INEQ Keynote: Seeking epistemic justice or, why practitioner scholarship matters by Dr. Sylvia Gale

Effective community engagement requires honest reckoning with these deceptively simple questions. To do so, we need to acknowledge what Miranda Fricker (2007) calls “epistemic injustice,” or the “harms done to people specifically in their capacity as knowers.” What does it take to create space for people to make sense of their own experiences? Is this the responsibility of researchers, scholars, and institutions of higher education? In this conversation, we will explore these questions by considering a recent example of “practitioner scholarship” conducted in partnership with professional staff in Helsinki’s D-stations.

Speaker: Dr. Sylvia Gale, University of Richmond
Date & time: Thursday, 6 November 2025, 14:15–15:45 (Helsinki Time)
Format: Hybrid 
Where: In person at Faculty of Social Sciences (U37), Room 1066, and online via Zoom
Zoom Link:
Registration Link:

is the Executive Director of the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement at the University of Richmond. In 2023, she was a Mid-Career Professional Development Grantee with the Fulbright Finland Foundation, and was hosted by Diakonissalaitos in an immersive study of professional practices for cultivating civic action