Epistemic Injustice and Credibility

Sor Juana's intellectual contributions were often dismissed or attributed to others because her credibility as a female thinker was structurally compromised. Epistemic injustice describes how privilege operates through believability—certain people are heard as authorities while others, regardless of expertise, are rendered intellectually invisible. This concept examines how privilege doesn't just grant access to knowledge but grants the social authority to be recognized as a knower. Acknowledging privilege requires seeing how we have been trained to trust certain voices automatically while doubting others. Sor Juana faced this constantly: her learning was suspect, her motives questioned, her originality denied. In contemporary life, epistemic injustice appears whenever we believe a wealthy person's analysis of poverty over a poor person's, or accept male expertise on topics where women have lived experience. Recognizing privilege means auditing our own credibility biases.