Huma Gupta

Lecturer, Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Huma Gupta is a full-time lecturer in the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Gupta holds a PhD in the history and theory of architecture and a master’s in city planning from MIT. She is currently writing her first book, The Architecture of Dispossession, which is based on her doctoral thesis on state-building and the architectural transformation of migrant reed-mat and mudbrick settlements in mid-century Iraq. Previously, Gupta was the Neubauer junior research fellow at Brandeis University, humanities research fellow at New York University-Abu Dhabi, and international dissertation research fellow at the Social Science Research Council. Her work has been published in the International Journal of Islamic Architecture, the Journal of Contemporary Iraq and the Arab World, and Thresholds. As a practitioner, she has worked on infrastructure projects in Afghanistan, municipal planning in Syria, eviction prevention and homelessness in the greater Boston area, and humanitarian response to housing needs for persons displaced due to climate, conflict, and development projects around the world.