Michael is a Ph.D. candidate in African Cultural Studies with a doctoral minor in Visual Cultures. His research focuses on the critical analysis of visual forms and practices, like animation, comics, and VFX, as crucial social texts with which we can rethink what it means to be African in the 21st century. His ongoing dissertation, titled “Animating Subjectivity: Making the Subject in the Art and Industry of Animation in Nigeria,” examines how culture-themed visual productions represent and produce their audiences and how the creators of animation are themselves being shaped by their hyphenated social positionings: as artist-citizens and participant-recipients in the politics of industry, state, and global economy. Michael’s research is based in Nigeria, where he conducts ethnographic studies and archival research in animation studios. He has a forthcoming essay that examines the panegyric functions of the network of images that surround Nigerian popular music.