I am a Visiting Instructor Professor of Religious Studies at Kenyon College and a doctoral candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. My research focuses on modern Islamic material and visual culture, embodiment, and emotions. In my dissertation, I examine Halal consumption in Philadelphia using a combination of ethnographic and digital humanistic methods in order to understand how Islamic traditions, embodiment, and the exigencies of urban life give halal consumer goods their purchase. The project speaks to issues of class, race and authority, while showing how Islamic traditions are formed by non-elite Muslims through everyday embodiment.
I have published peer-reviewed scholarship about how Muslim women negotiate Islamic traditions through tattooing, how popular Islamic wall art producers stratify the Islamic wall art market, and how 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 deeply committed to collaborative knowledge production that is impactful for scholars and communities alike. At Kenyon, I am the assistant advisor for the Muslim Students Association and the Culinary Club. From 2014 to 2019, I led interfaith youth dialogue with Interfaith Philadelphia and I continue to support their work as a fellow. As a digital humanities practitioner, I have worked as Technical Lead on Re/member Black Philadelphia, 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.”
