Reflections on the Epistemic Violence of Gender in US Undergraduate Classrooms

• In Event: Division by Epistemic Oppression, Reparation through Restorative Pedagogies

Proposal

Introduction
In my undergraduate classrooms, not only do almost all my students have limited understanding of gender that is colonial. But also, they may have been perpetuating gender-related violence in their relationships and interactions in class. This project has two primary goals. First, I explore the nuances of power in the epistemic violence of gender by intersecting theoretical dialogues of epistemic violence, affective injustice, and gender-related violence. Second, I discuss my classroom observations through the highlighted theories.
Theoretical Frameworks
Feminist scholars (i.e., Judith Butler) unveil that all cultures and people are gendered. Decolonial scholars (i.e., Lugones) underscore that the practices of gender have been within the colonizers’ depictions of order. Thus, gender can be a form of difficult knowledge for many people, which requires a process of resistance and self-defense to regenerate affective and cognitive boundaries (Britzman, 2000). Moreover, scholars contended that gender and violence are inseparable (Dunne et al., 2006). Violence is within gender positioning. Meanwhile, gender is a kind of violence—a “regulatory construct that privileges heterosexuality” (Jagose, 1996, 9.83). “All violence is gendered” (Dunne et al., 2006, p. 80).
Epistemic violence refers to the ongoing harmful nature of Eurocentric knowledge, which deliberately diminishes and dispossesses non-European knowledge and their ways of knowing (Santos, 2014; Spivak, 1988; Spivak, 1999; Zembylas, 2025). In the context of higher education, epistemic violence has also been specified as the "academic norms (that) [are] established and fulfilled only by elite Western universities" (Zembylas, 2025, p. 792). Cultural reproduction of inequalities and oppressions among systems and individuals has been encouraged in curriculums and pedagogical approaches.
Furthermore, in the dialogues of epistemic violence, decolonial scholars assert that racial minorities’ gender narratives and rights have been historically and continuously excluded (Lugones, 2007; 2020). Investigating affective injustices for the marginalized can further deepen this assertion. Affective injustices are caused by both emotional regulation and invalidation, as well as lack of uptake (Archer and Mills, 2019; Srinivasan, 2018; Whitney, 2018; Zembylas, 2025). With the combination of these two aspects, questions like "Whose definitions of gender?" and "Gender for whom?" can be emphasized.
Methodology
This project will be autoethnographic writing. Not only will it analyze my recorded stories in class via literature. Also, the project aims to illustrate “facets of cultural experiences” (Ellis et al., 2011, p. 276)
Key Discussions
Observing my classrooms, I conclude that gender is an unfamiliar and uncomfortable concept for almost all my students. Students often mix the usages of gender and sex and fall into the binaries and their stereotypes. Meanwhile, students’ knowledge about gender minorities and the marginalization of various gender identities is limited and within the colonial imaginations. Moreover, students view gender as a fixed nature to which they can only react. They do not consider it a cultural product that is performative. Finally, this project seeks gender’s sociogenic role as both content and pedagogical tools, where other oppressions can be delved deeper at their intersections with via gender.

Author

• Yilin Wei, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities