Toward Epistemic Injustice in Research with Autistic People

Amandine Catala
Associate Professor;
Canada Research Chair on Epistemic Injustice and Agency
Department of Philosophy at the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM)

This conference is part of the 2023 Montreal Health Ethics Conference Series

(This conference will be held in French in person and online)

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To attend the conference in person, please register by following this link

To attend this event on Zoom, please register by following this link

To see past conferences: YouTube channel of the Pragmatic Health Ethics Research Unit

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Summary of the presentation: 
Epistemic injustice occurs when a person is not adequately believed or understood because she belongs to a non-dominant group. In light of the slogan of the neurodiversity movement — Nothing about us without us — this presentation examines the different ways in which epistemic injustice can arise when establishing research priorities and modalities in the context of autism. The presentation offers concrete avenues to foster greater epistemic justice for autistic people in the research context.

Biography :
Amandine Catala is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), where she holds the Canada Research Chair on Epistemic Injustice and Agency. Her research focuses on feminist, social, and political philosophy and philosophy of race, disability, and neurodiversity. She is the principal investigator for the SSHRC Insight grant “Minoritized Minds and Knowings: Towards an Inclusive Conception of Epistemic Injustice and Agency.” She is actively involved in several EDI committees at the departmental, faculty, and institutional levels. She has partaken in numerous EDI events at the institutional, provincial, national, and international levels. She is an Autistic self-advocate and the co-founder of the Collectif autiste de l’UQAM, an initiative that aims to bring together and support Autistics who study, work, or teach at UQAM.

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2023 SERIES THEME

Participatory, inclusive, eco-social health: How to innovate and build bridges between democracy, the environment and our health care systems?

More than ever, the interconnections between health and the environment are recognized and represent a burning issue for citizens.  But the power to influence social and natural environments depends closely on the existence of democratic institutions that make room for the voices of individuals and groups. To address these questions, this new series of conferences will address the links between, on the one hand, democracy and its institutions and, on the other hand, the development of sustainable health. Together, we will discuss marginalization and inclusion in the context of women's health, the links between sustainable health and prevention, access to green spaces and spaces for citizen voices and their impact on health, democratic reform of health systems, and many innovative experiments aimed at democratizing health and creating citizen spaces.

Because thinking about health is also working to improve it for everyone.