Institute at Brown for Environment and Society

Max's research focuses on whales and the history of underwater sound, particularly in the context of 19th-20th century U.S. imperialism. More specifically, they ask how a range of actors from whalers, to biologists, to musicians have negotiated the sonic abnormalcy of underwater environments and what these negotiations have meant for whales as subjects and cultural and scientific objects. Max also works at the intersection of the environmental humanities and disability studies.