Epistemic Justice and Named Knowledge

Sor Juana's insistence on intellectual recognition despite her marginalized position as a woman in colonial Mexico established epistemic justice as a core concern: the right to be known as a knower. This concept, grounded in her tradition, addresses how identity connects to whose knowledge counts, who receives credit, and whose voice carries authority. Across cultures, epistemic injustice—the dismissal or appropriation of marginalized people's knowledge—directly attacks identity formation. When women's ideas are attributed to men, when Indigenous knowledge is stolen by Western institutions, when immigrant expertise is discounted, identity itself is violated. Sor Juana's legacy shows that naming one's knowledge publicly and demanding recognition for it is an act of epistemic justice. This framework helps us examine how cultures can honor multiple knowledge traditions while ensuring that contributors are properly named and their intellectual authority is recognized.