Speakers
Below is the current line-up of speakers.
Dr Jennalee Donian (she/her)
The Mutual Vulnerability Theory as a Means of Understanding Humour in Social Justice
Abstract: The Mutual Vulnerability Theory of Laughter posits laughter as a means of fostering constructive reciprocal behaviour. It suggests that cooperation is enhanced when the balance of power (i.e., status) of the respective parties is comparable, thereby interweaving concepts of fairness, equality, and opportunity. In this presentation, I will advance the theory's foundational premise, including its implications for understanding the dynamics of humour, and explore how the distinction between laughing "with" someone versus laughing "at" someone reflects underlying social hierarchies. By examining such interactions, investigators will better understand how humour is used to promote social justice through a sense of shared vulnerability, and to help suppress inequality (and thus conflict) using both affable and antagonistic ridicule. This analysis aims to contribute to ongoing discussions about the role of humour in contemporary social movements and its potential as a tool for cultivating inclusivity and justice.
Introduction: Dr Jennalee Donian is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Nelson Mandela University, South Africa, and is recognised as one of South Africa’s foremost experts in humour studies. She conducted her doctoral thesis on stand-up comedy and authored Taking Comedy Seriously: Stand-Up’s Dissident Potential in Mass Culture (2019). She has written articles on Trevor Noah and the contingent politics of racial joking, comedy during apartheid South Africa, comedy and humour in the post-apartheid milieu, and more recently, humour and the electricity crisis in South Africa. She is also co-editor of the new collection: Humour as Social Critique: Widening the African Perspective (2024).
Abstract: The Mutual Vulnerability Theory of Laughter posits laughter as a means of fostering constructive reciprocal behaviour. It suggests that cooperation is enhanced when the balance of power (i.e., status) of the respective parties is comparable, thereby interweaving concepts of fairness, equality, and opportunity. In this presentation, I will advance the theory's foundational premise, including its implications for understanding the dynamics of humour, and explore how the distinction between laughing "with" someone versus laughing "at" someone reflects underlying social hierarchies. By examining such interactions, investigators will better understand how humour is used to promote social justice through a sense of shared vulnerability, and to help suppress inequality (and thus conflict) using both affable and antagonistic ridicule. This analysis aims to contribute to ongoing discussions about the role of humour in contemporary social movements and its potential as a tool for cultivating inclusivity and justice.
Introduction: Dr Jennalee Donian is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Nelson Mandela University, South Africa, and is recognised as one of South Africa’s foremost experts in humour studies. She conducted her doctoral thesis on stand-up comedy and authored Taking Comedy Seriously: Stand-Up’s Dissident Potential in Mass Culture (2019). She has written articles on Trevor Noah and the contingent politics of racial joking, comedy during apartheid South Africa, comedy and humour in the post-apartheid milieu, and more recently, humour and the electricity crisis in South Africa. She is also co-editor of the new collection: Humour as Social Critique: Widening the African Perspective (2024).
Dr Nonhlanhla Ndlovu
Disciplining Power: Critical Perspectives on Analysing Humour and Social Control in Contemporary South Africa
Abstract
This paper takes a critical humour studies approach to explore the relationship between humour, power and discipline in mediated sociality in South Africa. Reflecting on specific instances of South African comedy and online humour, the paper addresses how humour reflects and shapes contemporary identities while grappling with questions of how humour can effectively challenge systemic issues in the country. The paper proposes that to analyse the ‘laughing gaze’ in the contemporary South African social media landscape, Foucault’s theorisations on disciplinary power and governmentality are best placed to unpack the subtle mechanisms of humour’s disciplining effects.
Bio
Nonhlanhla Ndlovu is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University. She is an experienced educator who has taught Journalism and Media Studies at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Zimbabwe. Her current research interests revolve around de/coloniality, constructions of identity online, youth and digital media and social belonging.
