Maria lectures in political sociology and research methods at the Department of Politics, University of Sheffield. Previously, she taught politics and sociology at St Hugh’s College, University of Oxford and worked as Research Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Southampton. As part of the UK team on the ESRC-funded collaborative European project, Caught in the Act of Protest: Contextualizing Contestation, she studies demonstrators and their motives.

Maria read for a BA in PPE (2005) and an MSc in Sociology (2006) at the University of Oxford. In 2010, she completed her doctoral thesis on generational differences in institutional and extra-institutional political participation in Western Europe, 1981-2006 (Nuffield College, University of Oxford).

Maria’s main research interests are in political sociology, and in particular, the shift from traditional means of political participation, centred around political parties, electoral politics, and left-right conflict, to more diffuse and irregular forms of involvement such as demonstrations and consumer boycotts. She is also interested in political thought and social theory.

Maria has written for various publications including the Cherwell, the Oxford Forum, Culture Wars and spiked. She has been invited to comment on issues surrounding political engagement and radicalism on discussion panels, radio and television. She was co-convenor of the Institute of Ideas Postgraduate Forum