Jana Kopelent Rehak, is cultural anthropologist, researcher and faculty at the University of Maryland. She is author of a book Recovering Face: Czech Political Prisoners, addressing issues of social suffering, violence, national identity, communication, reconciliation and memory in the context of post-socialist Central Eastern Europe. Her most recent research embraces a range of issues such as work and aging in coastal environments and urban social inequality in Baltimore, USA. Her most recent book Politics of Joking, is an attempt to make an original contribution to an anthropological study of humor and joking practice in political life.