How can humour – and what kind of humour – be used in science communication? What does comic performance offer to understanding the public image and pop cultural narratives of science? And what can we learn from comic scientists about science?

Humour and laughter are fascinating ways to bring science to the public. Humour, this one-week intensive online course elucidates, is not only one of the most powerful tools in communication, but it also shapes – and has been shaping – cultural ideas of sciences. The course thus investigates both, the ways science has influenced and generated rich and fascinating comic traditions in popular culture, and how humour and comic performance have shaped cultural ideas of sciences and ‘science humour’. It looks at the exchange between popular entertainment and science in various media (e.g. comics, film, fiction) over the last 150 years – the course is a conversation between the past, present and future – and clarifies the power of humour for bringing science and scientists into the general public discussion.  

In this course students will explore both how comic cultural narratives about science have affected the public discourse and understanding of science, and thus our science-society relationship, and how they can communicate their academic knowledge and research more effectively through humour – while also gaining more awareness of good practice and responsible, versatile use of nuanced humour in different situations and with different audiences.