“Hacking Development: Mobile Money, Azonto Bodies and Creative Disruption in Ghana’s Digital Life”
Reginold Royston
Anna Julia Cooper Postdoctoral Fellow
African Cultural Studies
University of Wisconsin – Madison
Time and Location
12:00pm, 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI
Description
In this presentation, Dr. Reginold Royston discusses his fieldwork with African tech entrepreneurs, proposing a theory of ‘creative disruption’ that typifies innovation in this part of the developing world. He links these practices to a broader African digital aesthetic, incorporating an analysis of online subcultures such as Ghanaian azonto music.
Bio
Dr. Royston is an Anna Julia Cooper Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His work examines Black tech culture in Africa and in the Diaspora in the areas of sound and new media. Dr. Royston completed his doctorate at University of California, Berkeley. He will join the faculty of the Department of African Cultural Studies and the School of Information as Assistant Professor in Fall 2017.