Periagoge
Concept
1 min read

Epistemic Justice and the Right to Know

The claim that access to education, information, and intellectual development is a human right, not a privilege for the elite, central to dismantling unjust systems.

Juana
Why It Matters

Sor Juana's famous defense of women's right to study all disciplines, her critique of those who would deny education to women and indigenous peoples, asserts that injustice operates partly through the control of knowledge. She understood that denying people the tools to understand their world is a form of oppression. Gandhi similarly saw education as essential to swaraj (self-rule) and satyagraha: an informed, literate population can recognize injustice, articulate its causes, and imagine alternatives. In nonviolent resistance, epistemic justice becomes a strategy: ensuring that oppressed communities can access information, develop critical consciousness, and claim authority over their own narratives. Sor Juana's life demonstrates that expanding access to knowledge is itself a revolutionary act, one that strikes at the root of hierarchical systems that depend on keeping people ignorant.

Helpful guides
Juana
Identity & Justice
Peri
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Journey
The Examined Path Through Gandhian satyagraha and nonviolent resistance
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