Society of Scholars

scholars discussing a topic around the main Simpson Center conference room table

The Society of Scholars is an intellectual community of humanists of diverse generations, academic ranks, and departmental affiliations who contribute to and learn from one another’s work. Each year, approximately eight faculty and three dissertation research fellowships support members of the Society of Scholars. Scholars in year-long residence at the University of Washington may be invited to participate as well. The group meets biweekly throughout the year to discuss their research in progress. 

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Cohort Archives

2024 - 2025 Society of Scholars

Oya Rose Aktaş
Doctoral Candidate
History
Danya Al-Saleh
Assistant Professor
Jackson School of International Studies
M. Aziz
Assistant Professor
American Ethnic Studies
Jennifer Baez
Assistant Professor
Art History / School of Art + Art History + Design
Jacob Beckert
Doctoral Candidate
Department of History
Bianca Dang
Assistant Professor
History
Diana Flores Ruíz
Assistant Professor
Cinema & Media Studies
Ungsan Kim
Assistant Professor
Asian Languages and Culture
Josh Reid
Associate Professor
American Indian Studies
Randa Tawil
Assistant Professor
CHCI-ACLS Visiting Fellow
Kyle J. Trembley
Doctoral Candidate
Anthropology
JohnMorgan Baker
Doctoral Candidate
English
Andreas P. Bassett stands in front of a large shrubbery while wearing a dark jacket blue shirt and tie.
Doctoral Candidate
English
Anne Duncan
Doctoral Candidate
English
Kathleen Escarcha
Doctoral Candidate
English
medium close-up of Yandong. He is on the left of the frame in a black t-shirt looking at the camera. To the right is a light flare form the setting sun, while the background shows buildings and a park.
Doctoral Candidate
Cinema & Media Studies
Eric Villiers
Doctoral Candidate
School of Drama

2023 - 2024 Society of Scholars Fellow

Maxine Savage stands in front of a large bush while wearing glasses and a grey jacket.

Maxine Savage (they/them/their)

Doctoral Candidate

North Adjacent: Race, Sex, and the Spatiotemporality of Borealism

This project counters exoticizing discourses of the Arctic and sub-Arctic North that undergird conceptions of the Nordic as always already white, normatively masculine, and heterosexual. I consider the reach of this racializing, gendering, and sexualizing force in literary, cinematic, and visual cultural artifacts from contemporary sites of former and ongoing Nordic colonization, including Iceland, Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland), and the US Virgin Islands (formerly the Danish West Indies).