This panel will be a roundtable/talk format. Stand-up comedy has been one of the main venues of cultural expression for at least half a century—yet relatively little scholarly work has been undertaken on stand-up and even less work has discussed theoretical and methodological challenges in studying stand-up as a cultural form.

The goal of this panel is to present relatively short (10-12 minute) talks on a single stand-up performer (or comedy troupe) as a methodological and/or theoretical exploration of the challenges, approaches, and rewards of scholarship on stand-up comedy. The goal is to have a range of performers across time, performance style, medium (live performance, recorded or written records, film and television, etc.), and disciplinary approach (ethnography, performance studies, textual analysis, historical analysis, etc.). Part of the presentation should be a sample of performance as an illustration of approach.

Proposals are due to Tracy Wuster at: wustert@gmail.com by January 15, 2010. Please contact Tracy with questions or for clarification.

General Information: The Humor Studies Caucus of the American Studies Association (ASA) seeks proposals for the 2010 ASA meeting, held November 18-21 in San Antonio, Texas. Proposals should explore historical, theoretical, and/or methodological issues in American humor. They should seek to address the 2010 meeting theme, “Crisis, Chains, and Change: American Studies for the 21st Century”

(see http://www.theasa.net/annual_meeting/page/submitting_a_proposal/).