This course will focus on two ideas from recent feminist epistemology: (i) the idea that certain injustices due to gender, racial, and other prejudices are (to borrow Miranda Fricker’s formulation) distinctively epistemic injustices, and (ii) the idea that, in order to understand epistemic practices that lead to knowledge, we also need to understand epistemic practices that lead to ignorance. In exploring these ideas, we will consider the ways in which gender roles and power relations affect what is known (and not known), and by whom.

Course Requirements:

Assessment for this course will be based on some very short response papers, a short midterm paper, and a term paper.

Intended Audience:

Upper-class students with some experience in Philosophy or Women's Studies.

Class Format:

Course meetings will be conducted as seminar discussions.