Professorial Academic Identity Defined through Humor

Abstract Research on humor and teaching often focuses on the students. Scholarship is rightly concerned with how students react to teachers who use humor in the classroom, the different kinds of humor teachers use, and whether humor helps student learning outcomes and emotional stability. It is rare for research projects to consider how using humor in higher education can give the teacher a beneficial, positive, or refreshed attitude toward their own identity as a teacher or professor or scholar. The self-identity of professors and teachers is an important consideration in times of administrative challenges. This paper will address how we can better understand humor by and for teachers, with special attention to philosophy teachers.