Maria Stuart

Maria Stuart is a Lecturer/Assistant Professor in the School of English, Drama and Film at University College Dublin (UCD), where she has been a faculty member since 1992. She is affiliated with the Department of English and holds leadership roles including School Director for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and Co-Lead of the Health, Medicine, and Wellbeing Research Strand in the College of Arts and Humanities. Her work bridges literary scholarship, medical humanities, and disability advocacy.

• Bachelor of Arts, Trinity College Dublin
• PhD, University of Cambridge

Her research centers on Dysfluency Studies, an interdisciplinary field exploring cultural, clinical, and creative dimensions of stammering. She challenges pathologizing narratives and promotes the stammer as a form of vocal diversity. Her work intersects with disability studies, critical theory, and medical humanities. She also maintains strong interests in American literature, particularly Emily Dickinson, African American writing, and crime fiction, with a focus on affect and genre.

The 15 most recent publications reflect a deep engagement with dysfluency, voice, and narrative. They span journal articles, book chapters, and edited collections, showing a trajectory from literary analysis to public-facing, interdisciplinary research. Key themes include the cultural representation of stammering, auditory feedback in therapy, the poetics of disfluency in Dickinson, and the decolonizing potential of global literary studies. Her work increasingly emphasizes collaboration across clinical, creative, and academic domains.

• Principal Investigator, Wellcome-funded 'Metaphoric Stammers and Embodied Speakers' (2019–2022)
• Co-Director, SSHRC-funded 'Stuttering Commons' (2023–2026)
• Organizer of interdisciplinary dysfluency conference at UCD (2018)
• Co-founder of The Stammering Collective (thestammeringcollective.org)

Maria Stuart has supervised MA and PhD theses on Native American and African American literature and continues to mentor students. She has received research grants from Wellcome, SSHRC, and UCD, supporting her innovative work at the intersection of humanities and health. Her public engagement includes keynotes, workshops, and collaborations with stammering communities.

She leads and participates in multiple research groups and networks, including the Irish Humanities Alliance Medical Humanities Working Group and the Stammering Collective. Her team-based teaching and research reflect a commitment to collaborative, interdisciplinary scholarship that connects critical and creative practices.