Intellectual Autonomy as Resistance

Sor Juana's relentless pursuit of knowledge despite institutional and patriarchal barriers demonstrates how intellectual autonomy becomes a radical decolonial practice. In postcolonial contexts, the colonized are often denied access to education and authority over their own knowledge production, rendering them dependent on colonial epistemes. Sor Juana's refusal to accept limits on her learning—her study of theology, philosophy, mathematics, and languages—asserts that the colonized mind is not inferior but liberated through self-directed inquiry. This concept applies to decolonization by positioning education and intellectual independence as foundational to reclaiming agency, challenging the colonial narrative that positioned indigenous and subjugated peoples as incapable of sophisticated thought. Her example validates the decolonial project of creating alternative knowledge systems and valuing ways of knowing suppressed by colonialism.