Heather Stewart, Ph.D.

Heather Stewart, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Oklahoma State University. Her research and teaching take an intersectional feminist approach to analyses of medicine, healthcare, digital technologies, and artificial intelligence, with a particular focus on how power, oppression, and privilege shape individual and collective engagement with these institutions and technologies. Her work also aims to illuminate strategies for mitigating the myriad harms and injustices that occur for marginalized people and communities in these contexts.

Stewart has published peer reviewed research articles in several top journals, including The Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, Feminist Philosophy Quarterly, Social Epistemology, and Perspectives on Psychological Science, among others. She has also contributed several chapters to edited books and volumes, regularly contributes to public-facing philosophy, and is co-editor of a special issue (with Arianna Falbo) of the APA Newsletter on Feminism and Philosophy on First-Generation and Low-Income Philosophy.

Stewart’s first book is Microaggressions in Medicine (co-authored with Lauren Freeman, Ph.D.), published in 2024. She was previously awarded an OSU Humanities Fellowship to work on an interdisciplinary research team on issues in Digital Humanities and AI, and is currently part of a SSHRC Insight Grant funded research team focused on Institutional Distrust and Injustice, where she is focused on LGBTQ+ people’s distrust in healthcare.

Stewart’s research has been recognized with several prestigious awards and accolades, including the Canadian Governor General’s Gold Medal for Academic and Research Excellence and the Oklahoma State University Early Career Faculty Award for Scholarly Excellence.