Epistemic Injustice and Environmental Testimony

Sor Juana's intellectual claims faced systematic dismissal because her authority was questioned—her gender and status delegitimized her despite rigorous thinking. Environmental testimony from marginalized communities faces identical epistemic injustice: residents report health clusters, but without university credentials their observations are dismissed; Indigenous peoples document ecological knowledge across millennia, yet Western science claims authority; low-income communities identify pollution sources, but industry-funded studies contradict them. This framework recognizes that environmental injustice includes knowledge injustice: the systematic credibility deficit applied to those most affected. Applied practice: elevating community environmental testimony as primary evidence; requiring corporate/governmental claims to meet higher evidentiary burden than community reports; funding independent community-led health and environmental research; recognizing that those living with environmental burden possess specialized, legitimate knowledge; establishing mechanisms where affected communities' accounts carry weight in policy decisions. Sor Juana's insistence on intellectual respect models this restoration: those bearing environmental burden deserve epistemic authority regarding their own situations.