51³ÉÈËÁÔÆæ

Course Description

Summary

How does one’s social positionality affect one’s status as a knower? Who is heard? Who is believed? This seven-week course is focused on questions of justice and power in relation to knowledge. We will engage with recent work in social epistemology—philosophical theories of belief and knowledge—with an emphasis on feminist epistemologies, anti-racist epistemologies, and epistemologies of resistance. These approaches stress that knowers are embodied, situated, embedded in communities, and have multiple, intersecting social identities. Some questions for our inquiry: (1) How do differences in power make a difference for what one knows? (2) How do differences in power contribute to epistemic injustices (e.g. credibility gaps, silencing, gaslighting, epistemic marginalization, and active ignorance)? (3) How can we address epistemic injustices? How can we move towards greater epistemic justice? 

Likely readings include work by: Karl Marx, G. W. F. Hegel, W. E. B. Du Bois, Patricia Hill Collins, Miranda Fricker, Linda Alcoff, Kristie Dotson, Charles Mills, Gaile Pohlhaus, Jr., Veronica Ivy, Uma Narayan, Shelley Tremain, and José Medina.