July 25.-30., 2005,  University of Tübingen, Germany

 Every year since 2001, the "International Summer School on Humor and Laughter: Theory, Research and Applications" has held sessions which have been well-attended by students and professionals from a remarkably wide variety of disciplines. According to feed-back from those taking part, the Summer School has been largely successful in satisfying both the scholarly and practical interests of participants which have ranged from university professors to clinic clowns. The school has also provided a very lively and fruitful forum for dialogue among these otherwise rather disparate communities.

The first two sessions of the Summer School, in 2001 and 2002, were held in the Queen's University, Belfast, North Ireland. In 2003, the Summer School was held in Edinburgh, Scotland and last year in Wolverhampton, Great Britain. All of these sessions have been under the auspices of the International Society for Humor Studies (ISHS). This year, we, of the University of Tübingen (Germany) are proud to host the first continental summer school in our romantic old town that boasts an academic tradition reaching back to 1477!

As always, the Summer School is designed not only to fit the needs of new students and researchers preparing for careers that would be enhanced by a deeper knowledge of humor and laughter (in dimensions ranging from the philosophical - to the physiological - to the practical), but also for trained scholars in the natural sciences and humanities who are considering embarking on new investigations of humor/laughter-related phenomena.

Enrollment in the Summer School is deliberately limited (under 30) so as to accommodate the individual interests of each student and to keep the seminars to an optimal didactic size. Reservations for the Summer School will be treated on a purely first-come first serve basis.

Endorsed by the International Society for Humor Studies (ISHS)

Organized by Irina Falkenberg and Barbara Wild (Dept. of Psychiatry, University of Tuebingen) and Willibald Ruch (Dept. of Psychology, University of Zuerich)