Conference Critical Political Epistemology
Conference at the Professorship for Epistemology and Theory of Science
Critical Political Epistemology
15-17 September 2026
Kollegiengebäude I, HS 1221
Platz der Universität 3
79098 Freiburg
Please register by 1 September 2026 via email to
political_epistemology@ucf.uni-freiburg.de
Please indicate your name and affiliation (if available).
Abstract submission is now closed. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out during the first half of May 2026.
Critical Political Epistemology Conference
Organized by the Professorship for Epistemology & Theory of Science (University of Freiburg) in collaboration with the Critical Political Epistemology Network (CPEN)
Freiburg, Germany
15-17 September 2026
Questions about the political and social dimensions of knowledge production have been ubiquitous throughout the history of philosophy. In recent years, they have regained prominence under the label of “political epistemology.” Most recently, much of the work explicitly framed as political epistemology has emerged from analytic philosophy, with the underlying assumption that contemporary political issues can be reduced to analytic questions regarding the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge. This literature often failed to engage appropriately with feminist epistemology and philosophy of science, critical theory, de-colonial/post-colonial theory, and Foucauldian approaches – traditions that have long explored political-epistemological questions from diverse and influential perspectives. This conference aims to recentre these approaches within contemporary debates in political epistemology. We explicitly invite work that explores political epistemology from an empirically-grounded inter- and transdisciplinary perspective, engaging with critical knowledge projects that question arbitrary hierarchies and work towards liberatory epistemological theories, epistemic practices and systems. We encourage scholars whose work centres perspectives that are under-represented on the basis of sex/gender (including trans and intersex status), racialisation, migrant background, class, sexuality, religion, disability, and chronic illness to apply.
Thematic areas include:
- Epistemic Injustice (Distributive or Discriminatory) and Epistemic Oppression
- Ideology, Propaganda, and Epistemology of Ignorance
- Epistemic (Dis)Trust
- Epistemic Agents, Epistemic Agency and Epistemic Authority
- Sources and Sites of Knowledge Production
- Political Epistemology of Large Language Models (LLMs)
- Activism, Epistemic Resistance, and Counter-Knowledges
Confirmed keynote speakers include:
- Amandine Catala (University of Québec at Montréal)
- Nadja El Kassar (University of Lucerne)
- Deborah Mühlebach (Free University of Berlin)
- Just Serrano-Zamora (University of Barcelona)
If you have any questions, please send an email to: