Makenzie (Maki) Salmon

Makenzie (Maki) Salmon is a budding intersectional generalist, obsessed with the doppelgӓnger. Her research seeks to locate its manifestations and redefine the trope as a framework to decode binary oppositions and sites of cultural trauma.

She began her education at the University of Guelph and obtained back-to-back degrees: an Honours Bachelor of Arts from the School of English and Theatre Studies (with a Creative Writing minor) followed by a Masters degree in the same department, where she wrote a creative non-fiction thesis, a memoir (under the supervision of Lawrence Hill) titled My Skin Does Not Fit. Additionally, she worked as Professor Hill’s Graduate Research Assistant during his facilitation of the University of Guelph’s inaugural course with Walls to Bridges, a memoir writing class that brought twenty inside and outside students together at Grand Valley Institution for Women. Working with Professor Hill on both the memoir and the Walls to Bridges course were cherished experiences that have laid the groundwork for future projects Maki intends to pursue.

She holds a second Master’s degree from Wilfrid Laurier University in Cultural Analysis and Social Theory, concentrating on Cultural Representation and Social Theory. There, she recognized her need to study at the intersection of schools to nurse a fiery passion for cultural theory beyond the confines of one academic department.

In addition to academic ventures, Maki worked as a freelance writer for pop culture sites, spent four years as teacher and education coordinator for Oxford Learning Centre in Guelph and also enjoyed a summer working in Collections Maintenance work at the University of Guelph. In her spare time, she learns a new musical instrument every few years, edits manuscripts, studies German and yearns for her chance to compete on Jeopardy!

Areas of Interest:

Film and Television Studies
Borderlands and Imposed Settler Narratives (Cowboy Culture)
Popular Culture Studies
Translation Theory
Semiotic Visual Analysis
Autotheory, Trauma Studies and Narratology

Conference Presentations:

Carleton University English Graduate Student Society Conference 2019, Celebrity, Fame and the Cultural Zeitgeist (“Trevor Noah and Intermedia Comedy in Born a Crime and Son of Patricia”)
Film Society Association of Canada Conference: June 3rd, 2021 (“What About All The Doppelgängers? Deconstructing Genre Tensions in Westworld”)
In Conversation with Brittany Luby, October 17th, 2019, Encounter (Book Launch)

Publications:

Zatychies, Makenzie. “Printemps in Portugal,”  Kaleidoscope Magazine, 2018.
Zatychies, Makenzie. “Subtle Eulogies,” The Sheephead Review, 2020.
Zatychies, Makenzie. My Skin Does Not Fit: A Memoir of Growth, Acceptance and Validation, 2020.

Contact: makenziesalmon@cmail.carleton.ca or around the internet as @howmakirolls