Abstract
This paper takes a critical humour studies approach to explore the relationship between humour, power and discipline in mediated sociality in South Africa. Reflecting on specific instances of South African comedy and online humour, the paper addresses how humour reflects and shapes contemporary identities while grappling with questions of how humour can effectively challenge systemic issues in the country. The paper proposes that to analyse the ‘laughing gaze’ in the contemporary South African social media landscape, Foucault’s theorisations on disciplinary power and governmentality are best placed to unpack the subtle mechanisms of humour’s disciplining effects.
Bio
Nonhlanhla Ndlovu is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University. She is an experienced educator who has taught Journalism and Media Studies at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Zimbabwe. Her current research interests revolve around de/coloniality, constructions of identity online, youth and digital media and social belonging.
Dr. Christine Vogt-William. (She/her)
Title of my lecture
Feminist Killjoy Reflections on Institutional Life in the Global North: Dark Comedies and Decolonial Contributions ?
About my Lecture
My reflections here on the figure of the feminist killjoy focus on how disruption of virulent privilege through the speaking of truth to power is necessary to defuse certain claims to happiness – recognizing that certain modes of happiness are built on modes of unhappiness and distress. I work with Sara Ahmed’s mapping of the feminist killjoy as cultural critic, where she considers the feminist killjoy’s acquiring of ‘happiness literacy’, where happiness ‘becomes the container for the diversity of human wants’ (Ahmed, The Feminist Killjoy Handbook, 2023: 94). Since happiness then ‘can be understood as an end […] in the sense of what we aim to accomplish, happiness is the point of an existence’ (Ahmed, The Feminist Killjoy Handbook, 2023: 95), it would be necessary to home in on whose happiness should be accorded primacy. Whose happiness, whose joy does the feminist killjoy have in their crosshairs - indeed ‘kill’?
Biography
Originally from Singapore, Christine Vogt-William studied English, German and Psychology at the University of Essen, Germany. She completed her doctoral thesis at the Centre for Women’s Studies at the University of York, England as a Marie Curie Gender Graduate Fellow. She is the author of Bridges, Borders and Bodies: Transgressive Transculturality in Contemporary South Asian Diasporic Women’s Novels (2014) and is co-editor of Disturbing Bodies (2008), an essay collection on artistic and literary representations of “deviant” bodies. She has published on South Asian and African diasporic and mixed race literatures, queer and critical race approaches to Tolkien’s works, literary representations of transracial adoption and transnational surrogacy in postcolonial women’s writing. She is a guest editor of a special issue on ‘Shame in Anglophone Literatures’ for the European Journal of English Studies. She is currently working on her second book on cultural representations of biological twinship in Anglophone literatures. Vogt-William is the Director of the Gender and Diversity Office with the Africa Multiple Cluster (funded by the German Research Council) at the University of Bayreuth.
https://www.africamultiple.uni-bayreuth.de/en/1_6-Gender-and-Diversity-Office/team/Christine-Vogt-William/index.php
Feminist Killjoy Reflections on Institutional Life in the Global North: Dark Comedies and Decolonial Contributions ?
About my Lecture
My reflections here on the figure of the feminist killjoy focus on how disruption of virulent privilege through the speaking of truth to power is necessary to defuse certain claims to happiness – recognizing that certain modes of happiness are built on modes of unhappiness and distress. I work with Sara Ahmed’s mapping of the feminist killjoy as cultural critic, where she considers the feminist killjoy’s acquiring of ‘happiness literacy’, where happiness ‘becomes the container for the diversity of human wants’ (Ahmed, The Feminist Killjoy Handbook, 2023: 94). Since happiness then ‘can be understood as an end […] in the sense of what we aim to accomplish, happiness is the point of an existence’ (Ahmed, The Feminist Killjoy Handbook, 2023: 95), it would be necessary to home in on whose happiness should be accorded primacy. Whose happiness, whose joy does the feminist killjoy have in their crosshairs - indeed ‘kill’?
