From Belly Laughs to Bare Knuckles

In my talk I will do what you should never do: explain a joke. I use my PhD in humour and repetition in sitcoms as a backdrop, and my perspective is that of someone who studies how we use language to communicate. From that point of view I will show you some ways in which humour can be studied, and I will share with you some interesting trends I have observed in stand-up comedy specials by comedians like Hannah Gadsby, Taylor Tomlinson, and Bo Burnham.

As a Professor and research group leader at the Department at the University of Basel my special interest lies in investigating the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of deficits in emotion processing in mental health disorders. In this talk I will discuss the question which factors contributes to aggression and antisocial behaviour: Is aggression a result of nurture or nature? I will present results of recent studies on adolescents with disruptive behavior disorders. Additionally, I will discuss the question how families and professionals can contribute to improve emotional and social skills in children.

Apples, clouds, chairs. Different across and different within, objects and the fuzzy categories they belong to populate our perception of the world. But how can we know whether we are having a beer or a softdrink?Indeed, how can we recognize or remember any object in isolation, with nothing to compare it to. In this talk, we will be looking for the little pint in our own heads, to define all pints soon to be in our stomach.