Periagoge
Concept
1 min read

The Intersectional Scholar-Self

An integrated identity that refuses to compartmentalize one's intellectual work from one's social location and lived experience across multiple systems.

Juana
Why It Matters

Sor Juana embodied the scholar-self as inseparable from her identity as a woman, a person of mixed race, a nun, and a subject of colonial power. The intersectional scholar-self rejects the myth of the objective, disembodied thinker, instead claiming that knowledge production emerges from specific, multiply-positioned locations. This framework validates the insight that one's scholarship, activism, and survival are interconnected—not compartmentalized into 'professional' and 'personal' spheres. For contemporary practitioners of intersectionality, this means acknowledging how your identities shape what you can know, what questions you ask, and what solutions you envision. Sor Juana's refusal to separate her intellectual ambitions from her complicated social position offers a model for integrating knowledge work with intersectional consciousness. The scholar-self becomes a site of coherence rather than fragmentation.

Helpful guides
Juana
Identity & Justice
Peri
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