Lecture jokes: Mocking and reproducing celebrated subject positions in physics

Book chapter, 2020

In this chapter, the authors explore the discursive construction of physics culture through lecture jokes in university quantum mechanics classes. Drawing on ethnographic data this research explores questions about how physics lecture jokes may structure possibilities for students to identify with physics and as physicists. The authors identify the ways that celebrated subject positions are constructed through jokes, and discuss the ways that jokes may do the discursive work of positioning students inside or outside of physics.