The Teaching Commons
Mission Statement
To cultivate a supportive community for humor educators that shares teaching resources and pedagogical ideas to teach critical humor in college classrooms.
The CHSA Teaching Commons supports humor educators and scholars working across countries and disciplines, from early-career instructors to senior faculty. The Commons provides a shared space for exchanging teaching materials, discussing pedagogical challenges, and developing effective approaches to teaching about humor.
This work is grounded in an understanding of humor as a force capable of reinforcing or challenging structures of power, and the Commons supports teaching that engages critically with that relationship. The Commons is also committed to accessible and inclusive teaching practices that respond to diverse learning needs and disciplinary backgrounds. Through these efforts, the Commons strengthens teaching practice across the field and prepares students to think critically about humor’s role in social and cultural life.
Click here to request access to CHSA Teaching Commons Materials
Keya Saxena, Co-chair, The Teaching Commons
Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at the University of South Alabama
Keya’s teaching and scholarship are grounded in critical-cultural and qualitative approaches to communication, with a particular interest in how people use media for civic engagement and social justice. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in politics, social movements, the internet, communication research, and rhetorical criticism.
Keya’s research centers on humor as a tool to critically interrogate power and status quo. Her work examines political comedy, digital cultures, and the ways humor can create spaces for critique and activism. Her earlier research explored stand-up comedy as a form of socio-political activism in India, examining how comedians and their audiences engage in dissent and negotiate censorship amidst the rhetoric of Hindu nationalism. More broadly, she is interested in humor as a way of speaking back to dominant narratives and creating possibilities for alternative forms of public discourse.
As a co-chair of the Teaching Commons, Keya is interested in building a collaborative space where educators can share pedagogical practices and new approaches of teaching humor and thinking together about what humor makes possible in the classroom. Her work is grounded in a commitment to classrooms as spaces of intellectual curiosity, joy, critical reflection, and community.
Jay Friesen, Co-chair, The Teaching Commons
Assistant Lecturer and Academic Program Officer, University of Alberta
Jay’s teaching brings together people whose paths might not otherwise cross. At the University of Alberta, he taught Community Service-Learning, connecting students with nonprofit organizations, and Walls to Bridges, where incarcerated and university students learn side by side. He supports graduate students in developing their teaching practices through the Graduate Teaching and Learning program.
His research explores how people use humour to build community and resist oppression or other people’s definitions of who they should be. He is currently interested in how cringe comedy opens possibilities for teaching and learning. Classrooms already produce plenty of awkwardness and he is curious about what we can learn from it. As co-chair of the Teaching Commons, he hopes to create space for educators to share approaches, compare experiences, and think together about what happens when humour enters the classroom.