Home Department: Geography-Anthropology

Associate Professor Lydia Savage is an associate professor of geography and chair in the Department of Geography-Anthropology at the University of Southern Maine. Her research interests are primarily in economic change and both its impact on workers and the response of workers; particularly women employed in the growing service sector. Her current research examines the ways in which labor unions use geographically informed organizing strategies in light of contemporary changes in employment patterns and demographics. She has published and presented widely on the intersection between gender, race, ethnicity and service work in reshaping union strategies and transforming institutional culture. A former member of the International Association of Machinists, she also teaches in the USM Labor Studies Minor.

For a complete version of her Curriculum Vitae, please visit this page

Education

Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, Graduate School of Geography, 1993-1996, Ph.D.
Dissertation Title: Negotiating Common Ground: the Geography of Organizing Women Workers in the Service Sector.
Dissertation Advisor: Susan Hanson
Dissertation Committee: David Angel, Gary Chaison, Sarah Deutsch and Jody Emel

Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, Graduate School of Geography, 1991-1993, M.A.

University of California, Berkeley, 1990, Geography, B.A. with Honors

Area of Specialization

Urban, economic and social geography; feminist geography; US labor unions; labor organizing

Teaching and Research Interests

Feminist theory, geographies of work, economic restructuring, labor history, labor organizing

Courses Taught

Power, Profit, and Pleasure (COR 160)
Human Geography (GEO 101J)
Research Methods (GYA 202D)
Urban and Regional Development (GEO 203J)
Introduction to Land Use Planning (GEO 209)
Economic Geography (GEO 303)
Gender, Work, and Space (GEO 302/WST 320)
Urban Geography (GEO 402)

Publications

Selected Publications

Co-editor for themed peer-reviewed journal
Savage, Lydia and Jane Wills (2004) New Geographies of Trade Unionism. Geoforum 35: 1.

Refereed journal articles
Krueger, Rob and Lydia Savage (2007) "Boston's Urban Politics: Mediating Neo-liberalism and Redefining Sustainability." Special Issue "City-regions, political participation and geographies of social reproduction" edited by Andrew Joan and Kevin Ward. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 31(1): 215-23

Savage, Lydia (2006) Justice for Janitors: Scales of Organizing and Representing Workers. Invited article for a special issue "The Dirty Work of Neoliberalism: Cleaners in the Global Economy" co-edited by Luis LM Aguiar and Andrew Herod. Antipode 38(3): 648-667.

Savage, Lydia and Jane Wills (2004) New Geographies of Trade Unionism. (Introduction written as guest editors for a special issue) Geoforum 35 (1): 5-7.

Savage, Lydia (2004) Public Sector Unions Shaping Hospital Privatization: The Creation of Boston Medical Center. Environment and Planning A 36(3): 547-568.

Savage, Lydia and Ernesta P. Stevens. (2002) Brownfield Redevelopment and Community Activism: Portland, Maine. In Proceedings New England-St. Lawrence Valley Geographical Society Annual Meeting, October 20-21, 2001, Volume 31.

Savage, Lydia and Carrie Hight (2001) Calling the New Economy: Maine's Shift from Mills to Call Centers. In Proceedings New England-St. Lawrence Valley Geographical Society Annual Meeting, October 27-29, 2000, Volume 30.

Chapters in books
Savage, Lydia (in review) "Small Places, Close to Home: The Importance of Place in Organizing Workers" in an edited volume on unions by E. Paul Durrenberger. University of Colorado Press.

Savage, Lydia (2007) "Changing Work, Changing People: A Conversation with Union Organizers at Harvard University and the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center." In Dorothy Sue Cobble (ed.) The Sex of Class: Women and America's New Labor Movements. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. pp. 181-216.

Savage, Lydia (2006) "Justice for Janitors: Scales of Organizing and Representing Workers." In Luis LM Aguiar and Andrew Herod (eds) The Dirty Work of Neoliberalism: Cleaners in the Global Economy. Basil Blackwell: Oxford. (Reprint of 2006 Antipode article, invited and refereed)

Savage, Lydia and Mark Lapping (2003) Sprawl and Its Discontents: The Rural Dimension. In Matt Lindstrom and Hugh Bartling (eds) Suburban Sprawl: Culture, Ecology, and Politics, pp. 5-18. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group.

Savage, Lydia A. (1998) Justice for Janitors: Geographies of Organizing. In Andrew Herod (ed.) Organizing the Landscape: Geographical Perspectives on Labor Unionism, pp. 225-252. University of Minnesota Press.

Book reviews
Savage. Lydia (2007) Book review of Work/Life City Limits: Comparative Household Perspectives by Helen Jarvis. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 97 (4).

Savage, Lydia (2007) Book review of The Other Women's Movement: Workplace Justice and Social Rights in Modern America by Dorothy Sue Cobble. Gender, Place and Culture 14(2).

Savage, Lydia (2006) Book review of Class Acts: an Anthropology of Service Workers and Their Union by Durrenberger, E. Paul and Suzan Erem. American Anthropologist 108(3): 583-584.

Savage, Lydia (2006) Book review of Spaces of Work: global capitalism and geographies of labour by Noel Castree, Neil M. Coe, Kevin Ward, and Michael Samers. Growth and Change 37 (1): 131-133.