Welcome to the MEM 322: History of Memes since 2012 course website!
Course description: History of memes from 2012 onwards. Recent and current memes. Exploration of effects of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Vine, YouTube, and TikTok. Discussion of the impact that recent memes have had on society.
Prerequisite(s): MEM 321: History of Memes to 2012. Restricted to memeology majors only. Recommended next classes on the memeology track: MEM 331: Meme Economics, MEM 332: Meme Epidemiology, MEM 333: Meme Evolution, MEM 334: Meme Psychology.
Content notice: This course contains content that may be considered offensive, disturbing, or otherwise unpleasant due to the nature of memes. By registering for this course and remaining in it, you agree that you are prepared to face whatever content this course presents.
Required materials:
About this course's lectures: The Department of Memeology follows a uniform policy for all in-person courses. All lectures are recorded and uploaded onto Canvas by the end of the day of lecture. It is your responsibility to watch them as needed.
About this course's projects: Projects will be assigned on the very first day of class on Canvas and are due on Canvas as specified by your professor. You may conference with your instructor about the progress of your project, either via email or during their office hours. Your instructor will provide earnest feedback about your project so you can succeed. (This is a departmental policy and may be appealed to the department chair, Leroy Jenkins, if you believe your instructor has violated this policy.)
WARNING: MEM 321 and 322 are NOT easy classes by any means. Many memeology majors report that MEM 321 and 322 were their most difficult classes throughout their undergraduate career. While the Department is committed to assisting as many students to do well in the class as possible, it cannot sacrifice the level of education that is demanded by these rigorous courses. As a result, we warn any non-majors who are not obligated to take it to take MEM 320 (Survey of the History of Memes) unless they have a very good reason they would like to take 321 and 322 instead.
Grading policy: Grades are calculated based on the following factors:
The total pts you will be able to earn in this class is 1100 pts.
The grade cutoffs will not change under any circumstance. There are no curves or extra credit opportunities in this class. These are departmental policies.
This class uses the plus minus system for assigning letter grades. All points given are whole numbers, so there is no rounding or "bumping". As such, below are the cutoffs needed to earn a certain grade:
A note about plagiarism in this class: English teachers use Turnitin, but we here at the Department of Memeology use Google, and it's very easy to find plagiarized memes using Google. So just don't plagiarize.
Historical Meme Presentation: Throughout the semester, students will be given time during a class to present for 10 minutes maximum about a certain historical meme. These are group projects and presentations. More information will be disseminated via Canvas.
Examination information: Both History of Memes classes provide an extremely rigorous historical basis for memes critical to your success in future classes. As a result, routine in-person examinations and a comprehensive final exam are required for both classes.
Each midterm exam is comprised of 40 multiple choice questions, 5 points per question, making the exams out of 200 points each. Midterm exams are held during normally-scheduled classes and are proctored over Zoom. You will have 1 hour 30 minutes to complete a midterm exam.
The final exam will be cumulative and is comprised of 60 multiple choice questions, 5 points per question, making the final exam out of 300 points.
There are no dropped midterm exams. The lowest midterm score will be replaced by the final exam score multiplied by 2/3, only if it benefits the student's grade. The second or third missed midterm will simply be recorded as a score of 0.
Make-up final exams will be held subject to the Department of Memeology uniform absence policy.
Ancillary information:
Semester: Fall 2020
Meeting times and location: MW 11am - 12:30pm, Zoom
Final exam time and location: Thursday, December 10, 2pm - 5pm, Zoom
Instructor: Jeffrey Wang, PhMeme, Adjunct Lecturer
Instructor's preferred pronouns: he, him, his
Instructor email address: firstname lastname at utexas dot edu
Office location: WAG -103 (note the negative sign)
Office hours:
Syllabus: You're looking at it.
This class uses Canvas. Please log in to UT Austin's Canvas for more information on this course.
Special notice: Due to COVID-19, the Fall 2020 semester has been abbreviated and classes now end before Thanksgiving.
Schedule:
| Week(s) of | Unit | Homework | Exams | Other info |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| W 8/26 | Unit 1: Overarching themes of recent memes and review of MEM 321 |
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| M 8/31 | Unit 2: 2012 | |||
| T 9/8 | Unit 3: 2013 | |||
| M 9/14 | Unit 4: 2014 | Exam 1 on W 9/16 | ||
| M 9/21 | Unit 4: 2014 (cont.) Unit 5: 2015 |
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| M 9/28 | Unit 5: 2015 (cont.) Unit 6: 2016 |
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| M 10/5 | Unit 6: 2016 (cont.) | |||
| M 10/12 | Unit 7: 2017 | |||
| M 10/19 | Unit 7: 2017 (cont.) | Exam 2 on W 10/21 | ||
| M 10/26 | NO CLASS - HAPPY HALLOWEEN | |||
| M 11/2 | Unit 8: 2018 | |||
| M 11/9 | Unit 8: 2018 (cont.) | |||
| M 11/16 | Unit 9: 2019 and recent memes | |||
| M 11/23 | Unit 9: 2019 and recent memes (cont.) | No class on W 11/25 - Happy Thanksgiving | ||
| M 11/30 | Exam 3 on M 11/30 | |||
| M 12/7 | Review (on your own) | |||
| R 12/10 | Final Exam | |||
Message from the instructor about updates to the course: Welcome, students! Hope everyone had a great summer break, despite the challenges of our new modality of living. As I'm sure you all know, this course keeps on the cutting edge of memeology history. This year's course has been accordingly updated with the recent developments of 2020, and will focus extensively on TikTok memes in Unit 9. We will also be focusing on the divergence of meme culture between the two ByteDance apps TikTok and its Chinese domestic equivalent Douyin. I am very excited to present this new unit to you all. As you know, we have had to make some changes this this course. Condensing our curriculum down to cover an additional year of material, while also observing our university's abbreviated semester schedule, has been quite difficult but achieved. To do so, I have removed entire weeks dedicated to a midterm exam where the following Wednesday was a "break day" or a catchup day to be used in case I was behind on material. We no longer have the luxury of time, so midterm exams have been moved to Wednesdays and we will need to spend that prior Monday learning new material. I understand this will be a difficult change for you all, considering you all have been used to the Monday exam schedule from MEM 321. However, given the current situation, this change has been solidified. Although this is a recent development, I am sure you all will be able to meet the challenge of adopting to our new way of things. While I will not be able to see any of you in person in the fall, I am excited to reconnect with you all over Zoom. Fiat lux. --JW
© 2018-2020 The University of Texas at Austin Department of Memeology. "What starts here changes the world."
Disclaimer: The above website is a parody. But wouldn't it be nice if it were real? :)