Biography:
Tony Haouam is a joint PhD candidate at the Institute of French Studies and in the Department of French Literature, Thought and Culture. His research focuses on the intersection of race and humor in contemporary France. His dissertation, “Laughing at Color Blindness: Race in the French Comedy Scene,” examines comedians’ aesthetic work in order to get at the subtlety of the corporeal, sound, performative, and rhetorical modes through which race and racialization operate in ‘colorblind’ France. He recently published an article, “Qu’est-ce que l’Africain ? Humour, performance et construction de la race sur la scène du rire française” in L’Esprit Créateur, in which he sheds light upon the centrality of humor in the elaboration, aestheticization, and negotiation of racial constructs.
Education
M.A., M. Phil., French Studies and French Literature, Thought and Culture, NYU B.A., M.A. Sciences de l’information et de la communication, CELSA – Paris Sorbonne B.A. Lettres modernes, Université Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle
Research Interests
20th and 21st-century Francophone literature; stand-up comedy; North and West-African theater; humor studies; reception theory; critical race theory; performance studies; postcolonial and intersectional thought; Blackness and Arabness in visual culture; allegiance and betrayal in autobiographies; comedy films; graphic novels and caricatures.
External Affiliations
Modern Language Association
African Literature Association
International Society for Humor Studies
Réseau Interdisciplinaire de recherche sur l'humour
Fellowships and Honors
ENS — NYU Exchange Program 2019 — 2020
Michel Beaujour Fellowship 2019 — 2020
Provost’s Global Research Initiative, Paris 2019
Penfield Fellowship 2019
Summer Program Resident Fellowship, NYU Paris 2017
Henry M. MacCracken Fellowship, NYU 2016 — 2021
Teaching Fellowship, Bard College 2014 — 2015
Publications
"Qu’est-ce que l’Africain ? Humour, performance et construction de la race sur la scène du rire française," L'Esprit Créateur 59 (2), 103-119. Johns Hopkins University Press