I am an interdisciplinary scholar of religion and culture. My focus over the past fifteen years or so has been on engaging in ethnographic, qualitative research that bridges the humanistic, social, and applied sciences. At the University of Utah, where I have taught since 2011, I am Professor of Religious Studies in the Department of World Languages and Cultures. I directed the university's Middle East Center and Middle East Studies Program from 2015-2020, and served as Interim Director of the Religious Studies Program from 2017-2018. Other professional experience includes employment as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion at Middlebury College (2008-2011) and short-term consultancies for various think tanks, policy centers, governmental and non-governmental organizations, police investigative units, and educational foundations. I have published a number of studies on notions of religious belonging (especially among communities in Sub-Saharan African settings) and their linkages to social and political concerns. A list of sample publications on those topics can be found under the "Scholarly and Creative Works" tab on this webpage. My work has been recognized and funded by a variety of sources, including the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa, the Council of American Overseas Research Centers, the Earhart Foundation, the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Institutes of Health, the Posen Foundation, the Reed Foundation, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, among others. Outside of my United States-based activities, I have studied and/or held fellowships in Benin, France, Germany, India, Israel, Morocco, and the United Kingdom. Primary sites of fieldwork include (in addition to the countries cited above) Gabon, Ghana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, and Senegal.