The Right to Study Everything

Sor Juana famously claimed the right to study theology, mathematics, philosophy, literature, and science—disciplines traditionally closed to women and often segregated by institutional boundaries. She argued that understanding God and creation required unrestricted intellectual exploration, rejecting the notion that certain people should be confined to certain subjects. For authenticity across traditions, this concept means recognizing that genuine self-knowledge and cultural authenticity cannot be achieved through artificial narrowing of inquiry. When individuals are prevented from studying what calls to them, they develop fragmented identities: a public self conforming to prescribed categories and a hidden, often suppressed authentic self. Sor Juana's insistence on comprehensive study models how authenticity requires permission to traverse multiple knowledge domains, to find connections between traditions, and to construct a coherent intellectual identity that honors both one's genuine curiosity and one's place within multiple communities.