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Last minute opening in the Spaces of Humor session at AAG due to presenter not being able to attend the conference. Please respond ASAP as the deadline is today. Details below: Spaces of Humor - CFP AAG New York, 24-28 Feb, 2012. Session Organizers: Terri Moreau (Royal Holloway, University of London) and Carole Enahoro (University College London) Sponsored by the: Cultural Geography Specialty Group, Communication Geography Specialty Group Session abstract: While social science has engaged with the importance of analyzing discourse and communication, it has typically focused on information, conversation exchange and, latterly, stories. Recently, geography has come to appreciate the provocative power of humor that in some ways shares similar agency but, it can be argued, is charged with more complex mechanisms and possesses more chaotic dynamics. Humor also serves a number of functions – social cohesion or rupture, the cementing of relationships, dissemination of covert information, persuasion through the distraction of entertainment, and the simultaneous challenge and reinforcement of the status quo, for example. The goal of the session is to bring together geographers who are interested in the exploration of humor in all its forms – laughter, comedy, affect, joking relationships, genres such as satire, irony, parody – in order to explore its impact on real or imagined spaces. The themes, listed in bullet form for brevity but understood more as continua rather than singular phenomena, might include but are not limited to: • The topology, networks or analysis of humor • Subversion, resistance, microspaces of power • Humor as release: apathy, passivity, coping and acceptance • Hegemony, spaces of power • Joking relationships, cultural cohesion • Provocateurs and stereotypes • Probing taboos and unpacking norms • Translation across boundaries • Humor, passage and the built environment • Interactions between landscape and humor Interested participants are invited to send an abstract of maximum 250 words to Terri Moreau ([log in to unmask]) and Carole Enahoro ([log in to unmask]).