Resisting Epistemic Injustice in English Studies

Abstract

Colonising / colonization is not a process that is limited to the annexation of physical territory and setting up a system of government / rule. Colonisation can and does happen in research, knowledge production and even teaching. The colonization of intellect and scholarship occurs in a familiar pattern – by the global North, of the global South – and often results in epistemic injustice, i.e., excluding and/or silencing ways of knowing, doing, and being (Mahboob, 2023). This includes the imposition of Western research paradigms, unethical methods of data collection, and the selective dissemination of information. In this presentation I will discuss how epistemic injustice occurs in areas of scholarship and research in Sri Lankan English studies, and the impact this has on the global perception of Sri Lankan English(es). The presentation will conclude by suggesting some mechanisms to resist the colonization of local scholarship and reclaim agency in intellectual and scholarly spaces.