See our CFP for two panels below:
Call in American Humor Studies
American Literary Association Conference:
Chicago, IL May 26-29, 2022
The Function of Race in American Humor
In United States popular culture, race and humor have often had a symbiotic relationship, providing pleasurable, knee-slapping reactions where notions of race and representation were satirized to provide legitimate critiques on race relations in the US.
While humor can be a source of pleasure and satisfaction, humor can also reflect negative connotations. The legacy of racialized humor in the US has a longstanding history that distorts non-white racial groups. For example, blackface minstrelsy played a prominent role in satirizing blackness in the US for decades to support racist attitudes and distort what it meant to be black and American, further cementing the notion that humor can work both ways: to both empower, but also to undermine.
This panel, then, seeks contributions that center the role of humor in American literature and culture. In other words, how do literary critique, humor studies, and race intersect, and what can we learn from their overlaps? What is the social, cultural, and political significance of race in American humor? And, of course, what role does humor play in American literature and culture?
These are just some of the issues we will attempt to cover. Proposals that engage with historically underrepresented literatures and authors are particularly encouraged to submit. All submissions should include an abstract (no more than 250 words) and a short author bio.
Please send submissions to Rod Taylor: taylor_r@sc.edu by Monday, January 17, 2022.
Rod Taylor
Postdoctoral Fellow
African American Studies Program
University of South Carolina
Email: taylor_r@sc.edu
Open Call in American Humor Studies
American Literary Association Conference:
Chicago, IL May 26-29, 2022
The American Humor Studies Association invites submissions for a panel focused on any topics pertaining to American humor. This panel begins with the axiom that all comedic texts are worth examining—print or visual, still or moving, historical or contemporary.
Possible topics may include:
- BIPOC satire/performance
- nativist/alt-right comedy
- stand-up comedy studies
- neo-colonial and/or decolonizing humor
- comedy history/historiography
- reading the visual
- difference, identity, and humor
- feminist comedy studies
- transnational flows of laughter
- critical race theories and the comedic
- intersections of disability studies and humor studies
Proposals that engage with historically underrepresented communities/foci are particularly encouraged to submit. All submissions should include an abstract (no more than 250 words) and a short author bio.
Please send submissions to Beck Krefting: rkreftin@skidmore.edu by Monday, January 17, 2022.
Beck Krefting
Associate Professor
Department of American Studies
Skidmore College
Website: http://rebeccakrefting.com/
To Wit 