Biography
Originally from Singapore, Christine Vogt-William studied English, German and Psychology at the University of Essen, Germany. She completed her doctoral thesis at the Centre for Women’s Studies at the University of York, England as a Marie Curie Gender Graduate Fellow. She is the author of Bridges, Borders and Bodies: Transgressive Transculturality in Contemporary South Asian Diasporic Women’s Novels (2014) and is co-editor of Disturbing Bodies (2008), an essay collection on artistic and literary representations of “deviant” bodies. She has published on South Asian and African diasporic and mixed race literatures, queer and critical race approaches to Tolkien’s works, literary representations of transracial adoption and transnational surrogacy in postcolonial women’s writing. She is a guest editor of a special issue on ‘Shame in Anglophone Literatures’ for the European Journal of English Studies. She is currently working on her second book on cultural representations of biological twinship in Anglophone literatures. Vogt-William is the Director of the Gender and Diversity Office with the Africa Multiple Cluster (funded by the German Research Council) at the University of Bayreuth.
https://www.africamultiple.uni-bayreuth.de/en/1_6-Gender-and-Diversity-Office/team/Christine-Vogt-William/index.php
Dr. Takuo Iwata (he/him)
Laughter as a Political Communication Intermediary in Africa: Boundary between Laughing and Being Laughed at
This presentation is intended to reflect on laughter as a political communication intermediary in (French-speaking) African countries. Laughter (or humor) can bring about a different way of thinking about political power among people. This presentation examines how political satire is produced in (non-professional) people’s daily lives and in professional comedy activities by tying laughter to politically stimulated motives that mirror the political situation and target African heads of state.
Takuo Iwata, Ph.D. (political science), Professor, Ritsumeikan University (Japan), teaches politics and international relations in Africa and Asia–Africa relations. He has published books and articles, such as Power and Politics in Africa: A Boundary Generator (Vernon Press, 2024) and New Asian Approaches to Africa: Rivalries and Collaborations (edited by Iwata, T., Vernon Press, 2020).
This presentation is intended to reflect on laughter as a political communication intermediary in (French-speaking) African countries. Laughter (or humor) can bring about a different way of thinking about political power among people. This presentation examines how political satire is produced in (non-professional) people’s daily lives and in professional comedy activities by tying laughter to politically stimulated motives that mirror the political situation and target African heads of state.
Takuo Iwata, Ph.D. (political science), Professor, Ritsumeikan University (Japan), teaches politics and international relations in Africa and Asia–Africa relations. He has published books and articles, such as Power and Politics in Africa: A Boundary Generator (Vernon Press, 2024) and New Asian Approaches to Africa: Rivalries and Collaborations (edited by Iwata, T., Vernon Press, 2020).
Georges Pfruender (he/him)
(Un)Keynote: The trickster
The trickster in their many appearances: a figure of diversion, subversion, shaking the center in hope of tremors …or - at least - … of harvesting stories to laugh the centre away for moments.
Thanks to the interventions of three artists - Donna Kukama and Yohann Queland de Saint-Pern and Tandile Mbatsha - Georges Pfruender will set the stage for queries and pointless wondering about the aesthetics the trickster engages whilst operating, exploring the possible consequences of these actions.
Be funny they say and hey, you are so funny, with that fluffy bit of hair left on your egg white head.
Together with colleagues from Swiss Universities, Georges Pfruender has been collaborating with Melissa Steyn and her team of the Centre of Diversity Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in the conception and realisation of projects related to Critical Diversity Literacy situated in Switzerland. He believes that arts (in specific moments and under specific circumstances) can be a powerful catalyst for addressing topics of social justice.
In co-creation with Donna Kukama https://donnakukama.com
Tandile Mbatsha https://www.waterfront.co.za/tandile-mbatsha-2/ &
Yohann Quëland de Saint-Pern https://reseau-dda.org/media/pdf/reunion/yohann_queland-de-saint_pern.pdf
The trickster in their many appearances: a figure of diversion, subversion, shaking the center in hope of tremors …or - at least - … of harvesting stories to laugh the centre away for moments.
Thanks to the interventions of three artists - Donna Kukama and Yohann Queland de Saint-Pern and Tandile Mbatsha - Georges Pfruender will set the stage for queries and pointless wondering about the aesthetics the trickster engages whilst operating, exploring the possible consequences of these actions.
