Past Event! Note: this event has already taken place.
Humor is the Easiest Weapon to Get a License For: Online humor Against Autocracy and War in Russia and Belarus
February 16, 2024 at 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM
| Location: | 3110 Richcraft Hall |
Join us for the upcoming lecture “Humor is the Easiest Weapon to Get a License For: Online Humour Against Autocracy and War in Russia and Belarus” with Dr. Tatsiana Amosava, SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at Carleton University. The lecture is organized by the McMillan Chair in Russian Studies at the Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies.
DATE: Friday, February 16th
TIME: 12:00pm
LOCATION: Richcraft Hall 3110
REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. Please Register using the form below.
About the Event
There are significant links between power and humor, fear and laughter, sorrow and fun. In the time of crisis and war, laughter and humor demonstrate one’s ability to manage and overcome the condition of crisis. This project on humor as a weapon against authoritarian propaganda and war propaganda uses two sets of data: the first set is animation series that explicitly undermine the authoritarian regimes of Putin and Lukashenko and fight against war propaganda. The second set of data is a huge range of videos on YouTube, which allows me to present those using humor to fight against war and autocracy in Russia and Belarus, including professional comedians, humorous public figures and influencers, and humorous journalists. The presentation will further discuss popular genres in the domain of anti-war online humor and touch upon scandals and problems related to humor and humorists in wartime.
About the Speaker
Tatsiana Amosava was born in Minsk (then the USSR, and now the Republic of Belarus). While in Europe, she graduated from the Belarusian State University (sociology), Moscow State University (Master of Politics and International Relations of the Middle East) and University of Southampton (MA in Jewish History and Culture). Amosava taught Hebrew at the Belarusian State University for 8 years, and in 2010 immigrated to Canada (Vancouver). In Vancouver, she worked as an official translator from Hebrew to English. She then moved to Ontario to pursue a Master’s degree in sociology at McMaster. She completed her PhD in sociology at the University of Ottawa in 2021. In 2023, she received a SSHRC postdoctoral grant for the Humor in Politics project, and taught Russian at Carleton.