Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-2017

Publisher

National Council of Teachers of English

Source Publication

College English

Source ISSN

0010-0994

Original Item ID

DOI: 10.58680/ce201729159

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.

Comments

Published version. College English, Vol. 79, No. 6 (July 2017): 593-618. DOI. © 2017 National Council of Teachers of English. Used with permission.

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