Be funny they say and hey, you are so funny, with that fluffy bit of hair left on your egg white head.
Together with colleagues from Swiss Universities, Georges Pfruender has been collaborating with Melissa Steyn and her team of the Centre of Diversity Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in the conception and realisation of projects related to Critical Diversity Literacy situated in Switzerland. He believes that arts (in specific moments and under specific circumstances) can be a powerful catalyst for addressing topics of social justice.
In co-creation with Donna Kukama https://donnakukama.com
Tandile Mbatsha https://www.waterfront.co.za/tandile-mbatsha-2/ &
Yohann Quëland de Saint-Pern https://reseau-dda.org/media/pdf/reunion/yohann_queland-de-saint_pern.pdf
Mostafa Abedinifard (he/him/his)
The Pitfalls and Promises of Humor in Advancing Social Justice
Lecture introduction: This talk explores the complex role of humor in advancing social justice, focusing on its ability to both challenge and reinforce social norms. Drawing on scholarship on the subject and examples from satire, stand-up comedy, and fringe humor, it examines the potential of humor to inspire meaningful change, while also addressing its possible limitations and risks.
- Introduction to myself: Dr. Mostafa Abedinifard is an Assistant Professor of Modern Persian Literature and Culture at the University of British Columbia. His research focuses on critical masculinities, humor, and Iranian literature, with multiple publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Lecture introduction: This talk explores the complex role of humor in advancing social justice, focusing on its ability to both challenge and reinforce social norms. Drawing on scholarship on the subject and examples from satire, stand-up comedy, and fringe humor, it examines the potential of humor to inspire meaningful change, while also addressing its possible limitations and risks.
- Introduction to myself: Dr. Mostafa Abedinifard is an Assistant Professor of Modern Persian Literature and Culture at the University of British Columbia. His research focuses on critical masculinities, humor, and Iranian literature, with multiple publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Prof. Shepherd Mpofu(He/Him)
The power in precarity and the fragility of power: Taking humour seriously in the Global South
In this address I look at the ordinary marginalised citizens of the Global South as having a precarious existence. An existence that is induced by the losses of what they thought they had gained at Independence. In their precarious disenfranchised positions they use humour to make sense of the world. When the powerful elite are confronted with the humour of the precariat, they get insights into what the citizens think of them. In the process the fragility of their power is laid bare. This is visible for all to see through power’s overreaction to the humour and the violence they mete out to counter subversiveness of humour. Further I reflect on imbongi, the kings praise singer, who spoke truth to power, the king, saying the unsayables and got away with his life. Power in its colonial nature resists scrutiny, claims purity, performs infallibility and these deconstructions by the precariat exposes it to the blind sides it does not want to confront.
Shepherd Mpofu is Associate Professor of Media and Communication at the University of South Africa. His body of work covers social media and politics; social media and identity; social media and protests; internet shutdowns, social media and politics and dis/misinformation. He is editor of The Politics of Laughter in the Social Media Age: Perspectives from The Global South (Palgrave Macmillan 2021) and Digital Humour in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Perspectives from the Global South (Palgrave Macmillan 2021).He is the co-editor of New Journalism Ecologies in East and Southern Africa: Innovations, Participatory and Newsmaking Cultures (Palgrave 2023); Decolonising Media and Communication Studies Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (Routledge 2024) and Mediating Xenophobia in Africa (Palgrave 2020).
In this address I look at the ordinary marginalised citizens of the Global South as having a precarious existence. An existence that is induced by the losses of what they thought they had gained at Independence. In their precarious disenfranchised positions they use humour to make sense of the world. When the powerful elite are confronted with the humour of the precariat, they get insights into what the citizens think of them. In the process the fragility of their power is laid bare. This is visible for all to see through power’s overreaction to the humour and the violence they mete out to counter subversiveness of humour. Further I reflect on imbongi, the kings praise singer, who spoke truth to power, the king, saying the unsayables and got away with his life. Power in its colonial nature resists scrutiny, claims purity, performs infallibility and these deconstructions by the precariat exposes it to the blind sides it does not want to confront.
