Friday, October 14, 2025, at 9:00 AM, the Scuola Universitaria Superiore IUSS of Pavia will host, in the Aula Magna of Palazzo del Broletto, the event titled “Pavia, Capital of Humor for a Day.”

University professors and researchers from Italy and abroad will gather to discuss and share the latest findings in humor research — from linguistic and psychological studies to neuroscientific perspectives.

The initiative, funded by the PNRR and sponsored by the Municipality of Pavia, marks the official launch of GRISU – Gruppo di Ricerca Italiano di Studi sull’Umorismo (Italian Research Group on Humor Studies), coordinated by Dr. Luca Bischetti (IUSS Pavia).
The group aims to build a national network of scholars, fostering collaboration across disciplines and opening new horizons for scientific research on humor — a complex phenomenon at the crossroads of language, mind, and society.

The event will be introduced by Prof. Andrea Moro (IUSS Pavia – SNS) and Prof. Francesca Bambini (IUSS Pavia), both leading figures in innovative research on pragmatics and language comprehension.

The program will also feature a contribution by Liisi Laineste, President of the International Society for Humor Studies (ISHS), who supports the creation of this new Italian research community. Italy, historically a key center for humor studies until the 1970s, hosted two editions of the ISHS annual conference in 2002 and 2022, both organized by Prof. Delia Chiaro (University of Bologna).
With this event, Pavia joins the international network of humor studies, reaffirming its academic and cultural vocation.

Among the distinguished guests is Prof. Salvatore Attardo, one of the world’s leading experts on verbal humor. Author of over ten volumes on the subject, Attardo has dedicated thirty years of research to exploring the linguistic mechanisms of humor and how the Internet has transformed the way humor is produced, shared, and understood.

The event also highlights the work of IUSS Pavia as the lead institution of CHICKENS (Comprehending Humor in Children: Experience, Knowledge, and Neural Substrates), a project coordinated by Dr. Bischetti and funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) under the Young Researcher 2024 program, with the support of PNRR funds.
The project investigates the cognitive and neural mechanisms that allow children — from early childhood to school age — to understand and appreciate verbal humor.

Through the CHICKENS project and the establishment of GRISU, IUSS Pavia confirms its role as a national reference center for scientific research on humor, promoting an interdisciplinary approach that brings together linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science.

The initiative aims to highlight humor not merely as entertainment, but as a key to understanding language, the mind, and human relationships, strengthening Pavia’s role as a city of knowledge, culture, and scientific research, in synergy with local institutions and the municipal administration.