Maggie Freeman

Maggie Freeman is a PhD candidate in History, Theory, and Criticism of Art and Architecture and the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT. Maggie is the Global Coordinator of art non-profit Slow Art Day, the host of podcast Nomads, Past and Present, and a podcast host for the New Books Network. She has lectured on architectural history and Islamic architecture at MIT and Northeastern University, and teaches history courses on a variety of topics for adult learners at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. 

Maggie's research interests encompass the histories and material cultures of nomadism, the uses of architecture by nomadic peoples, and historical interactions of empires and nomadic populations. Her primary focus is on how the built environment of the Middle East is experienced and affected by nomadic peoples. Her dissertation The Principle of Desert Control: Architecture, Imperialism, and Nomadic Peoples during the British Mandate (1920-1948) examines how the built environment was mobilized and manipulated to control nomadic peoples under the authority of the British Mandate in Iraq, Transjordan, and Palestine, and how nomadic groups responded to and influenced building projects intended to control or surveil them. Her writing has appeared in peer-reviewed journals Perspective and the Journal of Architectural Education, as well as a number of edited collections.