Accessibility Skip to Global Navigation Skip to Local Navigation Skip to Content Skip to Search Skip to Site Map Menu

Associate Professor Maria Stubbe

Associate Professor & Research Leader

Department of Primary Health Care and General Practice 

Background and Interests

M Stubbe 2018-01

Maria Stubbe is a social scientist with expertise in qualitative health research, interactional sociolinguistics and the study of professional communication. She has worked in the Department as a health researcher since 2003 and joined the permanent staff as senior lecturer and research director in 2008. Maria is a founding member and co-director of the Applied Research on Communication in Health (ARCH) Group, and is a member of the University of Otago Human Ethics Committee (Health.)

She has a PhD in Linguistics from Victoria University of Wellington where she worked as a researcher and lecturer in sociolinguistics/applied linguistics from 1989 to 2003. She was in the team that constructed the New Zealand English section of the International Corpus of English, and was a senior researcher on the NZ Language in the Workplace Project (LWP) from 1996-2003, and continuing since then as an honorary Research Associate. She is the New Zealand national representative on the Advisory Committee of EACH, The International Association for Communication in Healthcare. 

Her current research focuses on various aspects of communication in health settings (especially the detailed study of patient-provider interactions using conversation analysis, and research into patient experiences of health and illness), along with projects on health service delivery, research ethics and clinical education. She has particular experience in multidisciplinary and qualitative research, and has published widely in the fields of sociolinguistics, workplace language, health communication and health services research.

Maria is also the Research Leader within the Department of Primary Health Care and General Practice. 

Teaching Activities

Higher degrees

  • Supervision of PhD and Masters projects

Postgraduate diploma courses

  • Co-convenor HASC 417/817 Health Sciences Research Methods (Diploma/Masters course)
  • Convenor GENA735 Supporting Healthier Lifestyles: Challenging Conversations (Diploma in Primary Health Care course)
  • Guest lectures/professional development workshops on health communication, qualitative research, discourse analysis.
  • Postgraduate Study Skills – convenor academic writing workshop

Undergraduate medical education

  • Resource development and tutoring/lecturing in consultation skills, reflective practice, experiences of addiction and recovery, use of interpreters

Research Activities

Maria's research is based primarily in the multidisciplinary Applied Research on Communication in Health (ARCH) Group. She co-directs a programme of research into communication in clinical practice and patient experiences using data from video recordings of authentic interactions between health professionals and patients, recorded interviews and documents. Since 2003 she has also led the development of the ARCH Corpus, a digitized permanent collection of New Zealand health interactions and associated data for use in research and education.

In her previous role as the department’s Research Director, Maria chaired the research committee which took a strategic overview of research in the department. She supported the development and implementation of a wide range of projects relating to primary health care, and continues to be actively engaged in several health services and educational research projects.

Current projects

Principal Investigator:

  • Diabetes Stories. Understanding the lived experience of people with diabetes in NZ: a narrative inquiry (2014-ongoing) 
  • ‘When you’re 85, then I’ll call you old’: Age and identity in health care interactions (2016-ongoing) 
  • Designing a permanent digital repository for health communication research data (2016 – ongoing)

Co-investigator:

  • General Practitioners, Patients and Conversations about Chronic Pain (2016-2018)
  • Evaluation of Compass Health Project – Weight Management Support in Primary Care (2018)
  • The Art of Deception: Study Habits, Assessment and Moral Integrity in Medical School (2017-2018)
  • Observing Communication in 'High Risk' Ante-Natal Consultations: Developing a Model of Shared Understanding (2016-ongoing) 
  • The Handover Room: A Qualitative Enquiry into the Experience of Morning Clinical Handover for Acute Medical Teams (2016-ongoing) 
  • Assessment of Morbidity Patterns of Common Childhood Illness/Injury Seen in General Practice Settings and the Utilisation of Current Services (2013-2018)
  • Acute Mental Health Wards: Therapeutic Spaces or Stigmatising Places? (2017-ongoing) 

