The Hispanic Theological Initiative at Princeton Theological Seminary has announced that Dr. Michelle González, assistant professor of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University, will receive its annual book prize for 2004.
The prize, awarded for her book, "Sor Juana: Beauty and Justice in the Americas" (Orbis Books, 2003), will be presented at HTI’s annual summer workshop at Princeton Seminary on Saturday.
Dr. González will give a public lecture that evening at 7 p.m. in Stuart Hall on the seminary campus on the topic "Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Latin American Church Mother."
Respondent to the lecture will be Dr. Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel, associate professor in the Department of Romance Languages at the University of Pennsylvania.
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was born Nov. 12, 1651, as Juana Ramirez de Asbaje to unwed parents in San Miguel Nepantla, Mexico. She learned to read by the age of 3.
In 1660, she moved to Mexico City to live with her grandfather, where, a couple of years later, she entered the court of the viceroy’s wife, the Marquise of Mancera. The Marquise, who was captivated by her talent, grace and beauty, presented her to a gathering of 40 intellectuals who questioned her on various subjects her answers left them all astonished.
During her adolescence, Sor Juana was drawn to a religious vocation. In 1667, she entered the Convent of the Discalced Carmelites of St. Joseph to pursue her love of learning, something not favorably looked upon at that time for women, but left the convent after three months.
In 1669, she entered the Convent of the Order of St. Jerome and remained there until her death from the plague on April 17, 1695.
A poet nun, considered a genius and a person of intellectual expertise, she is regarded as one of the greatest figures in Spanish literature, whose ideas and accomplishments were ahead of her time.
Latino scholars from across the country and Puerto Rico will gather for the workshop, sponsored annually by HTI, an organization partially funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and by The Lilly Foundation.
Dr. González, who is of Cuban heritage, is interested in Latino, Latin American and feminist theologies, as well as in interdisciplinary work in theological aesthetics. She earned her doctorate in systematic and philosophical theology at the Graduate Theological Union in 2001.
The lecture is open to the public free of charge, and will be followed by a reception in the Mackay Campus Center.
