The Right to Curiosity Across Boundaries

Sor Juana's vast learning across theology, science, philosophy, poetry, and mathematics defied colonial categorization and gender restrictions that attempted to limit what women—especially colonial women—could study. She insisted that curiosity itself was a right. In postcolonial decolonization, this concept challenges the compartmentalization imposed by colonial education systems that separated 'legitimate' knowledge from 'other' knowledge, or restricted access to certain fields based on identity. The right to curiosity means rejecting the internal colonization that tells you certain questions are 'not for you,' that crossing between traditions is inauthentic, or that intellectual breadth is arrogant. Decolonization requires reclaiming curiosity as a fundamental human capacity, especially across boundaries that colonialism tried to enforce. This includes learning your own heritage traditions alongside dominant academic frameworks, asking questions regardless of credentialing systems, and refusing the narrowing of intellectual identity that colonialism demands.