Epistemic violence

Often used interchangeably with epistemological violence, but sometimes with a narrower focus on the harm done through silencing, misrepresentation, or exclusion of marginalized knowers. It includes: denying someone credibility because of their identity (epistemic injustice), forcing a group to speak in a dominant language (linguistic violence), or erasing their contributions from history. Epistemic violence maintains power hierarchies by controlling who is heard and what counts as knowledge. It is a central concept in decolonial and feminist epistemology.

Epistemic violence Example: “The peer reviewers rejected the indigenous scholar’s paper because it used oral testimony as evidence. That epistemic violence: imposing Western evidentiary standards to silence other ways of knowing.”

Epistemic violence by Abzugal June 5, 2026