Philosophy

I joined OSU as an Assistant Professor of Philosophy in August 2023. Before that, from 2021–2023 I was at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. I received my PhD in Philosophy from UNC Chapel Hill in May 2021. I was a visitor at Yale University in the 2019–20 academic year. Before moving to Chapel Hill, I did the BPhil at Oxford University. And before that, I studied at Durham University.

Research Interests:

My research focuses on epistemology, philosophy of action, and the philosophy of logic. I'm interested in abstract issues, like what it is to do something on the basis of a reason. That includes things like bringing an umbrella because it's raining, and drawing a conclusion on the basis of premises. But I'm also keen to draw applied upshot from more theoretical and foundational questions. For instance, in epistemology, I'm interested in how we should organize our epistemic environments to best guard against pernicious influences like fake news.

Semiotics, existentialism, post-structuralism, & the history of continental philosophy.

I'm a philosopher. My research is usually found in the vicinity of metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and/or epistemology.

Research Interests:

Selfhood
Identity
Worldview
Representation and intentionality
Self-knowledge
The de se
Neurodiversity

Ancient Philosophy, Metaphysics and Epistemology, Ethics

Philosophy of Religion, History of Philosophy, Mysticism, Drug Policy

Dr. Heather Stewart is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy. Previously, she completed her MA in Philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder and her Ph.D. at Western University (Ontario, Canada) Her doctoral dissertation was titled "The Moral and Political Status of Microaggressions." Dr. Stewart's primary areas of research specialization are applied ethics (especially bioethics and ethics of artificial intelligence), philosophy of medicine, feminist philosophy, and philosophy of language.

Research Interests:

A central focus of Dr. Stewart's current research involves the various ways that speech and communication can go morally wrong and, more generally, on the power that language has to shape our social and political worlds, often in subtle and difficult-to-detect ways.

Our society is stratified by race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, socioeconomic status or class, gender, sexual orientation, dis/ability status, body size, and more. Dr. Stewart is interested in how our linguistic practices (how we use speech and communicate with one another) contribute to or reinforce problematic forms of social stratification and hierarchy. One speech phenomenon that Dr. Stewart's research examines is called "microaggressions." Microaggressions are frequent and subtle comments (or gestures or features of our social environments) that function to reinforce stereotypes or biases about members of structurally marginalized groups. Dr. Stewart's work in this area aims to clarify what microaggressions are, how they should be understood and researched, how they can harm their recipients, and why they warrant our collective moral concern. Dr. Stewart has published several peer-reviewed articles and book chapters in this area and is currently finishing a book manuscript, Microaggressions in Medicine, under contract with Oxford University Press.

Another focus of Dr. Stewart's current research centers around "algorithmic injustice," or how AI systems and algorithms can reinforce various forms of social and epistemic injustice. Dr. Stewart's forthcoming paper, "A Perfect Storm for Epistemic Injustice: Algorithmic Targeting and Sorting on Social Media," examines the role of social media algorithms in worsening social and epistemic injustice and exacerbating problems of distrust between social groups. This paper is part of a developing research program for Dr. Stewart, focused on AI and online speech and communication ethics, especially on social media platforms.

Dr. Stewart has a passion for interdisciplinary research and collaborating with scholars outside of her home discipline of Philosophy. To this end, Dr. Stewart is thrilled to have been selected for the OSU Humanities Initiative inaugural class of fellows, where she will work in "Digital Humanities" with scholars from History and English. She is also a member of the Transformational History and Philosophy of Science Network, which brings together scholars working on underrepresented areas of history and philosophy of science, such as those which bring insights from queer theory, decolonial theory, and disability studies to bear on more traditional areas of history and philosophy of science.

ABOUT
• Oklahoma State University Interim Director of Africana Studies
• Teaching Assistant Professor, Oklahoma State University Philosophy Department
• Top Critic with Rotten Tomatoes

PUBLIC WRITING
• The New York Times, Regular Contributor
• Slate Magazine, Regular Contributor
• Huffington Post, Contributing Writer


SELECTED MEDIA APPEARANCES
• HufffPost Live
• Public Radio International
• National Public Radio
• TV One
• Canadian Broadcasting Channel
• WNYC, The Brian Lehrer Show

SELECTED EVENTS
• Keynote Speaker, John Brown University's MLK Program, 2018
• Keynote Speaker, Black Male Summit, University of Central Oklahoma, 2018
• Lecture on Race and Pedagogy, SUNY Stony Brook, 2017
• Panelist for Take Root Annual Conference, University of Oklahoma, February 2017
• Public Lecture on Social Diversity and Oklahoma Education for Leadership Oklahoma, February 2017
• Pubic Lecture on Black History, Northeastern Oklahoma College, February 2017
• Keynote, Pittsburgh State University's Black History Gospel Celebration, February 2017
• Workshop for NAACP National Convention, 2016
• Invited Lecture on Race and Voting, University of Oklahoma Center for Social Justice, 2016
• Presenter: Race in Public Policy Breakout Session, Oklahoma Policy Institute, 2016
• Keynote Speaker, MLK and Epistemic Violence, Langston University, January 2015
• Keynote Speaker, Black Nationalism and #BlackLivesMatter, The Big 12 Conference on Black Student Government, February 2015
• Public Lecture on The Theological Origins of White Supremacy, The Conference on Progressive Christianity in February 2015
• Public Lecture on Black Christianity and Black Resistance, National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Washington DC in May, 2015
• Public Lecture on The Confederate Flag and Epistemic Ignorance, Oklahoma University, October, 2015

Research Interests:

Philosophy of Race. Aesthetics.