Laughing into academia: the role of humor in academic socialization

This qualitative study explores an underrepresented area in academic (discourse) socialization research: The use of humor in academic development. More specifically, it demonstrates how humor can be used as a pragmatic tool in regulating and reproducing academic communities. Using language socialization theory and communities of practice as its conceptual lenses, the present study analyzes a case study of an international engineering research team conducting collaborative research and holding weekly research meetings. The data consisted of video recordings of weekly team meetings, interviews with the research team professor and students, and extensive field notes. The findings indicated that through the use of teasing, self-deprecation, and disparagement, the research team socialized students into professional identity and collegiality. Humor provided space for shifting expert–novice roles and fostered bonding around group identity. This study contributes to existing research by reflecting the situated nature of academic discourse socialization within research teams that operate at the intersection of professional and academic discourse.