Maria Garraffa

Maria Garraffa is an Associate Professor in Speech and Language Therapy at the University of East Anglia's School of Health Sciences, affiliated with the Lifespan Health research group. She holds additional roles as a Visiting Professor at the University of Oslo and External Examiner at institutions like the National University of Singapore. Her work bridges clinical linguistics, psycholinguistics, and bilingualism, with a focus on aphasia, developmental language disorders, and literacy in multilingual populations.

Garraffa earned her PhD from the University of Siena (2007), specializing in aphasia research. She has held academic positions at Heriot-Watt University, Newcastle University, and the University of Trento, contributing to projects like CARA (Comprehensive Assessment of Reading in Aphasia) and the ADHD-Bilingualism collaboration in Oslo. Her research emphasizes linguistically informed assessments for communication impairments in diverse populations, including multilingual communities in South Asia and Europe.

Her expertise spans clinical linguistics, psycholinguistics, and bilingualism's cognitive effects, with active roles in organizations like the British Aphasiology Society and the Academy of Aphasia. She supervises PhD students in language impairment studies and has secured grants from the Academy of Medical Sciences and The British Council for projects addressing global health and multilingual challenges.

• Key Projects: Cross-Sector Experience Award (2024-2025), Understanding Southeast Asia's Global Health (2023-2025), Malaysian Speech-Language Therapy Competence (2023-2024)
• Awards: Honorary Fellow (2022), Innovation & Impact Award finalist (2025)

Garraffa collaborates internationally, focusing on aphasia assessment tools, bilingualism's cognitive impacts, and language policies for marginalized communities. Her recent work includes machine learning applications for bilingualism classification and telehealth services during pandemics.