
A public event on humor and free speech will take place at Columbia University in New York on 25 October 2024, 2:30pm-5:30pm EDT. It will be hosted by Columbia Global Freedom of Expression, and streamed live on Zoom/YouTube.
The event focuses on the forthcoming toolkit What’s in a Joke? Assessing Humor in Free Speech Jurisprudence and Content Moderation, authored by Alberto Godioli (University of Groningen), Sabine Jacques (University of Liverpool), Ariadna Matamoros Fernández (Queensland University of Technology) and Jennifer Young (University of Groningen) with funding from the Dutch Research Council (Impact Explorer grant). The first half of the event will consist of short presentations by the authors, based on the four main sections of the toolkit: 1) Interpreting humor in context, 2) Authoritarian crackdowns on humor and satire, 3) Humor, online harm and content moderation, and 4) Humor and Intellectual Property law. The presentations will be followed by an open Q&A and a roundtable with four members of the project’s Advisory Board — namely Lady Justice Stella Isibhakhomen Anukam (African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights), JUDr. Barbora Bukovská (ARTICLE 19), Mehdi Benchelah (UNESCO) and Judge Darian Pavli (European Court of Human Rights)
Other confirmed Advisory Board members include Dr Natalie Alkiviadou (Future of Free Speech), Terry Anderson (Cartoonists Rights), Dr Fernando Biolcati (São Paulo School of Judges), Dr Catalina Botero Marino (Meta Oversight Board), Sophie Brondel (Cartooning for Peace), Dr Guilherme Canela De Souza Godoi (UNESCO / Global Media Defence Fund), Dr. João Paulo Capelotti (practicing lawyer, Curitiba, Brazil), Dana Green (Senior Counsel at The New York Times Company), Dr Hawley Johnson (Columbia Global Freedom of Expression), Prof. Laura Little (Temple Law School), Tjeerd Royaards and Emanuele Del Rosso (Cartoon Movement) and Daniel Simons (Senior Legal Counsel at Greenpeace).
Save the date! More details on the program (including registration links) will follow in September, and will be announced with the next ForHum newsletter. Meanwhile, please email info@forhum.org if you have any questions.