Digital Kinship. Memes as Cultural Connectors in Digitality for People from Elementary Age Onward - with Petra Anders

As a central component of social life, family conveys rules and norms, shaping desires, fears, and aspirations. Yet, there is no fixed definition of what constitutes a family. In different times and cultures, family can be understood and lived in vastly different ways.

The interdisciplinary lecture series ‘Family in Relation’ focuses on the complex realities of the nuclear family model, which is particularly prevalent today in Western industrialized societies, and explores global perspectives on alternative models. Esteemed scholars from various disciplines and fields present current research that examines the potential of alternative family and kinship concepts, exploring their creative, ethical, and innovative dimensions.The interdisciplinary lecture series is the prelude to the programme year of the same name at the Humboldt Forum, set to launch in the fall of 2025.

The concept of digital culture (Stalder 2017) expands the notion of kinship: people interact by responding to digitalized content from one another, constantly forming new communities often shaped by algorithms.

Memes serve as connective elements in these digital communities; they allow people, often humorously, to show which cultural references they identify with and to what extent they feel a sense of belonging (Shifman 2014).

Professor Anders’ Center for Poetic Digital Education at Humboldt University builds on this digital culture, supporting individuals from elementary school age in developing their own senses of belonging and becoming empowered members of online communities. Various school projects reveal that children enjoy exchanging meaningful content through memes and demonstrate impressive interpretative skills when engaging with the literary ambiguity in children’s literature (Anders 2024).

Petra Anders studied German, History, and Philosophy at the universities of Göttingen and Vienna from 1992 to 1999. After completing her teacher training in Berlin, she worked as a teacher in Brandenburg, Baden-Württemberg, and Hamburg. In 2010, she earned her doctorate at the University of Bremen with a dissertation on “Poetry Slam in German Instruction.” From 2011 to 2012, she was a Visiting Scholar at Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York City (with a focus on Digital Storytelling and Cultural Studies). Her research interests include film and literature didactics, as well as education in a world that can also be shaped digitally. In April 2022, she received the Humboldt University of Berlin’s Teaching Excellence Award for 2021.

The lecture series is being held as part of a collaboration between all institutions of the Humboldt Forum. Head Curator for the Programme year 2025-26: Dr. Laura Goldenbaum

- Free Admission

- Duration: 120 min

- German

- Ground Floor, Hall 3

- Part of: Lecture series “Family Matters”