DEI Toolkit

The word epistemicide was coined in 1998 by sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos, who wrote, "Unequal exchanges amongst cultures have always implied the death of the knowledge of the subordinated culture, and hence the death of the social groups that possessed it." It has been further explored by several researchers, including linguistic scholar Karen Bennett and philosopher Dr. Brenda Fricker. Dr. Fricker identified two areas of epistemic injustice she named the Primary and Secondary Harms. The Primary Harm is Testimonial Injustice, which occurs when a speaker's credibility is unjustly deflated due to prejudice on the part of the hearer. The Secondary Harm is Hermeneutical Injustice, which occurs when there is a gap in collective interpretive resources that puts someone at an unfair disadvantage when trying to make sense of their social experiences.

More recently, library and information science professor and researcher Dr. Beth Patin has examined the implications of epistemicide for libraries and information studies, stating:
"The information professions need a paradigmatic shift to address the epistemicide happening within our field and the ways we have systematically undermined knowledge systems falling outside of Western traditions. Epistemicide is the killing, silencing, annihilation, or devaluing of a knowledge system. We argue epistemicide happens when epistemic injustices are persistent and systematic and collectively work as a structured and systemic oppression of particular ways of knowing. We present epistemicide as a conceptual approach for understanding and analyzing ways knowledge systems are silenced or devalued within Information Science. We extend Fricker's framework by: (a) identifying new types of epistemic injustices, and (b) by adding to Fricker's concepts of Primary and Secondary Harm and introducing the concept of a Third Harm happening at an intergenerational level. Addressing epistemicide is critical for information professionals because we task ourselves with handling knowledge from every field. Acknowledgement of and taking steps to interrupt epistemic injustices and these specific harms are supportive of the social justice movements already happening."

Dr. Patin has since expanded upon this, writing:

"Building from our recent identification of the existence of epistemicide within the IS field (Patin et al., 2020), this work challenges the information field to become an epistemologically just space working to correct the systemic silencing of certain ways of knowing. This chapter examines the four types of epistemic injustices—testimonial, hermeneutical, participatory, and curricular—occurring within libraries and archives and argues for a path forward to address these injustices within our programs, services, and curricula. It looks to digital humanities and to reevaluations of professional standards and LIS education to stop epistemicide and its harms. This chapter demonstrates how to affirm the power and experience of Black lives and highlight their experiences through the careful acquisition, collection, documentation, and publishing of relevant historical materials. Addressing epistemicide is critical for information professionals because we task ourselves with handling knowledge from every field. There has to be a reckoning before the paradigm can truly shift; if there is no acknowledgment of injustice, there is no room for justice."

Dr. Patin has produced numerous articles, book chapters, and presentations exploring the history of epistemicide in information science and making recommendations for ways to address the issue. A recording of a 2021 presentation titled The Ethics of Epistemic Justice: Addressing Epistemicide through Social Justice in LIS can be viewed on Syracuse University's iSchool YouTube channel, and is embedded below.

Dr. Patin shared her work with the New York State of Education Board of Regents on March 11, 2024 with a presentation titled Nurturing Knowledge: Ending Epistemicide, Transforming Education, Strengthening Communities. That presentation can be downloaded from the Board of Regents website.

A full listing of Dr. Patin's research is available on her website. 

Sources

• de Sousa Santos, B. (1998). The Fall of the Angelus Novus: Beyond the Modern Game of Roots and Options. Current Sociology, 46(2), 81-118. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392198046002007
• Bennett, K. (2007). Epistemicide! The tale of a predatory discourse.
  The Translator, 13(2), 151–169. https://doi.org/10.1080/
  13556509.2007.10799236
• Fricker, M. (2007). Epistemic injustice: Power and the ethics of knowing. Oxford University Press.
• Patin, B. J. (2021). Interrupting epistemicide: A practical framework for naming, identifying, and ending epistemic injustice in the information professions. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 1(13). https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24479
• Patin, B.J.H., Smith, M., Youngman, T., Yeon, J. and Kambara, J. (2023), "Epistemicide and Anti-Blackness in Libraries, Archives, and Museums: Working Toward Equity Through Epistemic Justice Practices", Black, K. and Mehra, B. (Ed.) Antiracist Library and Information Science: Racial Justice and Community (Advances in Librarianship, Vol. 52), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 15-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0065-283020230000052004