Call For Abstracts: Human Studies and Free Speech Adjudication: From Theory To Practice

From Laura Little, Professor of Law, Temple University School of Law:

The International Society for Humor Studies is soliciting abstracts for its upcoming conference (36th ISHS conference) in Niterói, Brazil, 6-10 July 2026. The Special Interest Group focusing on Humor, Free Speech, and the Law is convening a panel titled Humor Studies and Free Speech Adjudication: From Theory to Practice. We welcome proposals for 20-minute papers addressing one or more of the following questions: • How can insights from humor research help judges, lawyers, or social media regulators develop a fair and nuanced approach to judicial decisions regarding humorous expression? • How can these insights be translated into actionable guidelines for judicial training, attorney counseling, advocacy or online content moderation? And how can this ‘translation’ exercise, in turn, open up new avenues for humor research? • What are the challenges and opportunities offered, in this respect, by a closer dialogue between different branches of humor scholarship (interdisciplinarity), as well as between academic research and everyday judicial practice or content moderation (transdisciplinarity)? Should you be interested in participating, please send an abstract (max. 300 words) and a short biographical note to both Dr Alberto Godioli (a.godioli@rug.nl) AND Prof. Laura E. Little (laura.little@temple.edu) by February 10th, 2026. For more information on the Special Interest Group’s activities, please visit the website of ForHum: Forum for Humor and the Law.