Charlotte Digital Media Professor Heather Freeman Wraps Up Magic In The United States
Congratulations to Professor of Digital Media Heather Freeman, who drops the final episode of her podcast, Magic in the United States, today!
Over three seasons in 18 episodes, the podcast has explored magical practices across American history and in our own time.
Today’s episode looks at the way new technologies are changing how people practice magic. Can artificial intelligence, for example, be considered a “spirit”? 
With hundreds of hours of research and dozens of interviews over the past several years, plus the help of a savvy production team and PRX, Heather Freeman has created a podcast series that is both rigorous and entertaining.
Heather D. Freeman is Professor of Digital Media in the Department of Art & Art History. She holds a BA in Fine Art and German Studies from Oberlin College (1997), an MFA in Studio Art from Rutgers University (2000), and has taught at UNC Charlotte since 2006. Previously, Freeman worked as an art director, graphic designer, editor, and animator in New York and New Jersey. She has also taught art, graphic design, and visual rhetoric since 2001 at Allegheny College, The University of Kentucky, and Clemson University.
Freeman has created work and taught classes in digital print and collage, 2D and 3D animation, 3D modeling, video art, digital fabrication, mobile app design, and game design since 2001. She is also the author of The Moving Image Workshop: Introducing animation, motion graphics and visual effects in 45 practical projects, published by Fairchild Press, an imprint of Bloomsbury Academic. Regardless of media, Freeman’s artworks combine traditional and digital technologies to weave together the symbolic forms of science, magic, mythology, and popular culture. Her animations, films, and interactive works have screened internationally and won numerous awards, while her prints and mixed media works have appeared in group and solo shows around the country. In 2020-21, she created the movie-turned-podcast series Familiar Shapes about the early modern English witch trials and bots on social media. The project included a 20-minute documentary film, which enjoyed a successful run at film festivals, including the Bristol International Short Film Festival in England and locally at the Charlotte Film Festival.