Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Unlevel Knowing Field: An Engagement With Dotson’S Third-Order Epistemic Oppression, Alison Bailey

Faculty Publications - Philosophy

Social justice demands that we think carefully about the epistemic terrain upon which we stand and the epistemic resources each of relies upon to move across that ground safely. Epistemic cartographies are politically saturated. Broadly speaking these terrains are unlevel playing fields—I think of them as unlevel knowing fields— that offer members of socially dominant groups an epistemic home turf advantage. Members of marginalized groups must learn to navigate this field creatively.