2026 Theses Doctoral

Meaning and Identity in Self-Sponsored Literacy Practices

Olivares, Christina

In the field of literacy identity research, few studies have examined the self-sponsored literacy practices (Emig, 1971) (SSLP) of young people with minoritized (Benitez, 2010) identities. Via a critical phenomenological methodology and using intersectionality as an analytic sensibility (Cho et al., 2013; Crenshaw, 1988, 1989, 1991), this study explored the meaning three participants made of their SSLP in relation to their identities. I theorized identity expression through the concepts of embodiment (Foucault, 2000; hooks, 1994), language (Bakhtin, 1984, 2008; Muñoz, 1999), and third/triadic space (Bhabha, 1994; Wynter, 1995).

The research questions guiding this study were: (a) How do three multiply minoritized young people—in this study, aged 18–21, identifying as LGBTQIA+ and of color—bring their identities into conversation with their SSLP, and what are some ways in which I might interpret the meanings they create in doing so? (b) How do practitioners' contexts shape and how are their contexts shaped by their SSLP? (c) What are some ways to understand the value of participants’ SSLP and the meaning they make of their practices, within, and importantly, beyond traditionally understood educational settings?

From the data, I interpreted three key "animating structures" (Magrì & McQueen, 2022) through which participants engaged their SSLP. They were (a) lineage, to which participants ascribed themselves and which reinforced and/or imbued their SSLP with purpose; (b) language, which, as a medium for participants' SSLP, presented limitations and opportunities at the junctures of their SSLP and identity; and (c) the conditions participants built and/or adapted to support their SSLP. This study offers new and important insights into how, via their SSLP, participants imagined, constructed, and actualized themselves. At the close of this dissertation, I offer implications of these findings to researchers, professionals who work in schools and in out-of-school settings, and to young LGBTQIA+ people of color who maintain SSLP.

The timing and U.S.-based location of this study coincided with a climate of increasingly hostile social and political rhetoric that sought to end rights (Deckman, 2024; Heritage Foundation, 2023; Jones, 2024; PRRI Staff, 2024), end research funding (Koslov & Mallapaty, 2025; White House, 2025), and end visibility for minoritized peoples (PEN America, 2025; Yourish et. al., 2025). This study makes a valuable and timely contribution to research in the field of literacy identity studies.