Michael Brescia: Head of Research and Curator of Ethnology, Arizona State Museum; Professor of history, University of Arizona
Monday, May 5, 2025, 2:30-4:30 pm (with break),
ASA Koffler Great Room and Zoom
In his last session, Dr. Brescia assessed the political and social conflicts that erupted in Mexico during the early seventeenth century, as the Habsburg monarchy navigated multiple challenges to its power, including a shifting geopolitical landscape, competing corporate interests within the Mexican Church, and declining economic fortunes that eroded Spain’s standing among European powers.
In session four of his series, Dr. Brescia shows us how the biography of Sor Juana Ines de la cruz allows us not only to explore the social domains assigned to elite women in Spanish colonial society (viceregal court, marriage, conventual life) but also confront the gendered dynamics of power that sought to control women’s movements, as well as the limits of Sor Juana’s pushback. She rejected the strictures imposed on women and fashioned the intellectual, literary, and cultural edifice of the Mexican Baroque through her prodigious works of poetry, prose, and plays.
You can connect to Zoom either by using the following URL: https://zoom.us/j/95456511620?pwd=OC9GcnJRNmJpMTdXdXFhaUpCUkx4QT09 or by opening a browser to zoom.com/join and typing in Meeting ID: 954 5651 1620 and Passcode: 85747