Since the 2000s, the boundaries between online and offline worlds have increasingly become more warped, and the lines that traditionally separated physical and digital realms are blurrier than ever. This accelerating fusion of virtual and physical realms characterises our current mode of existence as human beings. Everyday life is marked by rapidly changing technological conditions, which bring with them exciting and new possibilities as well as imminent ecological threats to our world. How can we make sense of this all?

This summer program is designed to dissect what it means to exist in the digital age in all of its complexity. Through new media analyses of culture, politics and sociality, you will develop a comprehensive view on the digitalisation of existence. You will engage with popular discourse, cutting edge research and dynamic texts to build an up-to-date understanding of the most pertinent issues surrounding new media, technology and everyday life. 

The course offers a blend of lectures, expert guest sessions, workshops and excursions so that the participants can cultivate a grounded and well-rounded understanding of the topics. These topics will be presented in three units over three weeks: culture (1), politics (2), and sociality (3). From internet aesthetics and subcultures, platform power and the future of work, to love on dating apps and sociality in video games, this programme will give you a guide to understanding new media and everyday life. 

Dr İdil Galip is a lecturer in new media and digital culture at the University of Amsterdam. Her work investigates the conditions of cultural production on digital platforms through ethnographic and theoretical interventions. She is particularly interested in exploring how internet memes are made, shared and monetised and wrote her PhD thesis on this topic. Her monograph based on this work and titled "Beyond Virality: The Art of Internet Memes" will be published by Intellect Books in 2024. She is the founder of Meme Studies Research Network, and the co-editor of the third volume of the Critical Meme Reader. Her writing has been published in a variety of academic journals, literary publications and magazines, and has been translated into German and Italian. She holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc in Political Sociology from the London School of Economics. 

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