In an article published October 31 on Vox.com, Psychology Professor Robert Provine was quoted extensively about his research on hiccups and the evolution of behavior. He discussed how there’s little scientific knowledge about hiccups and how they are difficult to study.

“We still don’t know what hiccups do, and our cure for them hasn’t improved since Plato,” said Provine. “You can’t just go into the lab and ask someone to hiccup for you.”

Provine also discussed holding breath as a possible cure for intractable hiccups. “You’re blocking the motor pattern as well as leading to a buildup of carbon dioxide,” he said.

In an article published on Today.com discussing a recent episode of “The Tonight Show” in which Bradley Cooper and Jimmy Fallon couldn’t control their laughter throughout a ten-minute interview, Provine was quoted from a 2010 interview he participated in with NBC News.

“All laughter is unconscious,” he said. “You do not choose to laugh the way you choose to speak.” The article also cites Provine by stating: “And laughter and humor aren’t as closely tied as people might think. Babies laugh without understanding a joke or that knowing that pratfalls are hilarious, according to Provine.”

To read full versions of both articles, click below:
The mysterious science of hiccups: Why we get them and how to stop them (Vox)
This is why Jimmy Fallon and Bradley Cooper couldn’t stop giggling (Today.com)

Thirteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

University of British Columbia - Vancouver Campus

Vancouver Canada
17-19 June 2015

Call for Papers

The International Advisory Board is pleased to announce the Call for Papers for the Thirteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities. The Humanities Conference will be held 17-19 June 2015 at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. We welcome submissions from a variety of disciplines and perspectives and encourage faculty and students to jointly submit proposals, discussing The Humanities through one of the following themes:

Conference Themes

• Critical Cultural Studies
• Communication and Linguistic Studies
• Literary Humanities
• Civic, Political, and Community Studies
• Humanities Education
• "From 'Digital Humanities' to a Humanities of the Digital"

In a recent article published in The Conversation and The Washington Post, American Studies Lecturer Clifford Murphy wrote about his research documenting New England’s country music history and traditions in order to understand how the region once home to a robust country music culture merely sixty years ago now has a much different country music scene.

“In short, the arrival of television compromised the profit margins of radio, replacing live musicians with disc jockeys. Meanwhile, the country music industry consolidated in Nashville, where country format radio was born,” Murphy wrote. He discussed the culture shift away from “the people” to more centralized commercial broadcasts and how the concept has extended into other spheres of regional American life.

Murphy, who is Program Director of Folk & Traditional Arts at the Maryland State Arts Council, turned his research into a new book titled Yankee Twang, which was published this month by University of Illinois Press. For more information, click here. To read Murphy’s full article titled “Country pop is having a moment in the Northeast. But its soaring popularity is threatening to kill regional music,” click here.