Laughing Back: A Phenomenological Study of Disability Humor Using Culturally Responsive Methodologies

<p>Historically, disabled people have not been viewed as innovators of humor because disability is associated with tragedy. My dissertation challenged the association of disability with tragedy by positioning disabled comedians as educators and ambassadors of disability rights. I reviewed the literature on disability and humor as well as disability oppression, which disability humor challenges. I used phenomenology as well as culturally responsive methodologies to examine what disabled comedians are achieving with their humor and what nondisabled audience members learned from attending their performances. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of learning was used to examine learning outcomes for audience members. I examined historical and contemporary Black humor, which is much older than disability humor in order to investigate what may be the future of disability humor.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Year

2019

Author dc:creator

• Abujbarah, Kinda

Contributors dc:contributor

• Scot Daforth
• Kris DePedro
• William Simmons

• disabled comedians
• humor
• phenomenology
• sociocultural theory
• Disability and Equity in Education
• Other Education

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/education_dissertations/9

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.chapman.edu:education_dissertations-1008