Reclaiming Intellectual Authority

Sor Juana's deliberate cultivation of her own intellectual authority—despite being a woman, a colonial subject, and a nun—offers a model for children's rights work. Reclaiming intellectual authority means children are recognized as knowers, not merely as objects of knowledge or recipients of adult wisdom. In children's rights practice, this means centering children's voices in decisions about their education, health, and protection; treating their lived experience as valid evidence; and creating platforms where children author their own narratives. This concept challenges paternalistic approaches that position adults as sole authorities on what children need. Sor Juana's legacy insists that children have intellectual standing, and that societies benefit when they listen to young minds. This transforms children's rights from something done for children into something done with children as active agents and authorities in their own lives.