Sounding the classroom: Sonic methods as tools for a pedagogy of epistemic justice

Abstract (English)

Modern academia remains shaped by visualist and scriptist biases that privilege sight and text as the dominant modes of knowledge production. Despite growing critique from sensory and media anthropology, these biases continue to structure classroom practices, reinforcing colonial and culturally imperial hierarchies of knowledge. This paper draws on scholarship from sensory anthropology and Global South epistemologies to explore how sound and sonic media can disrupt these dominant paradigms and contribute to epistemic justice.
Anthropology students are overwhelmingly taught how to read and write through readings and written assignments. Yet, decisions around sensory modalities and media formats are deeply political. They reflect dynamics of domination and resistance, shaping whose knowledge is valued and how it circulates. Training sound and using sonic media in the classroom appear then to be not only one choice among many exercises, activities and assignments for an engaging “multisensory classroom”, but also potential tools towards epistemic justice. Drawing from my courses on “Anthropology of Sound,” “Sonic Ethnography,” and “Religion and Media,” I present a range of classroom practices that center listening and sonic production. These include collaborative playlist-making, podcast and sound paper analysis, training in field recording and audio editing, and using podcasts and sound compositions as legitimate academic outputs. Techniques such as playback, dialogic editing, and soundwalks further cultivate embodied, collaborative modes of knowing. These methods are contextualized within histories of listening and musical epistemicide, encouraging students to engage with alternative sensory epistemologies and expand their capacities for critical, decolonial listening. Beyond enhancing engagement, such sonic practices foster community-building through group work and shared songs.
Ultimately, this paper invites fellow educators to collectively foster a long-lasting, translocal network of practitioners committed to a pedagogy of epistemic justice.