Locating Voices, Not Just Sources: Using an Epistemic Justice Lens to Diversify Evidence through Social Media

Date/Time
Date(s) - 10/07/2025
10:00 am - 12:00 pm

Led by Ashley McKeown, Heather Campbell, Katie Holmes, Lea Sansom, Britney Glasgow-Osment, Dani Dilkes, and Dr. Marguerite Lengyell

Western University

In traditional academic research, students are often instructed to prioritize peer-reviewed sources, reinforcing epistemic exclusion. This interactive workshop introduces an open educational resource (OER) that reframes source evaluation by teaching students to locate marginalized voices in digital spaces, including social media. This flexible OER challenges conventional search strategies by centering epistemic justice in knowledge retrieval and appraisal.

• Workshop participants will first explore an overview of the module’s core principles before engaging directly with three of its interactive lessons. These lessons guide learners in:
• Positionality in information gathering, encouraging reflection on whose voices are centered or excluded;
• Inclusive searching, emphasizing ways to use social media platforms to identify lived experiences, community advocacy, and expertise beyond the academy.
• Critical evaluation, recognizing the bias inherent to every knowledge source, understanding mis and disinformation, and examining how algorithmic bias silences or hides certain voices.
• Knowledge creation, ensuring retrieved content contributes to diverse, evidence-informed perspectives rather than reinforcing harmful stereotypes or bigoted narratives.

Participants will work individually or in groups to navigate real-world case studies, using social media sources to broaden the suite of evidence considered in research. Discussions will focus on the implications of decolonizing information retrieval, the challenges of non-neutral library instruction, and the ethical complexities of engaging with user-generated content.

By the end of the session, participants will leave with a flexible OER and strategies for integrating an epistemic justice lens into research and teaching practices across disciplines. This session is ideal for educators, librarians, and faculty committed to expanding knowledge equity in digital research environments.

Ashley McKeown (she/her) is an uninvited white settler of Irish descent, who lives, works, and plays on the ancestral lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, L?napéewak nations, the first and rightful inhabitants. As a Certified Canadian Nurse Educator and Teaching Fellow for the Faculty of Health Sciences, she leads the development of an epistemic justice-based curriculum. Her goal is to redefine perceptions of “best evidence” and research competencies for students in health professional programs. Ashley’s scholarly focus explores how integrating epistemic justice into evidence-based practice can foster cultural humility among health professional students and facilitate the creation of culturally safe healthcare spaces.

Heather Campbell (she/her) is a white, uninvited settler of Scottish and Irish descent, who lives and works on Treaty 6 territory, traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, L?napéewak, and Chonnonton nations. As Curriculum Librarian for Western University, she supports the university’s strategic curricular initiatives as both a member of Western Libraries and the Centre for Teaching and Learning. Heather’s scholarship looks at curriculum decolonization, epistemic justice, and teacher identity.

Katie Holmes is an uninvited settler of English and Scottish descent who lives and works on the lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, L?napéewak, and Chonnonton peoples. She works as a Teaching and Learning Librarian at Western University in London, Ontario, specializing in undergraduate Health Sciences. Having started her career at Brescia University College, Canada’s last women’s university, she cultivated a commitment to a feminist pedagogical approach and ethic of care that continues to guide her work. Her current research explores epistemic justice in health sciences library instruction and its intersections with evidence synthesis.

Lea Sansom is white settler of British descent. Originally from Toronto, she now lives and works in London, Ontario on the traditional territories of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, L?naapéewak and Chonnonton Nations. She is a Teaching and Learning Librarian at Western University responsible for psychology, business, economics, management studies, and political science. Informed by a feminist approach, her research interests lie in the impacts of new technologies on information literacy, and the resulting consequences on an individual and societal level.

Britney Glasgow-Osment is a Black Caribbean settler of Vincentian descent. Born in Scarborough, Ontario, on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, Britney currently resides on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe Mississauga, near the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation, within the lands covered by the Williams Treaty. She is a Research Associate at the Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing at Western University. With a background in interdisciplinary medical sciences, her research is grounded in the belief that multiple truths and pathways to knowledge not only exist but are essential for creating inclusive, culturally responsive educational environments. She actively seeks opportunities to apply an epistemic justice lens to reevaluating research methods and teaching practices that elevate diverse perspectives and experiences.

Dani Dilkes is a doctoral scholar, currently exploring the use of participatory design processes in higher education to create more inclusive learning futures. She also currently works an educational developer at the Centre for Teaching and Learning at Western University, where her work focuses on digital learning, emergent technologies, and inclusive teaching. Approaching her work through a critical pedagogy lens, Dani recognizes the complexity of design bias in educational, technological, and social systems and is invested in creating space for all those impacted by educational designs to work together to shape the future.

Dr. Marguerite Lengyell is an Assistant Professor of Counseling Psychology at Western University, London, Ontario. A psychologist specializing in culturally affirming practices, she integrates her expertise with her lived experience. As a racialized settler to Turtle Island, she acknowledges that settlers are diverse and that she and her family occupy stolen Indigenous land. While her parents immigrated seeking a better future, she recognizes how she has benefited from this reality. Her research, teaching, and clinical practice center on cultural humility, equity, and social justice in counseling psychology.