[Commlist] Call for papers 2026 /SatiReNet/ Conference

CALL FOR PAPERS for the 2026 /SatiReNet/ Conference:

*/Contemporary Satire Controversies: Cases, Conditions, Consequences/*

*19-20 November 2026, University of Copenhagen, Denmark*

Satire controversies are no longer an occasional disturbance in the 
public sphere. They have become a recurring mode through which 
contemporary societies negotiate disagreement about humour, harm, and 
freedom of expression – and, increasingly, about truth and political 
legitimacy (Koivukoski et al, 2026). From the Alan Kurdi controversy to 
White House memes, the field of satirical conflict has grown both more 
visible and more difficult to map within established theoretical 
frameworks. This conference invites contributions that engage with the 
/complexity/ of contemporary satire and of these controversies.

Relevant questions might include, but are not limited to, the following: 
Why have satire controversies become a recurring feature of public life 
rather than exceptional events? What can earlier controversies reveal 
about those of the present, and where do the continuities end? When 
satirical work tips into conflict, is the dispute really about the work 
itself? Which inherited concepts (of intention, offence, authorship 
etc.) strain under contemporary conditions, and what might take their 
place? When is "satire" a description of a work, and when is it a claim 
made strategically about it? And with what consequences do these 
conflicts end - for careers, legislation, and the limits of the sayable?

*We welcome proposals across the following tracks: *

1. Contemporary satire controversies. How does interpretive divergence 
shape the trajectory of controversy? Through which dynamics do 
controversies emerge, escalate, and dissipate - and why does even 
sharply polemical satire sometimes provoke no controversy at all?

2. The polemical force of contemporary satire. How do specific works of 
satire attack, expose or delegitimise their targets? When does a work's 
critical edge advance a debate, and when does it merely harden existing 
positions?

3. Satire in the age of generative AI. How do generative tools 
(deepfakes, voice cloning etc.) transform satire’s capacity to wound or 
the way satire controversies unfold? What happens when photorealism 
erases caricature's signal of its own artifice?

4. Satire produced by states, governments, party-political actors, and 
other institutions of power. What happens to the satirical contract when 
the satirist is also the sovereign? How is regime-sponsored mockery 
received and to what extent is it controversial?

5. Cases where the satirical label is invoked or feigned – from 
fabricated satirical works in disinformation campaigns to the 'just a 
joke' defense. How do actors exploit satire's cultural legitimacy for 
ends foreign to it? And what distinguishes such appropriation from 
satire’s own strategies?

Within each of these tracks, proposals may take historical cases as 
their point of departure, provided they explicitly relate them to 
contemporary cases or tendencies. We welcome contributions from across 
humour studies, art and cultural studies, media studies, sociology, 
political theory, and adjacent fields. Comparative and transnational 
perspectives are especially encouraged.

Proposals of up to 300 words for 20-minute papers must be submitted, 
together with a bio blurb of up to 50 words, by August 31, 2026, at: 
https://events.ruc.dk/contemporarysatirecontroversiescasesconditionsconsequences-4615/conference 
<https://events.ruc.dk/contemporarysatirecontroversiescasesconditionsconsequences-4615/conference>. 
Here additional information can be found.

*Organisers*

The conference is organised by the Explorative Research Network 
/SatiReNet/, headed by Associate Professor Ida Klitgård (Roskilde 
University), Associate Professor Michael Eigtved (University of 
Copenhagen) and Post Doc. Dennis Meyhoff Brink (University of 
Copenhagen). It is funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark and will 
take place at */University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Humanities, South 
Campus, 8 Karen Blixen’s Place, 2300 Copenhagen, Denmark/*. Network 
homepage: Satire Research Network | Roskilde Universitet 
<https://ruc.dk/research-project/satire-research-network>.

*Invited keynote speakers*

Associate Professor *Alberto Godioli*, University of Groningen. Founder 
and co-director of Forum for Humor and the Law (forhum.org).

Honorary Reader *Sharon Lockyer*. Brunel University, London. Founding 
director of Centre for Comedy Studies (CCSR).

*References*

Godioli, A. (2020) “Cartoon Controversies at the European Court of Human 
Rights: Towards Forensic Humor Studies”, /Open Library of Humanities/ 6 
(1): 1–35.

Koivukoski et, J. et al. (2026) “The rise in humor scandals: a 
cross-national comparison of humor-related public controversies in eight 
European countries (1990–2022)”, /Humor/ 39 (1): 95-126.

Lockyer, S. & Weaver, S. (2024) “The Ethics of Humor and Comedy,” Ford 
et al. (ed.), /The De Gruyter Handbook of Humor Studies/, vol. 2, p. 
539–556. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter.

*Contact:*Ida Klitgård, (idak /at/ ruc.dk) <mailto:(idak /at/ ruc.dk)>
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