Meme-ing Higher Ed: Social Media and Community-Building in the Neoliberal Academy

• In Event: Graduate Student Experiences, Socialization, and Community

Abstract

Using a multimodal critical discourse analysis, this project explores the use of memes in graduate student and academic Facebook communities to understand how social media contributes to the socialization of early career scholars within the context of a modern neoliberal academy. Findings indicate that early career scholars utilize memes as a space for building shared narratives of higher education through gallows humor, commiserating over shared misfortune, truth-telling, and collective uplift. Despite social media’s potential to be a site for activism, the communities explored primarily focused on navigating existing systems rather than transforming them. Discussion explores the implications of social media as a tool for building community and shaping narratives within higher education.

Author

• Amanda M. Carr, University of Missouri
  Presenting Author