Call for Papers

For more than 30 years, the conferences organized by the International Society for Humor Studies have been the primary venue to present scientific research in the field of humor studies. The ISHS welcomes papers from the numerous expertises, such as social sciences, communication and media studies, anthropology, political science, history, psychology, education, linguistics and translation, folklore, computational sciences and engineering, robotics, law, among others.

Individual paper proposals can be made by submitting short abstracts. Submitted proposals will be reviewed by the local organizing committee and by ad hoc experts in the field, and, if approved, will be assembled into panels specifically designed by the organization or will eventually join the panels proposed by other scholars in response to the call for panels.

Each proponent is responsible for gathering all the necessary information for the submission. To submit your individual paper, please click on register now at the bottom of this page, and submit a 250-word short abstract. In case of any doubt, please write to the conference convenors at humorstudies@midia.uff.br

Please submit your proposal by March 27, 2026, using the button below.

Manuscript Format

The proposal must include:

  • Title.

  • A 250-word short abstract.

  • List of respective authors and their mini-bios. All authors must have agreed to submit their abstracts to the panel. Authors must also register beforehand to the conference separately.

Papers with more than one author are allowed, but, if the paper is approved, all of them must have paid the registration fee for the conference.

Mode of Presentation

No remote presentations will be allowed, except for the Pre-Event panels on Global South. If you are a scholar from a Global South institution and wish to present your paper in these panels, please indicate this option during registration

Please note that registration for the Pre-Event with remote participation does not grant access to in-person attendance at the conference, and space for the Pre-Event is limited.

Languages

The title, the abstract and the mini-bios, as well as the presentations themselves, must be preferably in English.

While we strongly encourage all fellow panelists to submit their paper in English, as part of our efforts to include scholars from the Global South, we are also aware that language may pose a significant barrier for some. Considering precedents from panels at previous ISHS conferences, and aiming to encourage the registration of local scholars, the organizing committee will accept up to 10% of the paper submissions to be in Portuguese. These articles, regardless of the branch of knowledge or issue tackled, will be grouped in a limited number of panels.

In case you choose to submit your paper in Portuguese, no other action is required. We will notice that your submission is in Portuguese, and we will set it aside to group it with other submissions in the same language. In case we receive submissions that exceed the limit mentioned above, the scientific committee of the conference may select the best articles and assemble them into a panel.

Pre-Organized Panels

For papers that are part of pre-organized panels, the submission is made directly by the panel proposer. In this case, individual paper proposers should not submit their proposals in duplicate. Authors of short abstracts are also allowed to submit panels and roundtables proposals, if they so wish. However, authors of short abstracts may submit a maximum of two paper proposals, with only one as the main author.