Small corners: Explorations of ethics and epistemic harms in forced disclosure research, advocacy, and legislation

Comprising three papers, this dissertation explores ethics and epistemic harms in the research, advocacy, and legislation related to inquiring about college applicants’ involvement with the criminal punishment system, a practice also known as forced disclosure. Each paper takes a different methodological approach to explore unique aspects of ethics and epistemic harm within these three arenas. The first paper considers the ethics of forced disclosure research by reflecting on a previous project which used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to examine forced disclosure practices at public universities in Illinois. The second paper uses a normative case study to examine the ways in which epistemic harm could potentially emerge in collaborative forced disclosure advocacy involving people with and without criminal convictions. The third paper explores epistemic harms emerging from the ways higher education and higher educational institutions were positioned within forced disclosure legislative debates in Illinois. Together, these papers consider ethical and epistemic tensions arising from research, advocacy, and legislation aimed at abolishing or restricting the practice of forced disclosure in higher education.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Erbe, Kimberly

Contributors dc:contributor

• Taylor, Rebecca
• Ginsburg, Rebecca
• Davila, Liv
• Flores, Osly

• Epistemic Harm
• Forced Disclosure
• Ethics

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2024 Kimberly Erbe

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/127452

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F127452