The Epistemology of Disasters and Social Change: Pandemics, Protests, and Possibilities

An earthquake in Mexico City spurs the rise of democracy. A plague in South Africa lays the foundations for apartheid. A terrorist attack on New York City triggers massive shifts in global security. A global pandemic sets the stage for the largest civil rights protests in generations.

Beyond their physical impact, disasters assault our certainty and shape a narrow space to alter the structure of what we believe. That change can lead us toward disinformation and authoritarianism, or it can lead us toward greater solidarity and human rights. It all depends on the choices we make as we live through crisis; on how, in fact, we choose to know each other.

The Epistemology of Disasters and Social Change draws on social epistemology, disaster sociology, psychology and feminist philosophy to investigate how disasters function as cauldrons of social transformation, for good and ill. We wrestle with how disasters change us, moment by moment, and provide new strategies to help these tragic eventsproduce positive social transformation, leading to a brighter future during this century of crisis.

Jordan Pascoe is professor of philosophy at Manhattan College. She is a feminist philosopher who works in moral, social, and political philosophy, feminist epistemology, Kantian philosophy, and philosophy of race. She writes about sex, disasters, domestic and caregiving labor, and intersectionality. Her first book is Kant’s Theory of Labour.

Mitch Stripling is the director of the New York City Pandemic Response Institute (PRI). PRI is operated by Columbia University with key partner the City University of New York School of Public Health and Health Policy. He has a long history of leadership roles in emergency management, disaster response and planning, coordination, and response to public health crises, including as national director for Emergency Preparedness and Response at Planned Parenthood (PPFA), and as an assistant commissioner at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH). Prior to his roles in New York City, Stripling coordinated disaster responses for the Florida Department of Health. He has helped plan and implement the responses to more than twenty federally declared disasters and public health emergencies.