Epistemic Justice and Being Heard

Sor Juana faced constant epistemic injustice—her learning dismissed as unwomanly, her knowledge doubted, her intellectual authority denied. Epistemic justice means the social recognition of your right to speak truth about your own experience. For adopted individuals, this directly addresses a specific vulnerability: others may claim authority over your narrative, question your understanding of your own experience, or deny the legitimacy of how you make meaning from your adoption. Epistemic injustice occurs when someone is not heard or believed about their own life. Sor Juana's Response was partly an epistemic assertion: I am a knower, my reasoning is valid, my intellectual claims deserve serious engagement. This concept validates the importance of being believed about your own adopted identity, supported in your own authority as the primary interpreter of your life story, and recognized as legitimate witness to your own experience.