How do societies decide what counts as knowledge? Although knowledge is often understood as something that exists inside individual minds, generating and validating it is fundamentally a social activity. Scientific discoveries, expert authority, public trust, and educational institutions all depend on shared practices, norms, and values — and these in turn reflect the broader interests and hierarchies of the societies they emerge from.
Theoretically, my work is influenced by the philosophical pragmatism of John Dewey and Richard Rorty. From this perspective, knowledge is not a mirror of reality but an evolutionary adaptation — akin to a beaver's capacity to build dams — an embodied way of coping with the world rather than copying it. This view avoids the wholesale skepticism invited by the idea of knowledge as internal representation (how could we ever verify that the mirroring is accurate?), replacing it with a focus on how knowledge helps individuals and communities navigate problems, coordinate action, and pursue shared goals.
I investigate these questions both philosophically and empirically. In particular, I examine how scientific institutions reflect broader social values and hierarchies, including perceptions of gender in science. Together with my collaborators, I have found evidence that highlighting the contributions of women to STEM fields can decrease those fields' perceived attractiveness — a phenomenon we termed the Reverse Matilda Effect.
Selected Publications
Malecki, W. P., Kowal, M., Krasnodębska, A., Bruce, B. C., & Sorokowski, P. (2024). The reverse Matilda effect: Gender bias and the impact of highlighting the contributions of women to a STEM field on its perceived attractiveness. Science Education, 108(5), 1474–1491. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21878
Małecki, W. & C. Voparil (Eds.). (2022). Richard Rorty, What can we hope for? Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Reviewed in The New Statesman (30 September 2022) by T. Nagel; Kirkus Reviews (Jan. 15, 2022); The European Legacy (29(6), 671–680); The Nation by G. Scialabba. Featured in The New York Times (May 11, 2022) and Publisher’s Weekly (May).
Małecki, W. & C. Voparil (Eds.). (2020). Richard Rorty, On philosophy and philosophers: Unpublished philosophical papers 1960-2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Małecki, W. (2016). From speculative Darwinism to interspecies narratives: The consequences of pragmatism for the posthumanities. In C. Gersdorf & J. Braun (Eds.), America after nature: Democracy, culture, environment (pp. 405-421). Universitätsverlag Winter.