Mapping class group orbits of curves with self-intersections
  We study mapping class group orbits of homotopy and isotopy classes of curves with self-intersections. We exhibit the asymptotics of the number of such orbits of curves with a bounded number of self-intersections, as the complexity of the surface tends to infinity. We also consider the minimal genus of a subsurface that contains the curve. We determine the asymptotic number of orbits of curves with a fixed minimal genus and a bounded self-intersection number, as the complexity of the surface tends to infinity. As a corollary of our methods, we obtain that most curves that are homotopic are also isotopic. Furthermore, using a theorem by Basmajian, we get a bound on the number of mapping class group orbits on a given a hyperbolic surface that can contain short curves. For a fixed length, this bound is polynomial in the signature of the surface. The arguments we use are based on counting embeddings of ribbon graphs. 
Patricia Cahn, Federica Fanoni and Bram Petri
math.GT math.CO math.DG