Headshot of Dr.Ignatius G.D Suglo

Dr. Ignatius G.D Suglo

Assistant Professor of Rhetoric & Communication Studies
  • Profile

    Ignatius G.D. Suglo is a media and cultural historian and a scholar of global media whose research interests straddle two sets of intersecting fields. The first puts media and communication studies in conversation with Afro-Asian studies. This strand of research engages with the African presence in Chinese media from the 19th century to the present and their role in knowledge production, circulation, and worldmaking. The second is at the intersection of media histories and critical digital media. This strand of research examines histories of digital media and how older and newer forms of media coexist in hybrid media ecologies in multiple contexts including social movements and archiving practices.

    Ignatius has lived, studied, and worked extensively on four continents — Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Experiences garnered from these varying locales and academic communities shape his research and teaching which is global, transregional, and interdisciplinary.  

    Prior to joining the Department of Rhetoric and Communication Studies at University of Richmond, Ignatius was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Hong Kong, M.A. from Beijing Language and Culture University, and B.A. from the University of Ghana. His writing has appeared in leading journals including Media, Culture & Society, Journal of Asian and African Studies, and Verge: Studies in Global Asias

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    • Presentations

      Selected Presentations

      Suglo, I.G.D. 2024 “Knowledge Production and Circulation of Africa in Mao China” Invited talk at Transregional Studies Workshop/Symposium on Transregional Studies at Georgetown University, DC. April 29

      Suglo, I.G.D. 2024  Chair of Roundtable “Violence and Construction of Narratives” In Journalism and the Politics of Narrating African Suffering," Harvard University, April 25

      Suglo, I.G.D. 2024. “ Transcultural Sonic Encounters: Music, Music Iconography, and Knowledge Production in 20th Century Africa-China Relations”  Yale Africa-China Symposium, Maputo, Mozambique. March 14-15

      Suglo, I.G.D. 2024. “ ‘The Sound of Friendship’: Music and Music Iconography in 20th Century Africa–China Relations.” In Making Friends and Studying Friendship. American Historical Association Annual Conference, San Francisco. January 4-7

      Suglo, I.G.D. 2023. “Transregional Media Flows and Knowledge Production of Africa in Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Chinese Periodicals.” Center for Advanced Research on Global Communication Postdoctoral Colloquium, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, May 5.

      Suglo, I.G.D. 2022. “Documenting Africa on Reel: The Moving-image and Knowledge Production of Africa in China 1970s-2010s.” Paper presented at the International Symposium: Africa-China Relations in the Post COVID-19 Era, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, 12-13 May.

      Suglo, I.G.D. 2022. “Africa in Global Media Imaginaries: Representations, Contestations, Agency.” Public Lecture at Vilnius University, Lithuania, November.

      Suglo, I.G.D. 2021. “Visualizing Africa in Chinese Propaganda Posters.” Featured panel presented at the Chinese in Africa/Africans in China Research Network Mini-conference series, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, 5 May.

  • Selected Publications
    Journal Articles

    Suglo, I.G.D. 2024. “ ‘Freedom is not free’: Visual Activism and Dispersed Resistance in Hong Kong's Anti-Extradition Protest”. Media , Culture and Society.

    Suglo, I.G.D. 2022. “ ‘Sound of Friendship’: Music Iconography in 20th Century Africa-China Relations.” Verge: Studies in Global Asias.8(1) pp 194-215

    Suglo, I.G.D. 2022. “Visualizing Africa in Chinese Propaganda Posters 1950–1980.” Journal of Asian and African Studies. 57(3) pp 574-591

    Multimodal Scholarship and popular writing

    Suglo, I.G.D. 2023. “Interview with author Thomas Chen on Made in Censorship: The Tiananmen Movement in Chinese Literature and Film (Columbia University Press, 2022)” Global Media & Communication podcast series., May 22. Podcast audio. https://newbooksnetwork.com/made-in-censorship

    Suglo, I.G.D. and Hagan Sibiri. 2021. “Handling Contested Truths in Times of Crises: Ghana’s COVID-19 Experience.” Somatosphere. July 7. http://somatosphere.net/2021/contested-truths-ghana.html/.

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