Microaggressions and Epistemic Injustice in Healthcare

The reading group is dedicated to the study of Microaggressions in Medicine, by Lauren Freeman and Heather Stewart (Oxford University Press, 2024). The book offers a recipient-centred framework for understanding how microaggressions operate within clinical interactions, revealing the subtle yet significant harms they can inflict. Freeman and Stewart distinguish three main types of microaggressions — epistemic, emotional, and self‑identity — and propose practical strategies aimed at reducing their occurrence in healthcare environments. The focus on microaggressions is especially relevant within healthcare, where communicative dynamics are shaped by structural epistemic asymmetries between professionals and patients. Clinical interactions often unfold without a fully shared “language‑game”: healthcare professionals rely on specialised knowledge and technical terminology, while patients express their experiences through figurative language and lay concepts denoting non‑existent medical conditions. This mismatch can lead to misunderstandings and systematically undermine patients’ credibility or interpretive authority, generating conditions for testimonial and hermeneutical injustice (Fricker 2007). These communicative vulnerabilities can further intersect with other harms, including discursive injustice, and affective or emotional injustice. Microaggressions, as analysed by Freeman and Stewart, emerge precisely within this broader landscape of epistemic asymmetry, amplifying the harms experienced by patients and contributing to negative clinical outcomes widely discussed in the literature.

This reading group has two central aims:

• To examine the relationship between microaggressions and epistemic injustice in clinical contexts, analysing how these two forms of harm interact, overlap, or diverge within healthcare communication;
• To critically assess the tripartite distinction proposed by Freeman and Stewart — epistemic, emotional, and identity harms and evaluate whether this typology adequately captures the variety of communicative harms encountered in healthcare settings.

Bringing together students and researchers across disciplines, the reading group provides an academic forum for engaging closely with the book’s arguments and exploring their broader implications for healthcare practice and communication ethics. The reading group will meet over five weekly sessions beginning on 8 January, concluding before 13 February, when Lauren Freeman will be a guest speaker at the ArgLab Research Colloquium, which will also feature a workshop component. This provides participants with a valuable opportunity to engage directly with one of the authors and discuss central themes from the book.

Those who are interested in joining for this and/or subsequent sessions are invited to get in touch with the organisers: Cristina Ganz (c.ganz@studenti.unisr.it), Chiara Midea (chiara.midea@unicatt.it), Maria Grazia Rossi (mgrazia.rossi@fcsh.unl.pt).

Schedule

THURSDAY, 8 JANUARY
16:30–18:00 (Lisbon time/WET)
Online, via Microsoft Teams

Introduction
Chapter 1: Microaggressions: A Brief History
Chapter 2: Microaggressions Reconsidered: A Critique Of The Act-Based Account Of Microaggressions

THURSDAY, 15 JANUARY
16:30–18:00 (Lisbon time/WET)
Online, via Microsoft Teams

Chapter 3: Microaggressions Reconsidered: A Harm-Based Account

THURSDAY, 22 JANUARY
16:30–18:00 (Lisbon time/WET)
Online, via Microsoft Teams

Chapter 4: Epistemic Microaggressions

THURSDAY, 29 JANUARY
16:30–18:00 (Lisbon time/WET)
Online, via Microsoft Teams

Chapter 5: Emotional Microaggressions
Chapter 6: Self-Identity Microaggressions

THURSDAY, 5 FEBRUARY
16:30–18:00 (Lisbon time/WET)
Online, via Microsoft Teams

Chapter 7: How To Avoid Committing Microaggressions: A Practical Guide For
Healthcare Professionals
Conclusion