is Associate Professor in Anthropology at York University, Toronto (Canada). His research is on the arts and material cultures of the Indian Ocean. His publications include Between Empires: Sheikh Mbarak al-Hinawy 1896-1959 (2012), Approaches to the Qur’an in Sub-Saharan Africa (2019), and “A Corpus of Illuminated Qur’ans from Coastal East Africa” (2023). His current research projects include the study of a corpus of 18th-19th century illuminated Qur’ans from the Lamu Archipelago and the histories of colonial-era clock towers built around the Indian Ocean.