Dr Agomoni Ganguli-Mitra and Dr Sabrina Germain discuss the injustices, barriers, and challenges faced by minoritised academics in the publishing world, and the changes needed. Recorded on 6 June 2023.
In this episode, we speak with Dr Agomoni Ganguli-Mitra and Dr Sabrina Germain about structural inequities in academic publishing, asking who gets to produce and share knowledge, and what systemic barriers shape the field. Agomoni is a senior lecturer in Bioethics and Global Health Ethics and Deputy Director of the Mason Institute at the University of Edinburgh, whose work addresses power, exploitation, justice, and vulnerability in global health. Sabrina is a Reader in Healthcare Law and Policy at the City University of London, with a focus on distributive justice and the role of medical professionals in shaping healthcare policy. Together, they examine how geographic, linguistic, and institutional biases in publishing perpetuate colonial and elitist hierarchies of knowledge, often excluding scholars from the Global South and marginalised communities. From discriminatory peer review comments to the privileging of Western collaborations, we explore how these practices limit both who gets published and what counts as “valuable” research. This conversation highlights the urgent need for reform in academic publishing—toward more inclusive, representative, and equitable systems of knowledge production that reflect a truly global and justice-oriented scholarly community.
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