Reginold Royston: Digital Diaspora ⎻ Beyond Wakanda Futurism

*In-person option has been cancelled due to weather*

Attend virtually on Zoom

In this talk, Reginold Royston (UW iSchool and African Cultural Studies) will discuss transnational media exchanges between Black Americans, Ghanaian emigres, and continental Africans via the global “Afropolitan mediascape.” While ostensibly positioned in the literature as source of economic development for the homeland and state-building, Royston discusses the ways “digital diasporas” have been essential for advancing visibility of Africans in the global tech industry. The use of the term digital diaspora predates the explosion of mobile phones and social platforms, and has been used to expand notions of Blackness and African identity since the 1990s. Royston will illustrate the roots of these practices and discourse among artists in the UK, and discuss current iterations of the practice. The presentation will include excerpts from a conference he coordinated with Holtz Center Community Fund support in Summer 2022, in Tamale, Ghana titled “Ghana Tech Futures.”