memes - platforms - algorithms - culture -
memes - platforms - algorithms - culture -
Hello 👋
My name is Idil Galip
I work as a lecturer in new media and digital culture at the University of Amsterdam. I study internet memes and run the Meme Studies Research Network.
My research is largely qualitative and context-driven, but I am also interested in employing digital methods alongside ethnographic practices to understand how online communities share, create and consume culture, politics and sociality.
I have been published in academic journals, books, magazines (and various other print + digital ephemera) and hold a PhD in sociology from the University of Edinburgh.
Beyond my academic role, I am also active in various creative scenes in Europe:
giving talks and lectures (Basel, Oslo, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, online),
collaborating with museums, galleries, artists and thinkers (Dreaming Beyond AI, virtualgoodsdealer, COVEN Berlin, Weserhalle, freeze_magazine, Kunsthaus Graz, House of Electronic Arts, Institute of Network Cultures, Kunstforum, The Photographers’ Gallery)
editing books and blogs (Critical Meme Reader III, MSRN Blog),
and organising workshops, seminars, masterclasses and panels (recent example).
I am open to collaborations and projects!
feel free to drop me a line at: idilgalip.writing@gmail.com
you can also contact me through my institutional email at i.galip@uva.nl.
Education
BA in Political Science, Bilkent University (2016).
MSc in Political Sociology, London School of Economics (2017).
PhD in Sociology, University of Edinburgh (2023).
Work
Lecturer, Department of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam (ongoing).
Tutor and Researcher, Department of Sociology, University of Edinburgh (2019-2023).
University of Edinburgh
PhD Researcher
Research Assistant
Tutor
2018 – 2023
PhD Thesis — “Creative Digital Labour of Meme Making”
My doctoral project is an ethnography of a niche meme community on Instagram. It explores the creative and digital labour that goes into the creation, dissemination and monetisation of internet memes.
Current Research Project — “Development of moderator AI for harm reduction – co-design and implications”
This is an interdisciplinary project which evaluates the effect of automoderation policies and practices on users of online drugs forums. The project brings together digital ethnography, co-design with online communities and machine learning.
Past Research Project — “Understanding the health impacts of social responses to Covid-19 on people who use drugs in Scotland”
This was an interdisciplinary research project that examined the longer-term health impacts of the social response to COVID-19 on people who use drugs through qualitative interviews and digital ethnography. The project was funded by Chief Scientist Office Scotland.
Past Research Project — “COVID Arcadia: Socio-material adaptations and the role of ‘digital affective’ premises in a pandemic city”
This study used digital ethnography to trace the responses of independent service retailers in Edinburgh to the COVID-19 pandemic. Its main goal was to understand the relationship between what hospitality services have done to ‘pivot’ and broader patterns of economic survival and recovery.
London School of Economics
Master of Science in Political Sociology
2016-2017
I started exploring the role of memes in political participation during my time at LSE. My thesis ‘Dangerous Words: Online Censorship and Citizenship in Turkey’ examined the use of memes as ‘tactical’ political dissent.
Bilkent University
Bachelor of Arts in Political Science
Certificate in Philosophy
2012-2016
My undergraduate studies were largely focused on social theory, political theory and political philosophy. I started working on a collaborative research project about last.fm users and recommendation algorithms titled ‘Recommendation Systems as Technologies of the Self: Algorithmic Control and the Formation of Music Taste’ which was later published in Theory, Culture & Society.
Selected links:
Meme Studies Research Network
Throughout my studies I rarely came in contact with other meme researchers in academic settings, and couldn’t find a meme researchers’ network to join. The researchers I did meet, all shared the problem of feeling disconnected from other scholars who study memes. We wanted to discuss our research in depth and learn from each others’ methods and perspectives but couldn’t find the ideal setting for it.
With these issues in mind, I posted a meme studies reading list on Twitter in November 2020 and in it I appealed to other meme researchers to co-edit it with me. After receiving a very encouraging and positive response I decided to set up a network for all the people who expressed an interest in running the list. This idea then evolved into the Meme Studies Research Network, an interdisciplinary network interested in expanding and developing the meme studies canon. We recently started our blog and newsletter which are curated by our members and explore the possibility of meme studies as a field.
Our page on UoE CDCS Digital Social Science Cluster
The Digital Social Science research cluster at the Centre for Data, Culture & Society
The Digital Social Science research cluster at the University of Edinburgh Centre for Data Culture & Society is showcasing my work alongside other digital social science research. I discuss my core methods, tools and methodological challenges that I have come across while doing research for my doctoral project.
You can read about it here.
