Author: Vida
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Engage, Exchange, Enjoy, Repeat: A New Formula for Happiness in the Digital Age
By Shannon Lodoen This paper explores how the concept of “happiness” is being redefined in the Digital Age, specifically within North American capitalist society. I argue that smartphones (and the social media platforms they support) have restructured daily life around processes of exchange and engagement, turning our interactions with others, whether onscreen or in person, into […]
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A Lesson on Happiness from an Eccentric Raccoon Family
By Lianying Shan The Japanese anime TV series The Eccentric Family (2013) sheds light on how humans might achieve happiness by depicting a family of fictional racoon characters’ struggle to stay happy despite trials and tribulations that they face in life. Adapted from Morimi Tomihiko’s 2007 novel of the same name, the anime show transforms the present-day […]
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Papers Presented at Previous Conferences
Papers Presented at the 2021 Conference Papers Presented at the 2022 Conference
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What Happens in the Absence of Happiness?
A Case Study: The Opposite of Happiness in Turkish Movies in the Second Half of 20th Century By Oguzhan Dursun ABSTRACT This presentation combines tools of history and film studies to examine the emotions of characters in 50 Turkish films released between 1950 and 2000. Focusing on the narrative structure and the basic dramatic premise […]
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No Success Needed: The Danish Path to Happiness
by Vida Penezic According to the World Happiness Report, Denmark is one of the happiest countries in the world. The report regularly ranks it as one of the top two or three, and several times in the last ten years it was ranked number one. Not surprisingly, Copenhagen, the Danish capital, has a Museum of […]
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Papers Presented at the 2022 Conference
• When the Perfect Christmas Can’t Be Perfect: Juxtaposing Hallmark Christmas Movies with Real Life during Covid-19, by Elizabeth A Shiller and Christina Beck • What Happens in the Absence of Happiness? by Oğuzhan Dursun • Engage, Exchange, Enjoy, Repeat: A New Formula for Happiness in the Digital Age, by Shannon Lodoen • Selling Mindfulness: the Corporate […]
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Where to Find Happiness When the American Dream is Dead
By Jillianne Montgomery Larson This paper explores the search for happiness in the wake of the American Dream’s potential death and how that search is portrayed in Disney and Pixar’s latest animated film, Soul (2020). The film follows a middle-aged jazz musician, Joe, who is dissatisfied with his teaching job and longs for his big […]
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Back to Being a Kid: How Slot-Car Racing Brings Me Happiness
By Ed Shorer When I was twelve-years-old I ditched Hebrew School, found myself at a slot car track, and never did get my Bar Mitzvah. But what I did get, in a very organic way, was life-lessons in ethics, how to play well with others, and how to be happy. In large part slot-car racing […]
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Nostalgia in Taiwanese Teen Romantic Comedies
By Liwen Wang After the success of You Are the Apple of My Eye (2011), teen romantic comedy became increasingly popular in Taiwanese cinema. Since then, new movies in this genre have been produced yearly. Moreover, two of the all-time highest-grossing Taiwanese films to date are teen romantic comedies. Notably, nostalgia was headlined as the genre’s appeal and […]
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Happiness Narrative in Three Movies
By Vida Penezic The latest scientific research suggests that biology (50%) and circumstances (10%) determine only about 60% of our happiness levels; the rest is up to us. In other words, happiness is (at least in part) a learnable skill. My larger research question is: If happiness is 40% learned, what role does popular culture […]
Happiness and Culture 