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80525-01 - Colloquium: Kommunikation im Beruf: Improvisation: Techniques, Practices, Performance and Professional Activities (1 CP)
| Semester | fall semester 2026 |
| Course frequency | Irregular |
| Lecturers |
Lorenza Mondada (lorenza.mondada@unibas.ch, Assessor)
Yeji Rieser (yeji.lee@unibas.ch) |
| Content | This session of the Module Communication im Beruf deals with a set of practices that come from the theatre and currently develop well beyond the dramaturgical scene, becoming a form of intervention in various professional contexts. Improvisation refers to a set of techniques and practices that allow groups of lay-persons, actors, and professionals to build together a coherent story, without relaying on a previously agreed script. Participating in improv groups can be a leisure, but also a professional activity, either related to theatrical performances or to interventions in corporate businesses, for the sake of entertainment but also for proposing collective experiences fostering group identity and team building. This Module will explore the practices of improvisation, on the basis of video recordings we have made in a professional group, engaged in improv battles, theatre performances, training and corporate workshops. The first part of the module will show how improvisation works, how it is instructed and how it is practiced and assessed. We will in particular focus on how improvisation emerges, turn by turn, from one pair of actors to the next pair, progressively expanding in a scene or a narrative. Based on Conversation Analysis, the approach will highlight the sequential organisation of social interaction in improv sessions, showing how progressivity is secured turn-by-turn, and sequence-by-sequence. The second part of the module will reflect about the use of these techniques for performances, events, leadership training, and team building workshops. It will be based on a dialogue between the insights provided within the linguistic and conversation analytic perspective and the contribution of one of the leaders of the improv team we have worked with. In this way, the module will orchestrate multiple convergences between the perspective of linguists and the perspective of the professionals observed, reflecting about ways in which both can mutually support each other. It will provide a unique occasion to connect research and practice, in presence of a professional. |
| Bibliography | t.b.a. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|
No dates available. Please contact the lecturer.
| Modules |
Module: Research and Extension (Master's degree program: Language and Communication) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | as often as necessary |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Departement Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaften |