The University of Chicago is proud to announce The UChicago Conference on Jersey Shore Studies, the first conference to interrogate the landmark MTV reality television show “Jersey Shore.” The conference will take place at the University of Chicago on Friday, October 28th, 2011. Confirmed speakers include Candace Moore (University of Michigan), Alison Hearn (University of Western Ontario), and Brian Moylan (Gawker Media).

David Scott Diffrient and Shelley Bradfield / Colorado State University

contact email:

scott.diffrient@colostate.edu; shelley.bradfield@colostate.edu

My co-editor and I are seeking additional proposals and contributions for a collection of original essays entitled Transnational Laughter: Contemporary Film and TV Comedy across National Borders. We have already accepted several proposals, but are now looking specifically for contributions dealing with the transnational flow of comic forms and humor-based cultural texts within and across African, Middle Eastern, Southeast Asian, South American and Central American contexts.

As the first edited volume of its kind, Transnational Laughter seeks to expand the field of media studies and shed light on overlooked areas of academic interest, taking comedy and its various subgenres (including black comedy, improv, modern slapstick, the romcom, satire, scatological humor, sketch comedy, spoofs, stand-up, and so forth) as vehicles through which to assess the international transit of these specific cultural forms over the past 25-30 years.

Any topic related to the literary depiction of divine speech – from any tradition – in the modern world is welcome: Do the gods still speak? If so, has their speaking-style changed? Has their message changed? Does their speech have the same power as in previous generations? If they no longer speak, how do we even know?