Selected Past Projects

  • The Prevalence and Burden of Herpes Zoster (Shingles) in New Zealand General Practice Populations (2016-2017)
  • Communication in Interpreted Health Encounters (2012-ongoing) 
  • Tracking Health Care Interactions: Patient-Professional Communication (2006-2010)
  • Understanding Diabetes Management-Tracking Communication in Primary Care (2009-2011)
  • TAbOO: Talking about Overweight and Obesity (2011-2016)
  • Demystifying Addiction & Recovery through Personal Stories (2012-2016)
  • H1N1: Models of Primary Care for Responding to Pandemic Influenza (2010-2011)
  • From talk to text: encoding medical notes in the general practice consultation (2008-2012)
  • Lifestyle talk and advice in clinical consultations (2007-2011)
  • Exploring Clinical Decision-Making when Rationing is Explicit (2003-2005)
  • Language in the Workplace Project (Victoria University of Wellington:1996-2003)
  • New Zealand English Discourse Project /Corpus of Spoken New Zealand English

See more past projects

^ Top of page

Publications

Hilder, J., Gray, B., & Stubbe, M. (2019). Integrating health navigation and interpreting services for patients with limited English proficiency: Views of Pacific navigators. Pacific Health Dialog, 21(3), 116-127. doi: 10.26635/phd.2019.602

Weatherall, A., Keevallik, L., & Stubbe, M. (2019). Being incapacitated by pain during medical consultations. Proceedings of the International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis Conference. (pp. 304). Retrieved from http://www.iiemca19.org

Ross, I. A., & Stubbe, M. (2019). Patients' influence on the progressivity of surgeons' extended informings. Proceedings of the International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis Conference. (pp. 250). Retrieved from http://www.iiemca19.org

Stubbe, M. (2018). Miscommunication at work. In B. Vine (Ed.), Routledge handbook of language in the workplace. (pp. 258-271). New York, NY: Routledge.

Donnelly, S., Dinesh, D., Dew, K., & Stubbe, M. (2018). The handover room: A qualitative enquiry into the experience of morning clinical handover for acute medical teams. Internal Medicine Journal. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1111/imj.14142

Authored Book - Research

Holmes, J., & Stubbe, M. (2015). Power and politeness in the workplace: A sociolinguistic analysis of talk at work (2nd ed.). Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 200p.

Holmes, J., & Stubbe, M. (2003). Power and politeness in the workplace. London, UK: Pearson Education, 191p.

^ Top of page

Chapter in Book - Research

Stubbe, M. (2018). Miscommunication at work. In B. Vine (Ed.), Routledge handbook of language in the workplace. (pp. 258-271). New York, NY: Routledge.

Gray, B., Hilder, J., Macdonald, L., Tester, R., Dowell, A., & Stubbe, M. (2017). A New Zealand perspective on providing healthcare for patients with limited English proficiency. In E. A. Jacobs & L. C. Diamond (Eds.), Providing health care in the context of language barriers. (pp. 189-209). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Stubbe, M. (2017). Evolution by design: Building a New Zealand corpus of health interactions. In M. Marra & P. Warren (Eds.), Linguist at work: A Festschrift for Janet Holmes. Wellington, New Zealand: Victoria University Press.

White, S. J., Stubbe, M., Macdonald, L., Dowell, A. C., Dew, K., & Gardner, R. (2016). The referred consultation. In S. White & J. A. Cartmill (Eds.), Communication in surgical practice. (pp. 9-34). Sheffield, UK: Equinox.

Stubbe, M., White, S. J., Macdonald, L., Dowell, A. C., Gardner, R., & Dew, K. (2016). Do surgeons want to operate? Negotiating the treatment plan in surgical consultations. In S. White & J. A. Cartmill (Eds.), Communication in surgical practice. (pp. 124-152). Sheffield, UK: Equinox.

