Maggie Freeman

Maggie Freeman is a PhD candidate in History, Theory, and Criticism of 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 taught courses in environmental history and architectural history at Tufts University and Northeastern University, and teaches history courses on a variety of topics for adult learners at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. 

Maggie researches nomad-state interactions through the lens of architecture, with a particular focus on the modern Middle East. Her dissertation The Principle of Desert Control: Imperial Architecture and the Bedouin during the British Mandate (1920-1948) examines how the built environment was mobilized and manipulated to control Bedouin nomadic pastoralists under the authority of the British Mandate in Iraq, Transjordan, and Palestine, and how members of the Bedouin responded to and influenced building projects intended to control or surveil them. Her writing has appeared in peer-reviewed journals Architectural Theory Review, Perspective and the Journal of Architectural Education, as well as a number of edited collections. Her research has been supported by MIT, the Palestine Exploration Fund, the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, and the U.S. Fulbright Commission in Jordan.