Meme Theory and the Sociology of Memes
I enjoy talking and writing about memes, their impacts on politics and culture, as well as their social and economic functions.
I’ve gathered some of my works and public appearances from the last year here.
Selected links:
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Visual Essay: Wojak and the Digital Factory
Reflections about my fieldwork and meme methodologies, part of the first volume of CONTENT (published by Bard Meme Lab)
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Chapter: The "Grotesque" in Instagram Memes
Critical Meme Reader: Global Mutations of the Viral Image, 2021
I contributed an essay to this book published by the Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam. It is based on my PhD fieldwork online and in it I apply grotesque realism to a subgenre of Instagram memes. This could be of interest to anyone who is interested in digital culture, online communities, and theorists such as Bakhtin, Kristeva and Freud.
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Podcast appearance: Ep. 41: Idil Galip “Meme Studies Research Network”
Digital Void, 2021
“Founder of the Meme Studies Research Network (MSRN) and doctoral researcher in sociology Idil Galip explores how she started an international and interdisciplinary research network for scholars who study memes to collaborate and organize. How did Turkey’s Gezi Park Protests inspire her memetic research? Further, she explores how memes are generational artifacts, the dangers of assuming people engage with memes in good faith, and what is required for mainstream media to begin to better understand memes.”
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Artist talk: Is the internet a bog?
COVEN BERLIN presents: DANK MEMES 4 DANK TIMES (DM4DT) 2021
“Is the internet a bog? A slow sludge, preserving artefacts and people long gone? What about the remnants of content past, immortalised for all to see in the Wayback Machine? Do they linger in the bog forever, or do they turn into peat, to be reused and recycled into fuel for new content? Can internetpeat be used for good?”
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Interview: How and Why to Start a Meme Studies Research Network: A conversation with Idil Galip
I had a conversation with my friend Chloe Arkenbout from the Institute of Network Cultures about memes and networks.
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Podcast appearance: The Sociology of Internet Memes with Idil Galip
The Sociology Show, 2021
“In this episode, Matthew talks to Idil Galip about Internet memes. Idil explains the etymology of the term, what constitutes a meme and how and why meme creators use them. The discussion goes on to why memes such as the Bernie Sanders mitten meme and the 4 lads meme become a viral phenomenon.”
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Interview (in German): Meme-Forscherin im Interview: „Memes sind eine Art Insiderwitz im Internet“
Redaktionsnetwerk Deutschland (RND), 2021
“Meme-Forscherin Idil Galip von der Universität in Edinburgh erklärt im Interview, welche Rolle sie in sozialen Netzwerken spielen.”
If you don’t speak German you can use the Google Translate function to translate the page into any language on Chrome.