In the most basic sense, “epistemic injustice” means that someone is wronged in her capacity as a knower. Examples abound: attributing less credibility to certain knowers because of their gender, race or class, silencing others’ voices in specific social situations, or hindering whole communities to develop an adequate vocabulary to describe their social suffering are just a few forms that epistemic injustice can take.
The seminar has two aims. On the one hand, students will be introduced to the concept of “epistemic injustice” and its discussion by a close reading of Miranda Fricker’s seminal book Epistemic Injustice. Power & the Ethics of Knowing (2007). We will also look at the most important criticisms (especially from black and feminist epistemology) and the interdisciplinary development of these debates. For epistemic injustice has become an important concept not just in philosophy but in the social sciences, too. On the other hand, students will develop their own (small) projects in the field of “epistemic injustice” the second half of the seminar. These can be theoretical contributions to the philosophical, sociological or political discussion as well as empirical studies of specific phenomena of possible epistemic injustices, or combinations thereof. The seminar concludes with a one-day conference in which students present and discuss their projects.
Preparatory Reading
Fricker, Miranda (2010 [2007]): Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing. Oxford: Oxford University Press. You will have to buy this book before the seminar starts!
Kidd, Ian James, José Medina and Gaile Pohlhaus (eds.) (2017): The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Injustice. London/New York: Routledge.
Medina, José: The Epistemology of Resistance. Gender and Racial Oppression, Epistemic Injustice, and Resistant Imaginations. Oxford 2013.
Requirements
There are no special requirements.
Assessments
For a detailed account of what you have to do to pass the seminar, please read the syllabus once it becomes available.
The seminar culminates in a joint conference together with the course “Research Design Across Disciplines” taught by Ece Ergin on 14 July 2023, from ca. 10-17h.
All core texts will be made available via ILIAS.