Ana Pedrazzini
  |
Ana Pedrazzini is a researcher in Communication and Semiotic studies at the Instituto Patagónico de Estudios en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (IPEHCS) CONICET – National University of Comahue in Argentina. She obtained her PhD in Communication Sciences at CELSA – Paris-Sorbonne University and in Social Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires. She conducts interdisciplinary research on humour, cartoons, satirical press and multimodality. One of her current studies delves into the limits of humour and satire and focuses on cartoonists’ perspectives on freedom of expression, their work, the cartoon genre, and the current situation of cartoons and cartoonists around the world. Another line of research highlights the pedagogical value of humour and cartoons by studying how creating cartoons can favour children’s and adolescents’ multiliteracy, critical thinking, civic engagement and empathic concern.
Ana Pedrazzinijoins the Paris IAS in September-October 2025 for a group research stay as part of the CAT collaborative program, in collaboration with the researchers Vicky Breemen, Andrew Bricker, Alberto Godioli and Tjeerd Royaards.
Research topics
Multimodal communication; multiliteracies; cartoons as a discursive genre; cartoonists' perspectives on the cartoon genre, their work and and free speech.
Cartoons in Court: Towards a Forensic Analysis of Visual Humor
Due to its inherent ambiguity and elusiveness, humor can make it particularly difficult to draw a line between lawful and unlawful expression. This is particularly evident in the case of cartoons or other comparable forms of predominantly visual humor (such as memes), whose high degree of implicitness and condensation generates specific interpretive challenges. How can judges deal with the ambiguity of visual humor, i.e. the fact that the same cartoon or meme can be interpreted in different ways by different people? And to what extent can the author/cartoonist be considered responsible for different (reasonable) interpretations?
This collaborative project, ‘Cartoons in Court,’ aims to answer these questions by working organically on the following interconnected areas: interdisciplinary analysis of court decisions concerning cartoons and other forms of visual humour (particularly in cases of defamation or incitement to hatred); the study, using a corpus, of different forms of ambiguity in cartoons; a historical perspective on controversies related to cartoons; interviews with cartoonists and legal professionals, while working closely with stakeholders such as Cartoonists Rights, Cartooning for Peace and other organisations defending freedom of expression.
Key publications
Ana Pedrazzini. "The challenge of dissecting the frog: Cartoonists analyze their creative process". Semiotica: Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies / Révue de l’Association Internationale de Sémiotique, 261, 117-141, 2024.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2023-0078
Ana Pedrazzini, Constanza Zinkgräf, Lucia Bugallo, Paola D’Adamo, Mariana Lozada. "Children’s humor, empathic concern and perspective-taking. Cartooning about social inequalities". Children & Society, 38(2), 636-657, 2023.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12744
Ana Pedrazzini, Tjeerd Royaards. "Cartoons on trial: a case study integrating discursive, legal and empirical perspectives". HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research, 35(3), 361–385, 2022.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2022-0016
|
|
|
|
|
|