Intersectional Justice as Intellectual Requirement

Sor Juana's intellectual work was inseparable from her concern with dignity, rights, and the conditions under which people could flourish. She did not treat knowledge as neutral; she grounded it in justice questions. For intersectional practice, this means that intellectual rigor and commitment to justice are not in tension—they require each other. Analysis that ignores power and impact is not rigorous; it is incomplete. Conversely, justice work grounded in careful, intersectional thinking is more transformative than reactive responses. This concept rejects false neutrality while demanding precision. It means asking of any framework: whose knowledge is centered? who benefits from this analysis? what justice possibilities does it enable or foreclose? Sor Juana models intellectual work that refuses the supposed objectivity that serves the status quo, instead claiming justice as its intellectual foundation.