Solveig Marie Wang

I am a researcher and editor working at the intersections of heritage studies, medieval Fennoscandian history, and postcolonial literature. My work focuses on Indigenous medieval history, green colonialism, and questions of contested heritage and cultural memory. In the past two years, I have worked with IFZO (University of Greifswald) on how contested monuments and cultural symbols shape collective memory, with particular attention to colonial legacies in the Baltic Sea region.

Alongside my research, I bring extensive editorial experience. I currently serve as an editor for Performing Magic in the Premodern North and previously held a six-year tenure as editor of the Apardjón Journal for Scandinavian Studies. These roles have deepened my commitment to fostering collaborative scholarship and advancing critical conversations on heritage and representation.

At the heart of my work is a dedication to anticolonial perspectives, cross-disciplinary dialogue, and making complex cultural histories accessible to wider audiences.

In the past years I have worked as postdoctoral researcher at the Chair of Nordic History and Interdisciplinary Centre for Baltic Sea Region Research at the University of Greifswald, working with Indigenous medieval history, green colonialism, and questions of contested heritage and cultural memory.

Through my roles as Managing Editor of the Apardjón Journal for Scandinavian Studies and Performing Magic in the Premodern North, and as co-editor of edited volumes with De Gruyter and Palgrave, I have developed extensive commissioning and editorial expertise. As co-founder of the indepenedent, early-career initiative Apardjón which to date has six publications (including three volumes, and three translations), I coordinated peer review, oversaw production schedules, recruited reviewers and contributors, and guided authors through the publishing process. In my role with Performing Magic in the Premodern North, which to date has one publication with Palgrave (with a future publication in the works), I have overseen peer review workflows and built strong relationships with contributors across diverse fields. Alongside my experience as co-editor on two volumes, including Performing Magic in the Pre-Modern North: Practice and Transgressions (Palgrave 2024) and Colonial Entanglements and the Medieval Nordic World: Norse Colonies and Indigenous Peoples (De Gruyter 2024), this hands-on experience with the editorial has given me a keen eye for emerging research trends in the humanities, particularly in history, heritage, ethnic studies, and the wider social sciences, as well as the ability to support authors in bringing high-quality scholarship to publication. These roles have taught me to balance the demands of commissioning high quality content with the logistical and interpersonal skills needed to support authors, reviewers, and editorial boards across disciplines and international contexts. 

My own experience as on the other side of the editorial board as an author furthers my multiperspective approach to the editorial role. Much of my own academic work, including my awarded monograph Decolonising Medieval Fennoscandia (De Gruyter, 2023) and numerous peer-reviewed articles including my Postmedieval artile “The Intersection of Medieval Studies and Indigenous Studies” (accessed nearly 4000 times since its publication 1,5 years ago), has focused on amplifying underrepresented perspectives, bridging fields such as Medieval Studies, Indigenous Studies, and postcolonial theory. 

I finished my Norwegian educational program in 2014, after which I moved to Scotland to pursue a degree in history. I completed my Master of Arts in History at the University of Aberdeen in 2018 (with honours), before progressing to a PhD in Scandinavian Studies at the same university (2018-2021). My doctoral thesis, Decolonising Medieval Fennoscandia: An Interdisciplinary Study of Norse-Saami Relations in the Medieval Period (2021), critically examined Norse-Saami relations as described in medieval literature and in early modern and modern historiography, using postcolonial theory and decolonial frameworks. The thesis was published in 2023 in De Gruyter’s Religious Minorities in the North series, has since received positive reviews, and was recently made released in paperback due to demand. Since 2021, I have held two postdoctoral positions at the University of Greifswald. From 2021-2023, I worked on the DFGfunded project Mission Before Colonisation at the Chair of Nordic History, examining intercultural contact and religious conversion in medieval Sápmi and Greenland. Between 2023-2025, I have been part of the IFZO-funded project Fragmented Transformations. As part of the research cluster Shared Heritage, I  investigated questions of heritage, medievalism, colonial literatures, and colonial dissonance. 

I also have professional training in research data management and sharing, the museum as a site and source for learning, diversity, intersectionality, and anti-racism (and EDI initiatives more broadly), leadership and management, and efficient presentation and communication skills.