Stubbe, M. (2013). Active listening in conversation: Gender and the use of verbal feedback. In S. Yamazaki & R. Sigley (Eds.), Approaching language variation through corpora: A festschrift in honour of Toshi Saito. (pp. 367-416). Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang.

Dew, K., Stubbe, M., Dowell, A., & Macdonald, L. (2012). Side effects talk in general practice consultations. In B. R. Bates & R. Ahmed (Eds.), Medical communication in clinical contexts. (pp. 95-126). Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt.

Stubbe, M. (2012). Sociolinguistics and intergroup communication. In H. Giles (Ed.), Handbook of intergroup communication. (pp. 70-84). New York: Routledge.

Major, G., Napier, J., & Stubbe, M. (2012). "What happens truly, not textbook!": Using authentic interactions in discourse training for healthcare interpreters. In L. Swabey & K. Malcolm (Eds.), In our hands: Educating healthcare interpreters. (pp. 27-53). Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.

Weatherall, A., Stubbe, M., Sunderland, J., & Baxter, J. (2010). Conversation analysis and critical discourse analysis in language and gender research: Approaches in dialogue. In J. Holmes & M. Marra (Eds.), Femininity, feminism and gendered discourse: A selected and edited collection of papers from the Fifth International Language and Gender Association Conference (IGALA5). (pp. 213-244). Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars.

Holmes, J., & Stubbe, M. (2004). Strategic code-switching in New Zealand workplaces: Scaffolding, solidarity and identity construction. In J. House & J. Rehbein (Eds.), Multilingual communication (vol. 3). (pp. 133-153). Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins B. V..

Holmes, J., & Stubbe, M. (2003). ″Feminine″ workplaces: Stereotype and reality. In J. Holmes & M. Meyerhoff (Eds.), The handbook of language and gender. (pp. 573-599). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Stubbe, M., Holmes, J., Vine, B., & Marra, M. (2000). Forget Mars and Venus, let's get back to earth!: Challenging gender stereotypes in the workplace. In J. Holmes (Ed.), Gendered speech in social context: Perspectives from gown and town. (pp. 231-258). Wellington, New Zealand: Victoria University Press.

Stubbe, M., & Holmes, J. (2000). Talking Maori or Pakeha in English: Signalling identity in discourse. In A. Bell & K. Kuiper (Eds.), New Zealand English. (pp. 249-278). Wellington, New Zealand: Victoria University Press.

^ Top of page

Journal - Research Article

Hilder, J., Gray, B., & Stubbe, M. (2019). Integrating health navigation and interpreting services for patients with limited English proficiency: Views of Pacific navigators. Pacific Health Dialog, 21(3), 116-127. doi: 10.26635/phd.2019.602

Donnelly, S., Dinesh, D., Dew, K., & Stubbe, M. (2018). The handover room: A qualitative enquiry into the experience of morning clinical handover for acute medical teams. Internal Medicine Journal. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1111/imj.14142

Dowell, A., Stubbe, M., Macdonald, L., Tester, R., Gray, L., Vernall, S., … Dew, K. (2018). A longitudinal study of interactions between health professionals and people with newly diagnosed diabetes. Annals of Family Medicine, 16(1), 37-44. doi: 10.1370/afm.2144

Turner, N. M., MacRae, J., Nowlan, M. L., McBain, L., Stubbe, M. H., & Dowell, A. (2018). Quantifying the incidence and burden of herpes zoster in New Zealand general practice: A retrospective cohort study using a natural language processing software inference algorithm. BMJ Open, 8, e021241. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-021241

Gray, L., Stubbe, M., Macdonald, L., Tester, R., Hilder, J., & Dowell, A. C. (2018). A taboo topic? How general practitioners talk about overweight and obesity in New Zealand. Journal of Primary Health Care, 10(2), 150-158. doi: 10.1071/HC17075

