Episode hosts: Ben Nickl and Anna-Sophie Jürgens

About our guest on this episode:

Tatiana is a Lecturer at ANU in Canberra and joined the university’s Centre for Classical Studies in 2023. Prior to this, she was the Moses and Mary Finley Research Fellow at Darwin College, University of Cambridge. Tatiana is a graduate of the University of Sydney where she completed her undergraduate studies and MPhil. Tatiana is French-Australian and has lived in France, Australia, Spain, England and Portugal. She is passionate not just about ancient Greece and Rome, but about languages and cultures (ancient and modern) more broadly, talking to us about how the academic studies of humour, technology, and Classics go together like you wouldn’t believe!

About the episode hosts:

Ben is a Senior Lecturer in The University of Sydney’s Department of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies. He works on popular technologies of mediation like humour and laughter and is the research coordinator for the Australasian Humour Studies Network. His latest book is called Moral Dimensions of Humour (Tampere University Press, open access, 2024).

Anna-Sophie is a Senior Lecturer in Science Communication at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science of the Australian National University, and the founder and head of the ‘Popsicule – ANU’s Science in Popular Culture and Entertainment Hub’. Her research explores the cultural meanings of science, the history of (violent) clowns and mad scientists, science and humour, and the interface between science and (public) art.

Acknowledgement of Country:

We would like to acknowledge and pay respect to the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the traditional owners and custodians of the lands on which the University of Sydney has been built, and which were taken from them without their consent, treaty or compensation. Most episodes of this podcast were recorded on this land.
This land has always been a learning space for many Aboriginal nations, and as teachers and students, and people of all kinds of origins, we can draw strength and guidance from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge, one of the oldest knowledge systems in the world.

Want to come on as a guest or co-host, or get in touch about something else? Simply email benjamin.nickl@sydney.edu.au (AHSN research coordinator and ‘Cutting Edge’ host), visit the AHSN website https://ahsnhumourstudies.org/ and follow/subscribe to us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AHSNHumour/, YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@ahsnconference or Twitter/X @AHSN_Humour.

Special thanks and all credit for editing and sound engineering goes to Jacob Craig/USYD FASS media room studios.