CFP: Wagadu: Epistemic Injustice in Practice

Call for Publications

Theme: Epistemic Injustice in Practice
Publication: Wagadu: Journal of Transnational Women's and Gender
Studies
Date: Special Issue (2015)
Deadline: 1.3.2015

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From Franziska Dübgen [email protected]>

The notion of epistemic justice is currently challenging the
hegemonic vocabulary of justice that mainly focuses on economic and
political aspects of domination. Distributive justice primarily looks
at how within the realm of the economy a government shall deliver a
fair distribution of goods, whereas theories of justice, following
John Rawls, have shifted focus onto procedural and institutional
demands of justice. However, both kinds of justice are not able to
cope with certain concerns raised by feminist and postcolonial
theorists and activists. Even liberals who try to “include”
marginalized voices in mainstream discourse tend to lack awareness of
epistemic marginalization on the level of representation and
stereotyping. In contrast, theories of epistemic justice argue that
power is reproduced on a level of knowledge production, language and
representation and that it may perpetuate existing asymmetrical power
positions in different segments of (global) society.

The academic debate on epistemic in/justice was triggered by Miranda
Fricker’s groundbreaking monograph (2007) that addresses
“testimonial” injustices by which subjects are excluded as agents of
knowledge as well as “hermeneutical injustice” as a lack of the
adequate grammar to articulate the harm experienced. The theory
implicitly draws on the nation state as a context for justice and
presupposes its citizens as prime moral agents. Elizabeth Anderson
broadened the debate by looking at how not just individuals, but
institutions sustain epistemic injustice on a structural level
(2012). Furthermore, by means of the notion of “cognitive injustice”,
Bonaventura de Sousa Santos prominently discussed the mechanisms of
silencing indigenous or subaltern knowledge on a global scale (2007).
There is no global justice without cognitive justice, he demands.
Finally, José Medina (2013) deals with culpable ignorance and
epistemic responsibility by introducing some ethical maxims to
promote epistemic justice.

This issue invites papers dealing with the following sorts of
questions: What are the specific kinds of injustices we are able to
challenge under the rubric of “epistemic injustice”? What are
remedies to counter these injustices? How do we need to conceptually
specify “epistemic justice” in order to grasp the meaning of current
feminist social struggles?

The special issue will contain an editorial providing an introduction
to current philosophical debate on epistemic justice. Contributions
are invited to address the following topics amongst others:

- Different realms of epistemic (in)justice
- Particular case studies of epistemic (in)justice that highlight its
  working in practice
- Gender, race and epistemic injustice
- Epistemic injustice intersecting other domains of transnational
  domination (global economy, political power etc.)
- Epistemic injustice in the academy
- Remedies for epistemic injustice
- How epistemologies of resistance challenge hegemonic knowledges

Abstracts (300 words) are due by March 1, 2015, requested full papers
by July 30, 2015. The special issue is scheduled for publication by
the end of 2015. Potential contributors may email to:
[email protected]

Guest Editor:
Franziska Dübgen, PhD
Lichtenberg-Kolleg, University of Kassel, Germany