GA (Guilherme) Giolo Rego, MSc

Biography

"I didn’t know you could research that." – Guilherme’s students
“Can't tell if this is serious or a joke.” – Reviewer 2 
“I still don’t know what he does.” – Guilherme’s mom

Once described as "a promising scholar of things my generation doesn’t understand” by a senior colleague, Guilherme researches internet trends and digital culture. He is particularly interested in how seemingly mundane online content — memes, aesthetics, and others things we doomscroll past half-asleep — helps people create meaning in their lives. This meaning-making may take the form of autobiographical, beauty-driven self-expression (as in the case of internet aesthetics), or jokes and highly affective TikToks that quietly channel fringe ideologies through traditionalist lifestyles and “based” memes.

Guilherme is especially drawn to moments when culture becomes uncanny, poetic, or existential: when memes are used to reflect on the passage of time; when we tweet about feeling awkward after failed interactions in an attempt to reclaim dignity; when people quietly reorganize their emotional lives and try to make sense of who they are through playlists, fandoms, or (sometimes problematic) ideologies and online communities.

His research has been published in international peer-reviewed journals including Continuum, M/C, and First Monday.

Guilherme’s PhD project explores cancel culture and contested internet trends (2023–2027). He has been a guest researcher at the University of Copenhagen and an associate researcher at KU Leuven. He has taught at the Erasmus Univeristy Rotterdam since 2020.

When not teaching or writing, Guilherme hoards browser tabs on trends that are already obsolete by the time he returns to them.