Vienna Visiting Professor, Marwan Kraidy, Speaks on Using Humor to Combat Terrorism
March 21, 2019
Visiting professor, Marwan Kraidy, held a series of public lectures and seminars this month where he shared his latest research on the Islamic State’s use of the spectacle and symbolism of fire in a public lecture, aptly titled “The Torch and the Hearth: Islamic state and the age of pyropolitics."
In his student lecture “Fun versus Fear: Political Humor as Anti-Extremist and Activism” he demonstrated the use of political humor as a weapon against extremists.
“This is clearly demonstrated through how humorists use situation comedy to defang ISIS and its message,” stated Kraidy during his lunch with Webster Vienna students and faculty.
“This was a great opportunity for the... community to share and discuss, in depth, the rapidly changing field of global communication,” shared media and marketing major, Julia Schaubach.
About Professor Kraidy
Kraidy is the Anthony Shadid Chair in Global Media, Politics and Culture and Founding Director of the Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.
He has published more than 130 essays and 13 books, notably Hybridity, or the Cultural Logic of Globalization (Temple UP, 2005), Reality Television and Arab Politics (Cambridge UP, 2010), which won three leading prizes, and The Naked Blogger of Cairo: Creative Insurgency in the Arab World (Harvard UP 2016), which won three major awards.
Webster Vienna had the privilege to host professor Marwan M. Kraidy through funding by the Dr. Elizabeth Chopin Visiting Professorship.