AMS 356 Students "Meme" Cultural History

Teaching Stories

Oct 9

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Today in "Stories from the Classroom," Dr. Alex Beasley shares student-created memes from his AMS 356. Read on to learn more about this awesome assignment!

This semester in Main Currents in American Culture Since 1865, I had students create an original meme that emphasized some theme or concept we’d discussed in class. Students were tasked with taking an existing image that circulates as a meme and changing the text to communicate some broader point about U.S. cultural history between 1865 and 1900.This assignment has a hidden intention: it asks students to engage critically and creatively with the material, with the hope that doing so will make historical material feel more immediate in the present. Moreover, it tasks them with considering how memes communicate as a medium, and to think big about what points they can make about history that resonate in the present.Below are some of my favorites.