Ryan Skinner is an Assistant Professor of Musicology at Ohio State University.Dr. Skinner is an ethnomusicologist who studies the local and global music cultures of contemporary Africa and its European and American diasporas. Specializing in the analytic methods of cultural anthropology and ethnomusicology, his research focuses on issues of popular culture, ethics, aesthetics, urbanism, public piety, cultural politics, and globalization. Skinner's work has appeared in the journals Anthropological Quarterly, Africa, Popular Music, IASPM@Journal, Mande Studies, Research in African Literatures, The Journal of American Folklore, and African Arts. Skinner is the author of the fortcoming book, Bamako Sounds: The Afropolitan Ethics of Malian Music (University of Minnesota Press, spring 2015). He also wrote and illustrated a children's book, Sidikiba's Kora Lesson (Beaver's Pond Press, 2008) and is an accomplished kora (21-stringed West African harp) player. Skinner holds a PhD in ethnomusicology from Columbia University (2009) and is currently an assistant professor of music and of African American and African Studies at The Ohio State University.Bio courtesy of his faculty page.