Shepherd Mpofu is Associate Professor of Media and Communication at the University of South Africa. His body of work covers social media and politics; social media and identity; social media and protests; internet shutdowns, social media and politics and dis/misinformation. He is editor of The Politics of Laughter in the Social Media Age: Perspectives from The Global South (Palgrave Macmillan 2021) and Digital Humour in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Perspectives from the Global South (Palgrave Macmillan 2021).He is the co-editor of New Journalism Ecologies in East and Southern Africa: Innovations, Participatory and Newsmaking Cultures (Palgrave 2023); Decolonising Media and Communication Studies Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (Routledge 2024) and Mediating Xenophobia in Africa (Palgrave 2020).
Robin K. Crigler (he / him)
No Chill in Mzansi:
Humour, Social Justice, and the (South) African Past
Is writing the history of humor a futile task? Given how difficult it is to “dissect the frogs” of humor in the present, it might seem that way. Yet laughter remains one of the most basic—and meaningful—of all human activities. In this keynote lecture, Dr. Crigler will draw on his experiences grappling with South African humor traditions through a historical lens, revealing the deep and often contradictory links between laughter and social justice. Ultimately, he argues, the historical investigation of humor from Herman Charles Bosman to COVID-19-era “family meeting” memes reveals a largely un-interrogated terrain of rupture and continuity that influences South Africa’s collective psyche to this day.
Presenter Biography:
Dr. Crigler is a Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Valparaiso University in Indiana. His research focuses mainly on interrogating the history of humor and satire in Southern Africa, and is currently exploring ways to foster further collaboration between academics and stand-up comedians in building social cohesion and amplifying unique and previously unheard perspectives on the African past.
His first book project, Inevitable Satirists: A History of South African Humor and Satire, 1905-1965, traces the ways conflicts over humor and joking reflects broader struggles for racial and cultural inclusion against the backdrop of a consolidating segregationist regime. As a visiting research fellow at the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Studies from 2022 to 2024, he has also begun working on a biography of the apartheid-era journalist and satirist Casey Motsisi, and has written extensively for both scholarly and non-scholarly publications on African stand-up comedy and online humor up to the present day. His work has appeared in Daily Maverick and LitNet, as well as the journals African Studies, the African Studies Review, English in Africa, the South African Theatre Journal, and African Arts.
Humour, Social Justice, and the (South) African Past
Is writing the history of humor a futile task? Given how difficult it is to “dissect the frogs” of humor in the present, it might seem that way. Yet laughter remains one of the most basic—and meaningful—of all human activities. In this keynote lecture, Dr. Crigler will draw on his experiences grappling with South African humor traditions through a historical lens, revealing the deep and often contradictory links between laughter and social justice. Ultimately, he argues, the historical investigation of humor from Herman Charles Bosman to COVID-19-era “family meeting” memes reveals a largely un-interrogated terrain of rupture and continuity that influences South Africa’s collective psyche to this day.
Presenter Biography:
Dr. Crigler is a Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Valparaiso University in Indiana. His research focuses mainly on interrogating the history of humor and satire in Southern Africa, and is currently exploring ways to foster further collaboration between academics and stand-up comedians in building social cohesion and amplifying unique and previously unheard perspectives on the African past.
His first book project, Inevitable Satirists: A History of South African Humor and Satire, 1905-1965, traces the ways conflicts over humor and joking reflects broader struggles for racial and cultural inclusion against the backdrop of a consolidating segregationist regime. As a visiting research fellow at the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Studies from 2022 to 2024, he has also begun working on a biography of the apartheid-era journalist and satirist Casey Motsisi, and has written extensively for both scholarly and non-scholarly publications on African stand-up comedy and online humor up to the present day. His work has appeared in Daily Maverick and LitNet, as well as the journals African Studies, the African Studies Review, English in Africa, the South African Theatre Journal, and African Arts.