Disability tends to be perceived as a serious matter across cultures, but humorous portrayals of people with disabilities have always existed. Nevertheless, there has been almost no theoretically and methodologically well-founded examination on the subject of ‘comedy and disability’, neither in cultural or media studies nor in social and educational sciences.
There is not only a lack of comprehensive theories, but also a lack of surveys and analyses of specific fictional and non-fictional texts. In light of the 2006 UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and in the context of inclusion, the question of the conditions under which comic portrayals of disability promote positive images of people with disabilities is more relevant than ever before. If one sees comedy and the laughter associated with it as a human reaction to impairments of possibilities for action and to violations of norms, the ambivalent potential of comedy for the topic of disability becomes immediately clear: the community can laugh because of or despite the disability, about the people affected or with them. The research network aims to explore this topic from the perspective of different disciplines. (DFG project number: 534997547)
| Name | University |
|---|---|
| Prof. Dr. Berit Callsen | University of Osnabrück, Romance Studies |
| Prof. Dr. Susanne Hartwig | University of Passau, Romance Literatures and Cultures |
| Dr. Adrian Herrera Fuentes | University of Cologne, Romance Studies/Comparative Literature |
| Prof. Dr. Thomas Hoffmann | Humboldt University Berlin, Rehabilitation Pedagogy |
| Dr. Karl Kleinbach | Ludwigsburg University of Education, Special Education (emeritus) |
| Lukas Kleinhenz | Julius Maximilian University Würzburg, Special and Inclusive Pedagogy |
| Katrin Kreuznacht | Leibniz University Hannover, General Disability Pedagogy and Sociology |
| Prof. Dr. Dieter Kulke | Würzburg-Schweinfurt University of Applied Sciences (THWS), Sociology |
| Dr. Daniela Kuschel | University of Mannheim, Romance Studies |
| Dr. Mirjam Leuzinger | University of Passau, Romance Literatures and Cultures |
| Prof. Dr. Anette Pankratz | Ruhr University Bochum, British Cultural Studies |
| Dr. Soledad Pereyra | University of Passau, Romance Studies |
| Fabian Riemen | Julius Maximilian University Würzburg, Special Education |
| Theresa Stommel | University of Cologne, Pedagogy and Rehabilitation |
| Prof. Dr. Christian von Tschilschke | University of Münster, Romance Studies |
| Principal Investigator(s) at the University | Prof. Dr. Susanne Hartwig (Lehrstuhl für Romanische Literaturen und Kulturen) |
|---|---|
| Project period | 01.05.2024 - 30.04.2027 |
| Source of funding |
DFG - Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
|
