About

I am a Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Kenyon College.

I work on modern Islamic material and visual culture, embodiment and emotions. My in-progress first book examines halal consumption in Philadelphia using a combination of ethnographic and digital humanistic methods in order to understand how Islamic tradition, embodiment and the exigencies of urban life give halal goods their purchase. 

I have published peer-reviewed scholarship about how Muslim women negotiate Islamic traditions through tattooing, popular Islamic wall art producers stratify the Islamic wall art market, and a South Asian Muslim community navigates intergenerational tensions through the construction of a basketball court. I also have ongoing research projects on popular Islamic art in the United States (funded by the Templeton Religion Trust), the affective dynamics of basketball in Muslim communities, and postcolonial and racialized affects. 

I am committed to collaborative knowledge production that is impactful for scholars and communities alike. At Kenyon, I serve as a faculty advisor to the Muslim Students Association and the Culinary Club. From 2014 to 2019, I led interfaith youth dialogue with Interfaith Philadelphia and continue to support their work as a fellow. As a digital humanities practitioner, I am the technical lead of Re/member Black Philadelphia, the Black Resistance Tour of Philadelphia and Unstable Archives.

I teach courses on Islam and material religion, including “Islam’s Diverse Paths,” “Islam in North America,” “Islam & Modernity,” “Encountering Religion in its Global Context,” “Religious Bodies, Objects, and Affects,” and “Religion & Film.”