This British Academy/Wellcome Trust conference is a transdisciplinary gathering of clinicians and humanities scholars from around the world. A key goal of the conference is to bring the insights of practitioners and scholars to bear on each other’s fields of experience and expertise in order to yield fresh methodological possibilities and interpretative avenues.

The conference will explore two interconnected questions: 1) How does laughter in all its complexity impact on medical care, illness and well-being, health care providers and patients? 2) How does the history of artistic and cultural representations of laughter in medical contexts reflect or make sense of diverse medical experiences and function in relation to larger ideological, philosophical and other discourses?

Confirmed conference presentations will address comic representations of physicians and disease in literature and the spatial and temporal arts in classical, medieval and modern Western cultures. They will also examine laughter’s role in the professional activities and ethics of various medical fields, incorporating the perspectives of philosophy, communication studies, psychology and sociology.

We welcome all those with a curiosity to learn more about the links between laughter and medicine (from students to seniors and everything in between) to attend this conference, which will be held at the Edgbaston Park Hotel on the University of Birmingham campus.

Discounts available for two-day attendance. Concession rate available to students and seniors (age 60+); please have photo ID available to be checked at the conference registration desk.