Anonymous comedian Swinerry will speak at University of Michigan’s symposium

An anonymous comedian named Swineryy will speak at the University of Michigan’s symposium titled “Social Media Influencers and the New Political Economy in South Asia and Africa.”

At the conference, which will take place on April 7-8 and will be live-streamed, the comedian will discuss “risks involved in comedy” among other topics.Among the participants will be sociologist Nida Kirmani, actor Swara Bhasker, and human rights lawyer Aminu Mahmud from Nigeria.

As the conference’s curtain-raiser, Swineryy shared a story as her pig avatar, “I’m a comedian from Pakistan and I’m also a pig. An anonymous pig in a Muslim majority country. I’m going to be speaking about the different risks involved in being a comedian and I’m going to try and explore what it means to be funny.”

She further elaborated on her Instagram stories that the preamble to her talk is a “prediction”, explaining that she hasn’t “written” anything down and that she feels like she’s going to “give an exam”. Her talk is titled “At the Risk of Sounding Funny.”

Nida, who will also be presenting at the conference, shared in the video, “I am looking forward to speaking with you about social media and the campaigns against the practice of enforced disappearances in Pakistan.”

Swara explained how her talk will revolve around the topic of how “social media made and unmade” her, as well as “the changing contours of celebrity identity and activism in new India.”