Intersectional Epistemic Authority

Sor Juana's position as a Black woman, a nun, and an intellectual in colonial Mexico gave her a vantage point on injustice that Spanish male theologians could not access. Intersectional epistemic authority argues that oppression itself generates knowledge—not despite marginalization but through it. People experiencing racism and sexism simultaneously understand their operations in ways single-axis analysis cannot capture. In practice, this means: centering voices of people at multiple intersections in knowledge-making; recognizing that lived experience of intersecting oppressions is valid expertise; resisting the demand that marginalized people prove their knowledge meets dominant criteria. Sor Juana's insistence on her right to theological commentary, despite lacking formal institutional credentials, demonstrates this principle. For contemporary movements, it means valuing the analysis of Black women, disabled immigrants, poor queer people—those whose thinking emerges from navigating compounded systems—as authoritative sources of understanding.