The Convent as Strategic Sanctuary

Sor Juana entered the convent not from piety alone but from strategic necessity—it was one of few institutions offering education, autonomy, and intellectual community to women. The convent provided resources, library access, and social authority she could not claim otherwise. Strategic sanctuary is distinct from capitulation; it means using available structures tactically while working toward systemic change. In intersectional practice, this recognizes that marginalized people often operate within imperfect institutions—universities, nonprofits, funding structures, platforms—that simultaneously enable and constrain their work. The concept permits practitioners to claim institutional resources without requiring ideological purity, to build power within systems while resisting them. This is crucial for intersectional work because insisting on perfect institutions before engaging often means the most marginalized never access tools for organizing. Sor Juana's strategic occupancy of convent space allowed her to produce texts that questioned the very systems housing her. Contemporary intersectional movements use strategic sanctuary similarly: accessing university platforms while teaching decolonial knowledge, using corporate spaces to fund community projects, claiming institutional authority to amplify marginalized voices.