Gray, B., Hilder, J., Macdonald, L., Tester, R., Dowell, A., & Stubbe, M. (2017). Are research ethics guidelines culturally competent? Research Ethics, 13(1), 23-41. doi: 10.1177/1747016116650235

Hilder, J., Gray, B., Dowell, A., Macdonald, L., Tester, R., & Stubbe, M. (2017). ‘It depends on the consultation’: Revisiting use of family members as interpreters for general practice consultations – when and why? Australian Journal of Primary Health, 23, 257-262. doi: 10.1071/PY16053

Dowell, A., Darlow, B., Macrae, J., Stubbe, M., Turner, N., & McBain, L. (2017). Childhood respiratory illness presentation and service utilisation in primary care: A six-year cohort study in Wellington, New Zealand, using natural language processing (NLP) software. BMJ Open, 7(7), e017146. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017146

Mathieson, F., Jordan, J., Merrick, P., & Stubbe, M. (2017). Juicy conceptualizations: Increasing alliance through attending to client metaphoric language. Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapy, 45(6), 577-589. doi: 10.1017/s1352465817000339

Dowell, A., Morris, C., McDonald, L., & Stubbe, M. (2017). "I can't bend it and it hurts like mad": Direct observation of gout consultations in routine primary health care. BMC Family Practice, 18(91). doi: 10.1186/s12875-017-0662-9

Canty, J., Stubbe, M., Steers, D., & Collings, S. (2016). The trouble with bullying: Deconstructing the conventional definition of bullying for a child-centred investigation into children's use of social media. Children & Society, 30(1), 48-58. doi: 10.1111/chso.12103

Morris, C., Macdonald, L., Stubbe, M., & Dowell, A. (2016). "It's complicated": Talking about gout medicines in primary care consultations: A qualitative study. BMC Family Practice, 17(1), 114. doi: 10.1186/s12875-016-0515-y

Barton, J., Dew, K., Dowell, A., Sheridan, N., Kenealy, T., Macdonald, L., Tester, R., … Gray, L., & Stubbe, M. (2016). Patient resistance as a resource: Candidate obstacles in diabetes consultations. Sociology of Health & Illness, 38(7), 1151-1166. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.12447

Mathieson, F., Jordan, J., Carter, J. D., & Stubbe, M. (2016). Nailing down metaphors in CBT: Definition, identification and frequency. Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapy, 44(2), 236-248. doi: 10.1017/S1352465815000156

MacRae, J., Darlow, B., McBain, L., Jones, O., Stubbe, M., Turner, N., & Dowell, A. (2015). Accessing primary care Big Data: The development of a software algorithm to explore the rich content of consultation records. BMJ Open, 5(8), e008160. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-008160

Weatherall, A., & Stubbe, M. (2015). Emotions in action: Telephone-mediated dispute resolution. British Journal of Social Psychology, 54(2), 273-290. doi: 10.1111/bjso.12082

MacRae, J., Love, T., Baker, M. G., Dowell, A., Carnachan, M., Stubbe, M., & McBain, L. (2015). Identifying influenza-like illness presentation from unstructured general practice clinical narrative using a text classifier rule-based expert system versus a clinical expert. BMC Medical Informatics & Decision Making, 15, 78. doi: 10.1186/s12911-015-0201-3

Dew, K., Stubbe, M., Signal, L., Stairmand, J., Dennett, E., Koea, J., Simpson, A., Sarfati, D., … Holdaway, M. (2015). Cancer care decision making in multidisciplinary meetings. Qualitative Health Research, 25(3), 397-407. doi: 10.1177/1049732314553010

Mathieson, F., Jordan, J., Carter, J. D., & Stubbe, M. (2015). The metaphoric dance: Co-construction of metaphor in cognitive behaviour therapy. Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 8, e24. doi: 10.1017/S1754470X15000628

White, S. J., Stubbe, M. H., Macdonald, L. M., Dowell, A. C., Dew, K. P., & Gardner, R. (2014). Framing the consultation: The role of the referral in surgeon-patient consultations. Health Communication, 29(1), 74-80. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2012.718252

Claridge, R., Gray, L., Stubbe, M., Macdonald, L., Tester, R., & Dowell, A. C. (2014). General practitioner opinion of weight management interventions in New Zealand. Journal of Primary Health Care, 6(3), 212-220.

