On Tuesday, 20 January, at 1 p.m., Dr. Machiel Keestra, Central Diversity Officer at the University of Amsterdam and philosopher at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies, will hold an online webinar as part of EUT+ on the topic of ‘Opening the Black Box: How do epistemic injustice and resistance matter for digital technologies?’
This webinar is of interest to anyone interested in transdisciplinary research, epistemology, inclusion and digital policy. Registration is required.
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Abstract: Coined some 20 years ago, the term ‘epistemic injustice’ (Fricker 2003) refers to the injustice that specifically affects subjects in their condition as subjects of knowledge. Withholding education or knowledge to someone is a form of epistemic injustice, but similarly unjust would be to bar someone from contributing their relevant expertise to an epistemic project or to not take their contribution seriously because of prejudices. Epistemic resistance can follow from such epistemically unjust situations and can take on various forms, as we have recently discussed in our 'Resisting the Imperative of Integration: Epistemic Injustice, Resistance and Openness in Inter- and Transdisciplinary Research’ (Keestra & Dieleman, online July 25, 2025, Issues in Interdisciplinary Studies 42:1-2, pp 269-296). Epistemic resistance may lead to a modest redefinition of the concept that is used to refer to a specific minority group - like persons with autism - but in other cases to the wholesale rejection of a research project’s approach by a relevant target group - as when indigenous communities do reject sustainability research because of its modernist assumptions on human-nature relations.
After presenting the twin concepts of epistemic injustice & resistance, we will explore their relevance for digital technologies: what specific characteristics of these technologies may enhance their risk of creating epistemic injustices? Conversely, how might these technologies enable epistemic resistance? If epistemic injustice is to be avoided, what would that imply for the organization and conceptualization of research of these technologies?
Speaker Bio: Machiel Keestra, PhD, is appointed as the University of Amsterdam’s Central Diversity Officer and is philosopher at its Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies. He has published on a.o. tragedy, the history and philosophy of science, interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity, cognitive neuroscience, diversity and inclusion, dialogue and narrative identity. Keestra has since 2010 been board member and past-president (2014–2016) of the international Association for Interdisciplinary Studies and was founding board member of the global Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Alliance (2017–2023). Keestra e.a. An Introduction to Interdisciplinary Research: Theory and Practice appeared in 2022 with Amsterdam University Press, now Routledge. He co-edited (with Jan C. Schmidt, Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences) a special issue on Philosophy of Interdisciplinarity that appeared in summer 2025.