The Price of Knowledge: Contributory Injustice Among Low-Income First-Generation Students in Higher Education

Abstract

In this thesis, I argue that low-income, first-generation (LIFG) students experience epistemic injustice and oppression in higher education because of the inequitable distribution of hermeneutic and epistemic resources between LIFG and higher-income, continuing-generation students. I show that the alignment of continuing-generation and not LIFG students' resources within the academy results in institutional barriers to LIFG students' success and full membership in epistemic communities. Further, I develop the concept of “temporal epistemic injustice” to emphasize how temporal and financial constraints affect LIFG students' ability to engage fully in existing academic communities and contribute fully to knowledge production and dissemination activities. This discussion of contributory and temporal injustice is significant because it sets the stage for future work exploring how institutional and socio-economic barriers faced by LIFG students hinder their ability to impact the structure of the academy and, hence, function to maintain current unjust structures.