Reinhold Aman Memorial Panel on Abusive and Offensive Humor

Panel for the ISHS Conference 2022 Bertinoro, Italy 

Conveners: Kiki Hempelmann (Texas A&M University-Commerce) Tristan Miller (Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence) Andrew R. Olah (Western Carolina University)

Dr. Reinhold Aman, the celebrated and controversial expert on vulgar and offensive language, died on March 2, 2019 at the age of 82.  An outcast from established academia, Aman founded Maledicta: The International Research Center for the Study of Verbal Aggression, and served as the full-time editor of its eponymous journal.  Published in a time before there were any dedicated humor studies journals, Maledicta ended up serving as a venue for the dissemination of some notable humor research, including works by Don Nilsen, Victor Raskin, and Leonard Feinberg.

Aman's notability in both lay and scholarly circles led to his being invited to deliver the keynote address at the first conference of the World Humor and Irony Memborship (WHIM) in 1982. Co-organizers Don and Alleen Nilsen credit Aman's attendance at WHIM with "giving us the news coverage we needed in order to later become the International Society for Humor Studies".

The present panel solicits abstract submissions on any and all aspects of aggressive, abusive, and obscene language as it relates to humor.

This includes, but is not limited to, aggression-based theories of verbal humor; ribald, bawdy, lewd, "tasteless", or obscene humor; racist, sexist, or otherwise offensive jokes; and witty insults and put-downs.  Contributors are encouraged to make specific reference to works written by Aman or published in Maledicta.  Authors are also encouraged to frame their work in a manner consistent with Aman's scholarly but anti-"cacademic" vision for Maledicta:  contributions should aim to be at once erudite and entertaining; sagacious but not self-absorbed.

Abstracts of up to 250 words should be submitted on the ISHS 2022 website at <Submissions 2022> by May 1, 2022.

 Authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to give an online or in-person presentation (tentatively 30 minutes long: a 20-minute talk + 10 minutes for questions) at the conference.