'Building' Empathy as Epistemology: a Conceptual Blueprint for Scholars of Privilege

• In Event: 3145 - Positionality and the Construction of Feminist Theory

Abstract

This paper designs a conceptual blueprint for the application of empathy as an epistemological tool in the social sciences. Drawing on intersectional scholarship and the work of social psychology, a discussion of empathy’s dimensions, parameters, and limitations confirms that its attainability is disproportionate and previous attempts at operationalizing the term have been problematic. Thus, an intersectional understanding of empathy is offered— particularly to scholars of privilege— in an effort to dismantle privileged dispositions at the conception of any research endeavor.

Author

• Ian Callahan, University at Albany, SUNY