The ISHS Historian Page

News and information
updated by Don L.F. Nilsen,
ISHS-Historian.

(maintained by Ursula Beermann & Willibald Ruch, University of Zurich)

ISHS has a new site.... upgrade your bookmark list. Go to new ISHS-Website

Link to the new Humor Research Site www.humorresearch.org

Link to the new Historian Page

What is ISHS?

The "International Society for Humor Studies" (ISHS) has membership all around the world. Most of these members are university professors, in such disciplines as Psychology, Medicine, Linguistics, Literature, Education, Philosophy, Fine Arts, Religion, Politics, and Sociology. All of our members are interested in how humor varies from country to country, or according to Vocation, Age, Region, (In)formality, Ethnicity, or Sex (VARIES). Our annual meetings alternate between the United States and other countries. Salvator Attardo is the editor of our journal, HUMOR: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMOR RESEARCH. We also have bibliographies on humor scholarship as it relates to various other areas of research.

ISHS-constitution: see pages 431-440 of HUMOR (1996), Vol 9, 3-4.

ISHS Presidents

2008-2009 President -- Christie Davies, University of Reading, England
2006-2007 President -- Rod Martin, University of Western Ontario, Canada
2004-2005 President -- John Morreall, College of William and Mary, Williamsburgh, USA
2003 President -- Jessica Milner Davis, Arts and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales
2002 President -- Willibald Ruch, Department of Psychology, Zürich University

ISHS Executive Board

Martin Lampert (-2009) Holy Names University
Lorene Birden (-2009) University of Bourgogne, France
Masumi Muramatsu (-2007), Columbia University Teachers College,Tokyo
Alleen Nilsen (-2007), English Dept., Arizona State University
Giselinde Kuipers (-2005), Social Science, University of Amsterdam
W. Larry Ventis (-2005), Psychology, College of William and Mary

NOMINATING COMITTEE

Rod Martin (Chair) University of Western Ontario, Canada
Margaret Mathias, Salve Regina University, Canada
Masumi Muramatsu, Columbia University, Tokyo, Japan
Alleen Pace Nilsen, Arizona State University

OUR EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS INCLUDE

Victor Raskin, English Linguistics, Purdue University, Editor at large, HUMOR
Salvatore Attardo, English, Youngstown State University, Editor, HUMOR
Peter Derks, Psychology, College of William and Mary, HUMOR Book Review Editor
Amy Carrell, English Dept., University of Central Oklahoma, HUMOR Newsletter Editor
Don Nilsen, English Dept., Arizona State University, Executive Secretary

Former ISHS EC Members

Hiroshi Inoue, Informatics, Kansai University (Nominating Committee & Executive board -2003, retiring Members-at-large)
Regina Barreca, English, University of Connecticut (Nominating Committee -2003, retiring Members-at-large)
Jessica Milner Davis (Nominating Committee -2003, Past President 2003, Past Co-Chair 1996)
Richard Hallett/Judith Kaplan-Weinger (Nominating Committee -2003, Past Convenor 2003)
Rod A. Martin, Psychology, University of Western Ontario (Executive Board -2002, Past president 2007-2008),
Christie Davies, Sociology, University of Reading (Executive Board -2002, President 2008-2009)

ISHS-Membership

Benefits of Membership

HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research, the official journal of the society, is included in dues at a deeply discounted rate.
Foreign members are allowed to use Visa or Master Card. Include Visa or Master-Card Number and expiration date and send to Don Nilsen, English Department, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-0302; TEL: 602-965-7592; E-MAil: <don.nilsen@asu.edu> or FAX: 602-965-3451. US members must send checks in US dollars.
Reduced Conference fee for annual ISHS-Conference (see history of humor conferences).
Reduced prize for books from the HUMOR RESEARCH series (see info on published volumes) .
Access to bibliographies on humorscholarship as it relates to various other areas of research

Membership Application

Request an application form at <don.nilsen@asu.edu>

ISHS Conference History

Pre-ISHS Conferences

1976 in Cardiff, Wales, UK
1979 in Los Angeles, CA, USA
1982 in Washington USA
1984 in Tel Aviv, Israel
1985 in Cork, Ireland

ISHS-Conferences

Year	Place	Sponsoring School	Chair/Convener	President
1987	Tempe, Arizona, USA	Arizona State University	Don Nilsen, Alleen Nilsen
1988	West Lafayette, Indiana USA	Purdue University	Victor Raskin
1989	Laie, Hawaii, USA	Brigham Young Univ., Hawaii	Margaret Baker, Jesse Crisler
1990	Sheffield, England	Sheffield Univ.	Mark Glazer
1991	St. Catharine’s, Canada	Brock Univ.	Ann-Marie Guilmette
1992	Paris, France	Univ. of Paris	Judith Stora-Sandor, Nelly Feuerhahn
1993	Luxembourg NW Europe	Miami Univ. Ohio, USA	Larry Sherman
1994	Ithaca, New York, USA	Ithaca College	Mary Ann Rishel
1995	Birmingham, England	Aston University	George Paton
1996	Sydney, Australia	Univ. of New South Wales	John McCallum, Jessica Milner Davis
1997	Edmond, Oklahoma, USA	Univ. of Central Oklahoma	Amy Carrell
1998	Bergen, Norway	University of Trondheim	Sven Svebak
1999	Oakland, California, USA	Holy Names University	Martin Lampert
2000	Osaka, Japan	Kansai University	Hiroshi Inoue and Goh Abe	Victor Raskin
2001	College Park, Maryland, USA	University of Maryland	Larry Mintz	Alleen Pace Nilsen
2002	Forli, Italy	University of Bologna	Delia Chiaro	Willibald Ruch
2003	Chicago, Illinois, USA	Northeastern University	Judith Kaplan-Weinger and Richard Hallett	Jessica Milner Davis
2004	Dijon, France	University of Bourgogne	Lorene Birden	John Morreall
2005	Youngstown, Ohio, USA	Youngstown State University	Salvatore Attardo	John Morreall
2006	Copenhagen, Denmark	Danish Univ. of Education	Martin Führ	Rod Martin
2007	Newport, Rhode Island USA	Salve Regina University	Margaret Mathias	Rod Martin
2008	Alcala de Henares, Spain	University of Alcala	Juan Garcia Cerrada, Carmen Valero-Garces, and Begona Carbelo Baquero	Christie Davies
2009	Long Beach, California USA	California State University, Long Beach	Amy Bippus	Christie Davies

Go to top of page

or search Humor Research web-site with navigating bar

Last updated: Nov 17, 2008

visitors since Jan 1, 1999

The ISHS Historian Page

News and information updated by Don L.F. Nilsen, ISHS-Historian.