Spring 2023 Colloquium Series

For more information, email socdept@hawaii.edu or call (808) 956-7693.

Dangerous Fun: The Social Lives of Big Wave Surfers

• Book Talk with Dr. Ugo Corte
• Date: Thursday, January 26, 2023
• Time: 3 - 4:15 pm (HST)
• Location: Saunders Hall Rm 704

Oahu's Waimea Bay attracts the world's best big wave surfers-men and women who come to test their physical strength, courage, style, knowledge of the water, and love of the ocean. Sociologist Ugo Corte sees their fun as the outcome of social interaction within a community.

Both as participant and observer, he examines how mentors, novices, and peers interact to create episodes of collective fun in a dangerous setting; how they push one another's limits, nourish a lifestyle, advance the sport and, in some cases, make a living based on their passion for the sport.

Ugo Corte is a professor of Sociology at the University of Stavanger, Norway. His research has been published in numerous outlets, including major journals like Sociological Theory, Sociological Forum and Social Psychology Quarterly. His latest work addresses fun, cruelty, creativity, and the meaning of "qualitative" in research.