Justice as Recognition and Naming

For centuries, Sor Juana's work was forgotten, misattributed, or undervalued. Justice toward her requires not merely access to education or freedom to write—it requires recognition, study, celebration, and correct naming of her as an intellectual giant. This concept frames justice expansively: beyond material rights, justice includes epistemic recognition—being acknowledged as knower, thinker, contributor. Across cultures, injustice includes erasure: Indigenous knowledge systems dismissed as superstition; women's intellectual work attributed to men; diaspora communities' contributions forgotten; marginalized thinkers excluded from canons. Justice requires active recognition and renaming. For those navigating identity across cultures, this concept means several things: claiming recognition for one's own contributions; recognizing others from similar positions; questioning what knowledge systems are validated and whose are erased; actively restoring recognition to those historically overlooked. It means insisting on correct naming—using people's names, titles, and affiliations accurately; honoring how communities self-identify; refusing imposed names that diminish. Justice as recognition is ongoing work: correcting historical records, elevating marginalized voices, and creating systems where all intellectual contributors receive acknowledgment. Sor Juana's restoration to prominence in recent decades models this justice work.