuropsychology of humor as prevention or intervention; humor and expression of cultural or individual identity; humor across the lifespan and generational differences; humor, coping, and uncertainty; and humor in the teaching & learning process, among others.