Knowledge as Political Sovereignty

By pursuing knowledge across all domains—despite restrictions intended to keep women in prescribed ignorance—Sor Juana enacted a form of intellectual sovereignty. Knowledge as political sovereignty understands that epistemic control is a primary mechanism of oppression. Those who decide what others may learn, think about, and question effectively control their possibilities. This concept connects education to freedom movements across traditions. When colonial powers restrict native languages, when patriarchies limit women's curriculum, when authoritarian states control information, they are asserting sovereignty over subjects' minds. Sor Juana's intellectual pursuits claimed a form of sovereignty despite her formal subjection to Church and Crown. Civil disobedience across traditions includes struggles for cognitive freedom: the right to learn, question, and know independently. This framework reveals why literacy campaigns, underground universities, and forbidden books are not mere cultural projects but fundamentally political acts. It legitimizes educational resistance as central to liberation.