Maia is an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of International Relations at LSE. Her research looks at how race and colonialism have shaped the Arabian Peninsula’s burgeoning high cultural infrastructure. She is particularly interested in the racial horizons of culture as an economic development strategy.

Prior to joining the department, Maia was a research assistant on the ESRC-funded project, “From Walls to Corridors,” led by Dr Sharri Plonski (QMUL). Together, they created and are co-producing the podcast series Material Crimes, a collaboration with the black British sociology podcast, Surviving Society. The special series examines the relationship between colonialism, capitalism, and infrastructure.

Maia’s ESRC-funded PhD was completed in 2022 in the Department of Politics and International Studies at SOAS. Her thesis was titled “Fuelling Culture: Art, Race, and Capitalism on the Arabian Peninsula.”

Maia holds an MSc in International Relations from LSE and a BA in Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Edinburgh.

Not available to supervise MPhil/PhD students