White, S. J., Stubbe, M. H., Dew, K. P., Macdonald, L. M., Dowell, A. C., & Gardner, R. (2013). Understanding communication between surgeon and patient in outpatient consultations. ANZ Journal of Surgery, 83(5), 307-311. doi: 10.1111/ans.12126

Macdonald, L., Stubbe, M., Tester, R., Vernall, S., Dowell, T., Dew, K., Kenealy, T., Sheridan, N., Docherty, B., Gray, L., & Raphael, D. (2013). Nurse-patient communication in primary care diabetes management: An exploratory study. BMC Nursing, 12(20). doi: 10.1186/1472-6955-12-20

Dowell, A., Stubbe, M., Scott-Dowell, K., Macdonald, L., & Dew, K. (2013). Talking with the alien: Interaction with computers in the GP consultation. Australian Journal of Primary Health, 19(4), 275-282. doi: 10.1071/PY13036

Moriarty, H. J., Stubbe, M. H., Chen, L., Tester, R. M., Macdonald, L. M., Dowell, A. C., & Dew, K. P. (2012). Challenges to alcohol and other drug discussions in the general practice consultation. Family Practice, 29(2), 213-222. doi: 10.1093/fampra/cmr082

Gray, B., Hilder, J., & Stubbe, M. (2012). How to use interpreters in general practice: The development of a New Zealand toolkit. Journal of Primary Health Care, 4(1), 52-61. doi: 10.1071/HC12052

Gray, B., Stanley, J., Stubbe, M., & Hilder, J. (2011). Communication difficulties with limited English proficiency patients: Clinician perceptions of clinical risk and patterns of use of interpreters. New Zealand Medical Journal, 124(1342). Retrieved from http://journal.nzma.org.nz/journal/124-1342/4861/content.pdf

Gardner, J., Dew, K., Stubbe, M., Dowell, T., & Macdonald, L. (2011). Patchwork diagnoses: The production of coherence, uncertainty, and manageable bodies. Social Science & Medicine, 73(6), 843-850. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.12.010

Moriarty, H., Stubbe, M., Bradford, S., Tapper, S., & Lim, B. T. (2011). Exploring resilience in families living with addiction. Journal of Primary Health Care, 3(3), 210-217.

Pullon, S., McKinlay, E., Stubbe, M., Todd, L., & Badenhorst, C. (2011). Patients' and health professionals' perceptions of teamwork in primary care. Journal of Primary Health Care, 3(2), 128-135.

Dew, K., Stubbe, M., Macdonald, L., Dowell, A., & Plumridge, E. (2010). The (non) use of prioritisation protocols by surgeons. Sociology of Health & Illness, 32(4), 545-562. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9566.2009.01229.x

Dew, K., Plumridge, E., Stubbe, M., Dowell, T., Macdonald, L., & Major, G. (2008). 'You just got to eat healthy': The topic of CAM in the general practice consultation. Health Sociology Review, 17(4), 396-409.

Stubbe, M., Dowell, T., Plumridge, L., MacDonald, L., & Dew, K. (2008). Antibiotics: Prescribing dilemma: Do our GPs say one thing while doing another? New Zealand Pharmacy, 28(3), 30362.

Dew, K., Dowell, T., Stubbe, M., Plumridge, E., & Macdonald, L. (2008). 'Treating' patients differently: A qualitative study of how clinical and social factors shape interactions between doctors and patients. New Zealand Family Physician, 35(6), 282-386.

More publications...