
REGINOLD ROYSTON Ph.D.
Author of
Pan African Futurism
Ghana and the Paradox of Technology for Development (Univ. of California Press 2025)
Scholarship and Teaching
Aural Circuits: Soulcraft in Footwork and Azonto
Africa + Podcasting
Code & Power: An Intersectional Analysis of Web Culture
Africa + The Internet — Digital Diasporas
Areas of research:
Civic App development
Community & Technology Engagement
IT infrastructure & media in Africa
Black social media
History and Philosophy of Technology
Online Education
Black Diaspora Studies
Internet Citizenship
Aural Circuits
In this project, I am examining what I describe as "Aural Circuits" — the synesthetic and technological forms produced through African diasporic music techniques and collaborations. This is an ethnography of African emigre and African-American music producers and dancers, looking at tacit knowledge and performance identities in Chicago, IL. My research focuses on informal pedagogy, piracy, and hacking practices among artists at the "margins." Working in the dance music genres of AfroBeats and Footwork music, my work deploys perspectives on Sound Studies, Folklore, Performance Studies, New Media and Africana Studies. See more in the papers SOULCRAFT: Black Techne in African and American Viral Dance.
and
From the Grammys to Agbogbloshie: The Troubled Circuits of African Viral Dance.







