Maxwell-Stewart has been Associate Lecturer, School of History and Classics, University of Tasmania.With Cassandra Pybus (q.v.), Maxwell-Stewart published American Citizens, British Slaves: Yankee Political Prisoners in an Australian Penal Colony 1839-1850 (MUP, 2002), which deals with the history of American citizens sent as convicts to Tasmania (Van Diemen's Land). In 2007, Maxwell-Stewart published Closing Hell's Gates: The Death of a Convict Station which was shortlisted for the Tasmania Book Prize and won the Margaret Scott Prize in 2009. Closing Hell's Gates details the history of the Sarah Island convict settlement in Macquarie Harbour.