Epistemic Justice in Institutional Reform

Sor Juana understood that institutional power distorts whose knowledge counts as valid. Corruption often succeeds because elite voices are granted credibility while those harmed by corruption are dismissed as unreliable or biased. Epistemic justice means restructuring institutional practices to validate testimony from all sources equally. In anti-corruption work, this means establishing mechanisms where workers, citizens, and vulnerable populations can report misconduct and be believed. It requires investigating claims from these communities with the same seriousness given to official statements. Sor Juana's tradition teaches that intellectual traditions that exclude certain voices become morally blind to certain injustices. Fighting corruption requires deliberate efforts to center marginalized knowers—frontline workers who see misconduct firsthand, communities affected by corrupt decisions, and dissenting voices within institutions. Their knowledge is not peripheral but central to understanding how corruption actually operates.