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Faculty and Staff

Comms professor to present on the art of memes for Beckham Lecture Series March 16

The BYU School of Communications will host Scott Church, assistant professor in the School of Communications, in conjunction with the Raymond E. and Ida Lee Beckham Lecture in Communications Series March 16 at 11:00 a.m. in 321 of the Maeser building. Church will present his lecture, “The Art of Mass Communication: The Sublime, Ineffable, and Spiritual Elements of Memes.” Popular viral content, like memes, are taking over the Internet. The presentation will address how memes strategically use art, symbolism and spirituality to attract attention and to help the audience feel emotion. Church has taught courses in popular culture, business communication, public speaking, public discourse, music and media studies. His research primarily uses critical theory, aesthetics and media ecology as analytic lenses for social media and mediated popular texts. The lectures were established in 1995 in honor of Ray Beckham’s late wife, Ida Lee. Raymond E. Beckham was a leader in education at BYU for 42 years. He was the driving force behind the BYU Evening school program, the BYU Travel Studies program, Aspen Grove, and founded the New York Internship program for Communications majors. INFORMATION Dates: Thursday March 16 Times: 11:00 a.m. Location: 321 Karl G. Maeser Building Admission: Free, no registration required