Emmalon Davis

Emmalon Davis is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at The New School. She specializes in ethics, social and political philosophy, and epistemology, especially where these areas intersect with philosophy of race and feminist philosophy. Her recently published work examines the epistemic exclusion (and unjust inclusion) of marginalized groups in spaces in which knowledge is collectively produced. In “Typecasts, Tokens, and Spokespersons” (Hypatia, 2016) she argued that students and faculty of color in predominantly white institutions are often stereotyped to be experts in all areas pertaining to their racial or ethnic difference. As a result, diverse practitioners are pigeonholed into research, teaching, and service trajectories in which their epistemic labor is easily exploited. In “On Epistemic Appropriation” (Ethics, 2018) she offers an account of epistemic appropriation, a kind of epistemic theft that renders marginalized knowers less likely to benefit from the value of their epistemic contributions when collaborating with dominant counterparts. She is currently thinking about how conditions of oppression shape moral obligations.