AMS 356 Students "Meme" Cultural History
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.
Dunning Savana
Griego Tyhannie
Martin Brian
Nus Bradley
Paulet Clement
Rodriguez Iilana
Sandoval Anthony
Widmann Katrina
LeachLindsay
Dr. Janet Davis Named To Academy of Distinguished Teachers
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Janet Davis, who this week was named to the Academy of Distinguished Teachers at UT Austin. The Academy membership makes up approximately 5% of the tenured teachers at the University, and as a body it "provides leadership in improving the quality and depth of the undergraduate experience." You can read more about this year's class of inductees here, and more about the award in general here. Congratulations again to Dr. Davis!
Dr. Shirley Thompson Named One of the "Texas Ten" By Alcalde
The Alcalde, the University of Texas at Austin's Texas Exes alumni organization's magazine, has named UT AMS Associate Professor and department Associate Chair Dr. Shirley Thompson as part of their 2017 Texas Ten group of distinguished educators at UT. We've included part of their profile of Dr. Thompson below, and you can read the rest here. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Thompson!
Shirley Thompson came to teaching through research. “I’m the kind of person who is a natural researcher,” says the soft-spoken professor. “I had to work on teaching.” Thompson, who describes herself as an introvert, says it was through her students’ questions that she fell in love with standing at the front of the classroom.
“What really drew me into it,” she says, her face lighting up, “was listening to students engage with the material and come to me with a question I’d never thought of before, or a new perspective.”
Now, in addition to her own research interests — currently, she is working on a book titled No More Auction Block for Me: African Americans and the Problem of Property — Thompson brings her natural inquisitiveness to the classroom, where she tries to find fresh ways to talk about historical events that will make them resonate with her students.