Hello all,
I am working on putting together a panel for the 2008 American Studies
Association conference in Albuquerque.  The panel's aim is to discuss the
challenges--positive and negative--of studying and/or teaching humor.  I
envision it as a roundtable, which means informal presentations rather than
formal papers.  I do not plan to have it focus on Twain, although he can be
the example.

Please feel free to forward this to other humor studies people (also feel
free to give me distribution tips, I know I am a bit late to make it into
the AHSA newsletter, but others?).

Here is the CFP I drew up as a start:
Looking for participants in a conference panel or roundtable on humor
studies
for the 2008 ASAconference: "Back Down to the Crossroads: Integrative
American Studies in Theory and Practice",October 16-19, 2008, Albuquerque,
NM

Panel will focus on the challenges and difficulties of studying and/or
teaching humor in American Studies and related disciplines. The focus should
be on methodological questions of specific types or genres of humor (i.e.
television sitcoms, stage, satire, parody, etc.), rather than a focus on
individual humorists or works (which should be limited to examples).

Please contact me with questions. Deadline for completed proposal is January
25th. Please contact me by January 20th.

Thank you,

Tracy Wuster
American Studies, UT Austin