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In this piece, Crowley analyzes the writing of her late mother when she lived in rural Minnesota in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Building on Deborah Brandt´s theory of sponsors of literacy, the author demonstrates how the feminist movement served as a sponsor for her mother, an already very literate woman, in her own writing. Crowley discusses specific texts her late mother read as part of a women´s book group and uses those texts as a lens for reading some of her mother´s work. Through this analysis, she demonstrates how those texts, often prominent titles in the women´s movement, influenced her mother, and ultimately helped lead her to a career as a professional journalist. In this project, Crowley not only argues that a social movement can assume the role of literacy sponsor, but also discusses the important role personal writing can assume in academic projects.

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Kim Crowley earned her PhD in English from the University of North Dakota and currently teaches English at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. Her research interests include literacy studies, women´s studies, and rhetoric and composition.

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