A Unique Opportunity for American Humor Scholars

As part of the 10th International Conference on the State of Mark Twain Studies, the American Humor Studies Association (AHSA) invites proposals for either a panel or a roundtable discussion. The Elmira conference will expand its traditional focus on Mark Twain by including sister organizations such as AHSA. The conference theme is “Irreverence, Rebellion, and Resilience.”

 Established in 1989, the quadrennial International Conference on the State of Mark Twain Studies is the oldest and largest gathering of scholars primarily interested in the field of Mark Twain Studies. The host of the event is the Elmira College Center for Mark Twain Studies (CMTS). The 3-day conference will be held from Thursday, July 30 to Saturday, August 1 on the Elmira College campus in Elmira, New York. For more information, go to their website: https://marktwainstudies.com/2026quadrennial/

Panel: COMIC LAUGHTER AS DISSENT

Laughter is dissent when power demands obedience.

AHSA invites humor scholars to participate in a panel dedicated to gathering, documenting, and analyzing examples of citizens, as well as professionals, using comic tactics to push back against forms of oppression in the public sphere. Together, these presentations will constitute a step towards creating a laughable chronicle of the times.

Recent events have elicited a myriad of spontaneous (and not-so spontaneous) expressions of dissent presented in comic formats, written and digitized and performed. AHSA envisions this panel as a first draft of documenting citizen responses along with professional ones. While we expect an emphasis on events in the last few years, all time frames are fair game. Similarly, while we expect digital examples such as memes and posts on social media to dominate, all forms in all formats are welcome.

Abstracts of 250 to 300 words plus a brief biography are due February 13, 2026 to Todd Thompson: th******@*up.edu. All panelists must be members of AHSA before the conference opens. The Constance Rourke travel award is available for graduate students on a panel. The award varies between $100 – $300 (depending on AHSA funds and the number of applicants) to help defray the cost of attending conferences with AHSA-sponsored panels.

Roundtable: INTERROGATING “AMERICAN” HUMOR

The AHSA roundtable will feature an array of scholarly interpretations of what the “American” in “American Humor Studies” means to them in 2026. 

 Due to globalization and to newer transnational scholarly paradigms—including, but not limited to, transatlantic, transoceanic, hemispheric, and postcolonial approaches—the old national boundaries of academic subdisciplines in literary studies, performance studies, historiography, rhetoric, and even American studies have increasingly come into question and under challenge. So, what does “American” mean to you as a humor scholar?

 The AHSA recognizes that its members and the larger community of humor scholars have disparate and even competing notions of what “American” means to their own work and to their assumptions about humor studies as a field. This roundtable seeks to surface these too-often unspoken understandings so as to highlight the rich variety of approaches to studying “American” humor. 

 Accepted abstracts will be printed in the conference program and will form the basis for the roundtable conversation. The moderator will formulate questions, connections, and provocations to guide discussion.

 Abstracts of 300 words plus a brief biography are due February 13, 2026 to Todd Thompson: th******@*up.edu. All roundtable participants must be members of AHSA before the conference opens. The Constance Rourke travel award is available for graduate students. The award varies between $100 – $300 (depending on AHSA funds and the number of applicants) to help defray the cost of attending conferences with AHSA-sponsored events.