Ryan Skinner

Ryan Thomas Skinner studies the local and global music cultures of contemporary Africa and its diasporas. His research addresses issues of popular culture, ethics, aesthetics, urbanism, public piety, cultural politics, nationalism, and the idea of Africa in the world today. He is the author of the book Bamako Sounds: The Afropolitan Ethics of Malian Music (Minnesota, 2015) and is currently conducting fieldwork for a project titled, “Race, Politics, and Performance in Afro-Swedish Public Culture” funded by the ACLS Charles A. Ryskamp Fellowship, and scholarships from the American Swedish Institute and the American Scandinavian Foundation. Skinner is an assistant professor of ethnomusicology at The Ohio State University.