teorema Essay Prize for Young Scholars 2025

The teorema Essay Prize for Young Scholars 2026 has been awarded to Anna Giorgiou for her paper “Guiding Without Dominating: Safeguarding Epistemic Authority in a Disoriented Age.”

The papers by Nicholas Johnston, “Epistemic Monsters: Folk Devils and Deviance in the Post-Truth Panic,” and Juanma Poyatos, “Social Understanding as the Epistemic Foundation for Democratic Legitimacy,” were shortlisted as finalists.

The members of the board that awarded the Prize in its 2026 edition were Manuel de Pinedo (University of Granada), Cristina Borgoni (University of Bayreuth), and Manuel Almagro (University of Valencia).

 

Topic: Epistemic Authority and Authoritarianism

 

In recent years we have witnessed an escalation in the strategies to shed doubts on scientific consensus and to question the role that institutions, including epistemic institutions, should play in public debates and in democratic deliberation. The attacks extend to science and to the university. The pandemic and the intensification of the effects of climate change have only increased the intensity of these strategies. Science seems more politicized than ever: questions that appeared to be established according to scientific standards are presented as opinions or as ideological statements. At the same time, dangerous and antidemocratic ideas are naturalized in the name of the science of race or gender. And yet, appeal to expert knowledge is far from straightforward. What it is to be an expert has been proved to be a contentious matter, affected by our previous beliefs and identity. Besides, experts should not take over the procedures of political, democratic decision making. How can we oppose the discredit of expert knowledge and authority without paving the way for technocracy?