[Commlist] ISHS Panel CfP: Humor and Political Struggles in the Global South

35th International Society for Humor Studies Conference
7th-11th July 2025, Krakow, Poland
CfP Deadline 13th January 2025
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*Humor and Political Struggles in the Global South*
Political struggles in the Global South—shaped by colonial legacies and 
structural inequalities—often intersect with comic forms of expression. 
From the colonial-era Punches in India to graffiti in the streets of 
Hong Kong, from satirical collectives in Zimbabwe to politically charged 
memes influencing elections across Africa, Latin America, and Asia, 
humor has long served as a means of navigating political tensions in 
marginalized regions of the world. Within socio-political landscapes 
marked by authoritarian regimes, ongoing wars, the rise of far-right 
movements, and fragile alliances with the Global North, humor emerges as 
a paradoxical medium. While it can expose injustices, foster empathy, 
fuel popular mobilization, and highlight the contradictions embedded in 
power structures, it can also legitimize oppressive discourses, 
reinforce social hierarchies, and mask symbolic violence.

The historical use of humor as a political weapon against colonial 
oppression underlines its enduring strategic significance. This 
significance has gained new contours today, as state censorship, digital 
surveillance, and social pressures place comedians, collectives, and 
media producers in precarious positions—balancing the urge to reveal 
contradictions in political narratives against the risk of harassment, 
boycotts, and persecution. Social media accelerates the circulation of 
humorous content, enabling marginalized groups in the Global South to 
contest hegemonic narratives and critique both local and global systems 
of domination. At the same time, it amplifies the reach of hate speech, 
misinformation, and political attacks across ideological divides. The 
widespread debates over “cancel culture” illustrate the contested 
boundaries of humor, revealing tensions between resistance, freedom of 
speech, ethical accountability, and the protection of groups continually 
exposed to symbolic aggression.

This panel seeks contributions that deepen our understanding of the 
political functions of humor in the Global South. We invite researchers 
to consider humor not merely as a cultural index or social reflection, 
but as an active force in shaping political imaginaries and constructing 
senses of community. We encourage the submission of analyses that 
explore how humor engages with political struggles, challenging or 
reaffirming colonial and postcolonial orders. We welcome theoretical, 
methodological, and empirical explorations, including examinations of 
the material conditions shaping humor production and dissemination in 
peripheral contexts, discussions of historical precedents or archival 
materials, and investigations of contemporary strategies to resist or 
reinforce authoritarian, conservative, and exclusionary agendas.

Suggested themes include, but are not limited to:

  * Historical uses of humor in anticolonial struggles and their
    contemporary legacies
  * Gender, sexuality, race, and caste in political humor produced in
    the Global South
  * Humor and online culture wars in the Global South: ‘fake news’,
    disinformation, moral panic, polarization, and activism
  * Emerging comedic formats in the Global South and their
    sociopolitical contexts
  * Humor in contexts of rising far-right movements and/or endangered
    democracies
  * Humor, “cancel culture”, and free speech debates in popular culture
  * Humor, censorship, and state repression in the Global South
  * Humor and resistance amid war and humanitarian emergencies
  * Humor as a means to examine and reconfigure relations between the
    Global South and Global North

Please submit an abstract of up to 250 words and a brief biography by 
*January 13, 2025*, through the following form: 
https://forms.gle/rrd95TZEtouUbCta6 <https://forms.gle/rrd95TZEtouUbCta6>

Organizers:
Humor and the Global South SIG – Diego Hoefel (UFC/Brazil), João Paulo 
Capelotti (UFPR/Brazil), Rujuta Date (Independent Researcher/India)
ISHS 2025 Conference: https://ishs2025.pl/ <https://ishs2025.pl/>

Note: The terms “Global South” and “Global North” should not be 
understood as strictly geographical. Instead, they are historical and 
political constructs emerging from colonial and imperial processes, as 
well as the contemporary conditions of globalization and global 
capitalism that shape power relations among different regions, nations, 
and communities. These regions are grouped together here not because 
they form a homogeneous bloc, but because, despite their complexity and 
diversity, they share historical, social, and political patterns of 
underrepresentation, exploitation, and marginalization.

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