Academic Qualifications

BA (TCD), PhD (Cambridge)

Biographical Details

Maria Stuart took a degree in English and Philosophy in Trinity College Dublin and a PhD entitled "Contesting the Word: Emily Dickinson and the Higher Critics" in Darwin College in Cambridge.  She worked as an undergraduate supervisor in St Catherine's College in Cambridge and joined the staff of UCD in 1992.  Maria Stewart was appointed as a permanent College Lecturer in 1994.

Maria Stuart is Head of First Year English and teaches courses in The American Renaissance; American Identities; African American Writing; Designing Destiny - Early American Writing and The Construction of Romanticism.

Research Interests

Emily Dickinson and the religious culture of nineteenth-century New England: 

Focusing on the impact of German Higher Criticism upon American readings of biblical texts, suggesting that the advent of this "new" hermeneutical approach resulted in the ignition of a veritable theory war from New England's pulpits (one with strong resonance for our contemporary theoretical debates).  Such a charged exegetical atmosphere facilitates a better understanding of the role of biblical exegesis in Dickinson's own work, and allows us to better appreciate her role as an accomplished (if often irreverent) biblical scholar.

Early American writing:

This work focuses on the role of the conversion narrative within early Puritan communities and charts its influence upon the development of a distinctly American literary tradition.  With its particular on the human voice (in its spoken and literary forms) as a means of persuading an audience of one's salvation, the conversion narrative looks ahead to the confessional mode of much contemporary American writing (even popular American chat shows, with their emphasis on the redemptive public confession, could be read as late offshoots of this early Puritan genre).

Crime Fiction:

A more recent research interest lies in the area of crime fiction, focusing on a comparative study of American and British crime writing (with particular attention to factors such as race, nationality and gender).

Nineteenth Century Biblical Exegesis

African-American writing.

Publications:

'Emily Dickinson', Literature On-Line, Chadwyck Healy, http://lion.chadwyck.co.uk , 2000.  Article on Dickinson's biography and assessment of the development of Dickinson criticism.

'African-American Women's Writing,' Culture Section, Sunday Business Post, March 1999.  Article commissioned to mark the release of the film version of Toni Morrisson's novel Beloved, tracing the influence of Zora Neale Hurston upon Morrisson's work.

Membership of professional bodies outside UCD:

Irish Association of American Studies and European Association of American Studies.