Writing Up: How Assertions of Epistemic Rights Counter Epistemic Injustice

Beth Godbee

doi:10.58680/ce201729159

College English Jul 2017

Writing Up: How Assertions of Epistemic Rights Counter Epistemic Injustice

Beth Godbee

Abstract

This article sheds light on moments when educators affirm and when writers assert their epistemic rights— the rights to knowledge, experience, and earned expertise. Affirmations and assertions of epistemic rights can work to counter epistemic injustice, or harm done to people in their capacities as knowers. Though an understanding of rhetoric as "epistemic" or "epistemological" is not new (e.g., Berlin; Dowst; Scott; Villanueva), I argue that we need to bring attention to the related terms and conceptual frameworks of epistemic rights and epistemic injustice. Together, these terms help to explain the wrongs (micro-inequities leading to macro-injustices) that manifest when writers are stripped of language, experience, or expertise and their attendant agency, confidence, and even personhood. This study highlights both the social stakes involved and the interactional work needed for putting one's words into the world. Hence, this project contributes empirical research in addition to an understanding of epistemic rights that can counter epistemic injustice.

Journal: College English
Published: 2017-07-01
DOI: 10.58680/ce201729159
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Open Access: Closed
Topics: rhetorical criticism empirical research
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Cited by in this index (1)

Diab et al. (2019)

Rhetorical and Pedagogical Interventions for Countering Microaggressions

Pedagogy

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Writing Up: How Assertions of Epistemic Rights Counter Epistemic Injustice

Abstract

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