Epistemic Carcerality and Resistance in Higher Education

This paper draws on frameworks from the philosophical study of epistemic injustice and oppression to explore the epistemic manifestations of carcerality. We argue that people with histories of involvement with the carceral state (system-involved people) experience a distinctive array of epistemic exclusions that amount to epistemic oppression, and that this oppression is one mechanism by which the carceral state sustains and perpetuates itself. We introduce the term epistemic carcerality to refer to this form of oppression that is endemic to the carceral state. Using methods of empirically-engaged philosophy, we explore the contours of epistemic carcerality in the context of higher education both within carceral institutions (e.g., prisons) and on college campuses. We aim to establish epistemic carcerality as a valuable concept that identifies significant and unique epistemic harms encountered and resisted by system-involved people, and to establish it as a pressing concern for higher education institutions.