The annual conference of the network Comic Literacies – Kulturtechniken des Komischen (Cultural Techniques of Comedy) will be held on November 13-15, 2025, at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) Essen (Germany). On Thursday, November 13, 2025, Oliver Double (University of Kent) will speak at a keynote. Participants will also attend an artistic performance at PACT Zollverein (https://www.pact-zollverein.de/, Performing Arts Choreographisches Zentrum NRW Tanzlandschaft Ruhr).
In comic figures such as clowns, amateurs, or spinsters, in the masks of the commedia dell’arte or in the pies thrown in slapstick, as well as in theatre, film, or text—comedy always manifests itself through bodies and things. The first annual conference of the network Comic Literacies – Kulturtechniken des Komischen (Cultural Techniques of Comedy) thus explores perspectives on the material dimensions of comedy and the comic. Discussing and comparing case studies from different contexts and disciplinary backgrounds, we aim to outline comic phenomena as constituted via cultural techniques that are shaped by the materiality of various cultural, corporeal, and media practices. In doing so, the conference draws special attention to acts of figuration: How can we conceptualize the staging of comic bodies and things as matters of design and formation?
Please submit abstracts and a short bio by June 15, 2025, to [email protected]. For the complete call please click here and check out the website of the network.
The conference is organized by Gregor Lilienfein (University Bonn), Karin Peters (University Bonn), Roxanne Phillips (KWI Essen), Hendrik Quast (Stockholm University of the Arts/ZHdK Zurich), Marilisa Reisert (LMU Munich) & Sarah Tober (KWI Essen).
