Epistemic Justice: Restoring Credibility and Knowledge Authority

Sor Juana faced epistemic injustice: her intellectual contributions were dismissed, her interpretations questioned, her authority to speak on matters of faith and reason systematically undermined. Restorative justice must address this specific form of harm where victims' accounts of what happened are disbelieved or their expertise in assessing their own needs is ignored. This concept, grounded in feminist epistemology and Sor Juana's defenses of women's right to study and contribute knowledge, argues that justice requires restoring the harmed person's credibility and recognizing them as legitimate knowers. In practice, this means centering victim testimony, validating their interpretation of impact, and acknowledging their expertise in determining what healing requires. Punitive systems often leave epistemic injustice unaddressed: a convicted offender remains discredited even after serving time; a victim's account may secure conviction without their authority as a knower being genuinely restored. Restorative approaches can explicitly repair this by creating spaces where victims are heard, believed, and recognized as authorities on their own experience and needs.