The Convent as Liminal Space

Sor Juana entered the convent partly to escape marriage and continue her studies—transforming an institution meant to discipline women into a sanctuary for intellectual life. This practice of finding and creating liminal spaces within oppressive systems offers a model for intersectional survival and flourishing. Liminal spaces exist between categories: neither fully inside nor outside dominant structures, they offer temporary refuge and unexpected freedom. For those navigating intersectionality, such spaces—community organizations, informal study groups, artistic collectives, even online platforms—become places where multiple identities can coexist without forced coherence. These spaces are never fully safe or fully transformative, but they create pockets of possibility. Sor Juana's convent was surveillance-heavy yet intellectually rich. The concept teaches that liberation often happens not by escaping systems entirely, but by finding or creating gaps within them where unauthorized life becomes possible.