Maria Novotny

Maria Novotny, PhD is a co-founder and co-director of The ART of Infertility and an assistant professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where she teaches in the PhD Program in Public Rhetoric and Community Engagement. Her dissertation, “The ART of Infertility: A Community Project Rhetorically Conceiving Failed Fertility,” overviews her collaboration with The ART of Infertility and features the stories of three infertile women who created pieces of art for the project. The findings of her research document how art, an extension of multimodal-making, is used as a rhetorical practice to navigate (and advocate after receiving) an infertility diagnosis. Broadly, her research advocates for curated exhibits of patient artwork as a method to facilitate more effective, patient-centered communication in healthcare settings. Maria's research on infertility and reproductive justice has been published in several peer-reviewed journals including Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, Rhetoric Review, and Technical Communication Quarterly. The ART of Infertility was the 2018 recipient of the Hope Award for Innovation, given by RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association for its work communicating patient experiences through arts programming. Maria lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.