The Politics of Intellectual Inheritance

Sor Juana inherited intellectual tradition by accident—born into a lettered household where she had unusual access to books. Most women of her era inherited domestic and religious knowledge only. She recognized that intellectual inheritance is political: who gets to learn, what they're taught, whose ideas they inherit—these are power questions. For cisgender individuals, examining intellectual inheritance means asking: What knowledge were you given access to based on your gender? A cisgender boy might inherit expectations of professional intellectual life; a cisgender girl might inherit expectations of cultural literacy but not scientific or philosophical depth. This concept invites investigation: What intellectual traditions did your cisgender socialization provide or deny? Whose ideas did you inherit? Whose were excluded? How do you access knowledge outside your inherited traditions? Sor Juana spent her intellectual life reaching beyond the limited inheritance offered to her gender, teaching herself through voracious reading. For contemporary cisgender people, recognizing the politics of intellectual inheritance means consciously expanding beyond gendered limitations and actively seeking knowledge from voices society taught you to ignore.