Reginold Royston
Position title: Assistant Professor
Email: rroyston@wisc.edu
Phone: 608.263.2900
Address:
Office: 4251 Helen C. White Hall
Education
Ph.D. African Diaspora Studies & New Media Studies University of California, Berkeley
M.A. African American Studies University of California, Berkeley
B.A. Anthropology and Philosophy Howard University
Research Interests
I am a media anthropologist and digital humanities researcher, jointly-appointed in the Information School (formerly SLIS) and the Department of African Cultural Studies. I teach courses on the political economy of information, race/class/gender/identity in tech, Africa, and internet practices in developing world contexts. I coordinate the Black Arts + Data Futures group through the Borghesi-Mellon Interdisciplinary Workshop in the Humanities at the UW-Madison Center for Humanities.
My research interests include New Media and innovation in the African Diaspora. I do ethnographic research in Ghana, the U.S., and the Netherlands, examining Ghana’s digital diaspora. As a researcher, developer and professor of information and technology studies, I have produced and designed dozens of new media apps and campaigns with students and collaborators. I worked for 15 years as a reporter, graphics designer, and cultural critic for Knight Ridder, Village Voice Media, and National Geographic.com. I have been active in community organizations in Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, and Oakland, CA.
Recent Publications
“At Home, Online: Affective-Exchange in Ghanaian Internet Video.” in Leigh Raiford and Raphael-Hernandez, H. (Eds.)
Migrating the Black Body: Visual Culture and Diaspora, University of Washington Press (in press).
“Re-Territorializing Twitter: African Moments 2010-2015.”
“Hacking Development: Ghana’s Digital Elites.” Examines the civic activism of technology professionals in urban Ghana.