Max Johnson Dugan’s research focuses on Islamic material and visual culture, embodiment, and emotions in contemporary North America. In his dissertation, he examines halal consumption in Philadelphia through ethnographic and digital humanistic methods to understand how tradition, racialization, diaspora, and the contingencies of urban life make Islamic materiality feel authentic. This project pushes against conceptions of Islamic tradition, and religion more generally, as fundamentally cognitive. Instead, he approaches Islamic tradition as a set of discourses, aesthetics, and institutions that are animated by feelings and enacted by bodies. This approach recovers and interrogates the local, non-elite production of Islamic tradition. His digital humanistic praxis shapes his commitment to making this research restorative, collaborative, and impactful for scholars and community stakeholders alike.