Ann Thuy-Ling Tran

Ann Tran is a graduate student in Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine where she studies issues of race, comedy, and new media. On her free time, she likes to watch a lot of TV, especially 90s sitcoms.

The Power of Memes

in Memes to Movements: How the World’s Most Viral Media is Changing Social Protest and Power by An Xiao Mina

When Richard Dawkins coined the term “meme” in 1978, he may not have anticipated that this human cultural practice would affect political change as profoundly as it has within the past few decades. With the proliferation of internet engagement in participatory culture, memes today are ubiquitous; they reach beyond even social media, appearing in television shows, films, T-shirts and protest posters.