[ecrea] CFP: Satirical Discourse in Troubled Times

*Call For Papers: Satirical Discourse in Troubled Times*

The Fourteenth International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry

May 16-19, 2018

University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (USA)

Session Organizer:

Kevin Howley

Professor of Media Studies

Department of Communication

DePauw University

(khowley /at/ depauw.edu) <mailto:(khowley /at/ depauw.edu)>

On July 4, 1852, the former slave and abolitionist leader Frederick 
Douglass, thought to be alive and well by the current occupant of the 
White House, famously proclaimed: “At a time like this, scorching irony, 
not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could 
reach the nation’s ear, I would, today, pour forth a stream, a fiery 
stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and 
stern rebuke.” Douglass’s recognition of the value and importance of 
pointed satire in troubled times is deeply relevant to the current 
historical moment. From climate change and the rise of authoritarianism 
to austerity politics and the criminalization of dissent, these are most 
assuredly troubled times.

Drawing on classic and contemporary scholarship that examines the 
discursive power of political dissent in the satiric register, this 
session seeks to address the following questions: What role does satire 
play in such vexed and perilous times as these? Do we laugh to keep from 
crying? More critically, are we, as cultural critic Neil Postman 
famously put it, merely “amusing ourselves to death”? Or is satire a 
potent, if somewhat underappreciated, resource for resistance, 
resilience, and renewal in the wake of the ascent of anti-democratic 
forces; the deepening of social, political and economic inequalities; 
and the wholesale destruction of our fragile ecosystem? In 
correspondence with this year’s conference theme, Qualitative Inquiry in 
Troubled Times, this session examines the form, function, and political 
efficacy of satirical discourse in contemporary culture.

Theoretical and empirical papers employing qualitative methodologies may 
include, but are not limited to, the following lines of inquiry:

* Satire as creative resistance

* Political mobilization within and through satire

* Satirical discourse and digital culture

* Satirizing neoliberalism

* Political satire in national, international, and transnational contexts

* Limits and possibilities of racial satire

* Assessing the efficacy of political satire

* Form and content in satirical discourse

* Satirical interventions in public policy

* Historical perspectives on political satire

Send 300-word abstracts, a short biographical statement, and contact 
information to the session organizer no later than *October 1, 2017* 
<(_khowley /at/ depauw.edu) <mailto:(khowley /at/ depauw.edu)>_>.


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