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Here is a reminder of two upcoming events at the Centre for Comedy Studies Research, Brunel University London. CCSR Comedy Matters Research Seminar Series 2015 Comedy, Health and Disability Wednesday 4th March 2015 4.00pm-5.30pm Drinks reception 5.30pm-6.30pm Telford Room, Hamilton Centre Brunel University London, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH Laughter Beyond the Bell Curve: The Last Leg and Trollied by Margaret Montgomerie This seminar investigates the ways in which disabled comedians function within popular television shows, focussing in particular on Channel 4’s The Last Leg and Sky 1’s Trollied. Do the formats of the programmes, the comedy chat show and the sitcom, automatically suspend normalcy for the purposes of entertainment, creating a temporary space where values and assumptions are turned upside down? Do these programmes have any relationship to the material produced by disabled comedians outside of the mainstream media? Margaret Montgomerie is a Principal Lecturer in the School of Media and Communication, Faculty of Art, Design and Humanities, De Montfort University. She has research interests in the areas of media discourses of identity and in particular the mediation of marginal and stigmatised identities and has researched female creativity and feminist film makers, queer media discourse, minority ethnic discourse (East German/Ossie Discourse in post Re-unification Germany) and media discourses of disability. She is currently completing a book on disability and comedy. We are pleased to announce that we have one £40 travel grant available for a low income researcher or PhD student attending this event. Please email [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> if you wish to apply. To apply please send a short paragraph (max 250 words) explaining why you wish to attend the seminar. Register at: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> A Symposium on the Comedy of Sacha Baron Cohen Wednesday 11th March 2015 4.00pm to 5.30pm 003a Seminar Room, Eastern Gateway Building Brunel University London, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH Sacha Baron Cohen's characters Ali G, Borat, Bruno and General Aladeen are immensely popular yet have all provoked critical responses and in some cases protest from various groups (e.g. from Black activists in 2002 and Hasidic Jews in 2012). Since Ali G’s emergence in 1999, Baron Cohen’s characters have provided key examples of the public debate that can be generated by comedy. This symposium, from a variety of academic perspectives, will address the complexity of Baron Cohen’s comedy. No Laughing Matter? Race, Identity and the Humour of Sacha Baron Cohen - Richard Howells Sacha Baron-Cohen: Gonzo Trickster and the Art of Comic Insurrection - Helena Bassil-Morozow “Even though it’s sexist and racist in some parts, it’s still funny”: An Audience Reception Study of the Comedy of Sacha Baron Cohen - Simon Weaver Richard Howells is Reader in Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King’s College London, where he specialises in cultural sociology, especially visual and popular culture, together with cultural and critical theory. His books include The Myth of the Titanic (1999 and 2012); Visual Culture (2003 and 2012, the second edition with Joaquim Negreiros); Using Visual Evidence (2009, edited with Robert Matson); and Outrage: Art, Controversy, and Society, edited with Andrea Ritivoi and Judith Schachter (Center for the Arts in Society, Carnegie Mellon University, 2012). Helena Bassil-Morozow is a cultural philosopher, film scholar and academic writer whose many publications on film include the monographs Tim Burton: the Monster and the Crowd (Routledge, 2010), The Trickster in Contemporary Film (Routledge, 2012) and The Trickster and the System: Identity and Agency in Contemporary Society (Routledge, 2014). Helena is currently working on two other Routledge projects, Jungian Film Studies: the Essential Guide (co-authored with Luke Hockley) and Narcissism and Society. Simon Weaver is Lecturer in Media and Communications at Brunel University London. His research interests include racist and offensive humour and comedy, and the connections between humour and rhetoric. He has written on Baron Cohen’s comedy in the European Journal of Cultural Studies (2011) and in his book, The Rhetoric of Racist Humour (2011). He has recently completed an audience reception study on the comedy of Sacha Baron Cohen. Register with: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Dr Simon Weaver Lecturer in Media and Communications T +44 (0) 1895 265029 Brunel University London College of Business, Arts and Social Sciences Department of Social Sciences, Media & Communications Marie Jahoda Building, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH, United Kingdom T +44 (0) 1895 274000 | F +44 (0) 1895 232806 www.brunel.ac.uk<http://www.brunel.ac.uk/> Connect with the university on LinkedIn<http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Official-Brunel-University-London-Alumni-60617?trk=myg_ugrp_ovr>, Twitter<http://www.twitter.com/bruneluni>, Facebook<http://www.facebook.com/bruneluniversity> -------------------------------------------------------- MeCCSA mailing list -------------------------------------------------------- To manage your subscription or unsubscribe from the MECCSA list, please visit: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=MECCSA&A=1 ------------------------------------------------------- MeCCSA is the subject association for the field of media, communication and cultural studies in UK Higher Education. 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