In her research, Heather Maring explores the way that early English poems draw upon oral, literary, and ritual forms of signification for their meaning. Her book Signs that Sing: Hybrid Poetics in Old English Verse was published in 2017 with University Press of Florida (http://upf.com/book.asp?id=MARI001) and reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement (TLS), Speculum, and The Medieval Review (TMR). She has articles in English Studies, Studies in Philology, Oral Tradition, and The Midwestern Modern Language Association Journal (MMLA).

Her other specialties are poetry, poetics, and oral traditions. Her poems have appeared in The Southeast Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and other journals. She also served as a contributing editor on UNESCO’s project to create a "Manual on Oral Traditions and Expressions."