The Arts & Humanities are not just subjects; they are a way of orienting in the world, making space for critical reflection and creative possibility. Their methods of engagement are far-reaching, often with lifelong impact. With literature, art and culture, we find ways of responding to the challenges of the day at scales both personal and planetary. Through these subjects, we learn not to be complacent: to always question, to consider what is really valuable, to realise and imagine alternatives, to work collaboratively and with past, present and future knowledges. We learn not just how to think, but how to be. The Arts & Humanities are the substrate for a good society and an open mind; they are the alchemy of dream and material possibility.
Maria Sledmere is Senior Lecturer in English & Creative Writing at the University of Strathclyde. As a poet-scholar, her research investigates how contemporary literature responds to seismic shifts in climate, technology and the material concerns of everyday life — from sleep health to intimacies, energy and place. She began working at Strathclyde in 2022, after earning a PhD/DFA in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow with an experimental thesis on impossibility and the anthropocene. She is passionate about the relationship between creative and critical thought, and in her research and teaching brings to bear practice-based methods in theoretical discussion and interdisciplinary enquiry.
She has published on areas such as elemental poetics, dream ecologies, commoning, queer studies, ambient aesthetics, attention, grief, digital cultures, mental health and wellbeing, temporality, ekphrasis and environmental crisis. Through small press publishing, performance and public engagement, she is deeply enmeshed in the creative economies of Scotland and beyond. Collaboration is at the heart of her practice and recent knowledge exchange and research activity includes Project Somnolence, co-run with the sound artist Kevin Leomo (a platform for drawing attention to sleep health in environmental contexts), Digital Dreamland (a curated series of articles and creative work responding to dreams and the internet) and Brilliant Vibrating Interface, in conjunction with SPAM Press and the Edwin Morgan Trust (which looked at the relationship between post-internet poetics and queer Scottish writing — from Morgan to the present).
In 2023 she was named on the Saltire Society’s ‘40 under 40’ list, honouring outstanding Scottish creative talent. Sledmere’s books include Midsummer Song (Hypercritique) (2024), Cinders (2024), The Indigo Hours (2025) and Meadowbook (2027). She is co-founder, along with Jessica Widner, of the new MFA in Creative Writing at Strathclyde.
