Maxine Savage is a Killam Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2025-2027) at the Department of Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies (CENES). Their research examines discourses of sexuality, race, and place in 20th and 21st century cultural production connected to Danish colonialism in Iceland, Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland), and the US Virgin Islands. Dr. Savage is also a Postdoctoral Affiliate at the Centre for European Studies at UBC. Prior to joining CENES, they received their Ph.D. in Scandinavian Languages and Literature from the University of Washington.

As a Killam Postdoctoral Research Fellow at CENES, Dr. Savage will investigate discourses of sexuality, race, and place in cultural production from the Danish empire that spans the Atlantic. Their comparative project moves from the Arctic and sub-Arctic (Kalaallit Nunaat/Greenland and Iceland) to northern Europe (Denmark), and finally to the Caribbean (the US Virgin Islands, formerly the Danish West Indies) to examine how these areas have shaped, and are shaped by, conceptions of the Danish North as always already white, normatively masculine, and heterosexual.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

“Trans Milieus: Sex/Gender and the Critique of ‘Nature.’” Co-author: Stephanie D. Clare. TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 11 (4), 2024: 571-592, Trans Ecologies, eds. Erin L. Durban & Megan Moore. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-11421230.

“A Queer and Foreign State: Iceland’s Cinematic Subjects.” Lambda Nordica 25 (3-4), 2021: 29-53, Nordic Queer Cinema, eds. Katariina Kyröla, Anu Koivunen, & Ingrid Ryberg. https://doi.org/10.34041/ln.v25.707.

“Ástin sem varð að taugahrúgu [The love that became a nervous wreck]: Or, What Does Queer Failure Have to Do With Translation?,” PARSE Journal 11, 2020, Intersections. https://doi.org/10.70733/ombngt4e4cws.

Essays

“Landscapes Envisaged: Ruth Smith’s (Self)Portraiture,” Periskop: Forum for Kunsthistorisk Debat 32, 2024: 58-65, Færøsk kunsthistorie i dag, eds. Anna Maria Dam Ziska, Bart Pushaw, Nina Cramer, & Anna Vestergaard Jørgensen. https://doi.org/10.7146/periskop.v2024i32.150338.

• “At síggja landsløg fyri sær: (sjálvs-)portrett av Ruth Smith.” Translated by Beinir Bergsson. https://doi.org/10.7146/perisko.v2024i32.150459.

Critical DVD Commentaries

Carl Th. Dreyer, dir., Michael [1924], 2023, Kino Lorber, co-commentator: Amanda Doxtater.

Dr. Savage’s scholarship has been funded by the AAUW, the American-Scandinavian Foundation, the Fulbright Commission, the Killam Trusts, the Scan|Design Foundation, and the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study.