Maria Grazia Rossi is an Assistant Professor of Strategic Communication in the Department of Communication Sciences at NOVA FCSH and an integrated member of the NOVA Institute of Philosophy (IFILNOVA), where she co-coordinates the ArgLab Research Colloquium, a permanent research seminar series organised by the Argumentation, Cognition and Language Lab (ArgLab). Her work engages with the complexity of the Humanities, enriching her interdisciplinary approach to communication, argumentation, and healthcare contexts.
The main areas of her academic activity are situated at the intersection of communication sciences and philosophy, with a particular focus on argumentation, pragmatics, and cognitive approaches. Within this framework, her research addresses healthcare communication in clinical and public health contexts. Rossi has worked particularly on the discursive and ethical complexity of healthcare communication, with a specific focus on processes and strategies—such as the use of metaphors—that foster mutual understanding and support patient and citizen participation in health-related decision-making. Her research also addresses medical scepticism and the management of doubt in healthcare controversies.
Since 2019, she has represented the School of Social Sciences and Humanities in the NOVA Saúde Chronic Disease and Infection Group. She is also Associate Editor of Patient Education and Counseling, one of the leading journals in healthcare communication. She served as a member of the Advisory Committee and Deputy National Representative for Portugal at the International Association for Communication in Healthcare (2018–2021).
