Raymok M. Ketema is a first-generation Eritrean American from Berkeley, California, and an incoming President's Postdoctoral Scholar at The Ohio State University. She holds a PhD in History with a specialization in twentieth-century African history. Her research traces the role of music in Eritrean nation-making — how sound fueled revolutionary consciousness during the independence struggle, how the post-independence state has drawn on music and preservation practices to shape national identity, and how diaspora communities use music today to sustain a sense of transnational belonging. Combining archival research, oral history, and ethnography, her work also takes up questions of digital heritage, copyright, and the preservation of African cultural memory in the age of streaming.

 

She is currently working on her first book, Sounds of Revolution: Music and Liberation in Modern Eritrea, alongside an article on independent digital archiving projects led by second-generation Eritreans in the diaspora and their efforts to preserve Eritrean music. 

Outside of her academic work, Raymok enjoys dissecting reality TV, following true crime podcasts, reading fantasy and sci-fi, and getting outside for a walk whenever the weather cooperates.