About

Quran Karriem is a media theorist, electronic musician, and installation artist concerned with the intertwined histories and futures of automation, race, and cultural production. His research and creative practice examine the power relations and ideologies that inhere in the design of systems, processes, and interfaces — from material, energetic, and temporal perspectives — motivated by a concern with the operative nature of the racial and the political in sociotechnical assemblages.

He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts, where he teaches courses on software studies, electronic music, and critical approaches to computational media.

Recent essays include "Algorithmic Images and Recursive Epidermalization" (MIT Press, 2025). His creative output encompasses live experimental electronic music, physical and digital interface design, expanded cinema, media installation art, and sound design for theatre and dance. His sound design for Soundz at the Back of My Head (with Thomas F. DeFrantz and Rebecca Uliasz) received the 2020 Bessie/New York Dance & Performance Award for Outstanding Music Composition/Sound Design.

Karriem holds Doctor of Philosophy in Computational Media, Arts & Cultures from Duke University (dissertation: "From Error to Event: Decision in the Age of Generative Aesthetics"), a Master of Fine Arts in Sound Design from the Savannah College of Art & Design, and a Bachelor of Music in Composition from the University of Georgia. He was formerly a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University and an Adjunct Lecturer in the Audio Technology program at American University.

Prior to pursuing doctoral and postdoctoral research, Karriem worked as a software designer, product manager, and executive in the media and technology industry, where he built and advised on machine learning projects in music technology and education technology. This experience continues to inform his critical engagement with platform capitalism, automated decision-making, and the political economy of creative labor.