Understanding oneself through others: Epistemic Injustice in Healthcare X Distributed Cognition

Workshop supported by Wellcome-funded project EPIC 23-24 September 2024

Research within distributed cognition and affectivity emphasises the essential role of other people in realising various cognitive and affective states. Similarly, work on epistemic injustice in healthcare has drawn attention to the influence of other people on our practices of cultivating, sharing, and communicating knowledge about our bodies.

In this workshop, we aim to pursue interesting possibilities for future research at the intersection of these research areas. Some researchers have begun to look at the “dark side” of distributed cognition, scaffolding, and other distributed cognitive and affective practices to develop more socio-politically situated analyses.

Following this turn, we seek to investigate how we use other people to understand our own experiences of ill-health, and how such dynamics may relate to instances of epistemic justice or injustice. We invite abstract proposals on topics such as, but not limited to, the following:

• The role of other people for self-understanding in the context of health
• The distributed nature of health and illness narratives
• Phenomenology of connection and felt-understanding
• Contributions and undermining of sense of agency

We invite prospective participants to interpret these categories broadly so that we can explore interesting new angles for research. For instance, we also welcome submissions on experiences that are not necessarily pathological (such as grief). Moreover, we are interested in concepts adjacent to epistemic injustice (such as affective injustice and gaslighting).

Please send an abstract of 400 words, prepared for blind review, to epicworkshop2024@gmail.com

The deadline for submitting abstracts is 21 July.

We hope to send responses to accepted participants by 29 July.