ABSTRACT
"Epistemology" can be defined as the "theory of knowledge", but in critical domains of the social sciences and humanities, epistemology more generally refers to "ways of knowing". Critical studies of epistemology can be profound precisely because they help to destabilize taken-for-granted knowledge's, such as beliefs in fundamental differences between races, genders, and people of different sexual orientations. This chapter represents a constellation of thinking about epistemology from Black feminist social science, lesbian women of color activism, feminist philosophy of science, Black queer sociology, and literary criticism. Barbara Smith has been a leading Black feminist writer and activist since 1960s. She targets the center of women's studies as an academic discipline and addresses the salience of and silence around race and racism in White academic feminism. Roderick Ferguson has showcased how the intersections of queer studies and African American studies mean much more than Black + gay; indeed, the epistemological calculus of such a project is infinitely more complicated and consequential.
