autoethnographer: one who uses lived experience as evidence with which to explore cultural phenomena.
"Armored Corps: The spirit of combativeness and human resilience" is the theme of a graphic narrative project.
Syrian Identity and Academic Self: Emerging Research or Ruthless Methodology seeks to illuminate a personal reflection that sparked a unique line of inquiry, ultimately leading to an innovative exploration within my research project.
I channel Kincaid’s ironic and critical tone, while atoning for my failures to recognize dominant racist and classist discourses.
This piece, Hot Pink Truth Serum of My Trauma, is an autoethnography that speaks to the cultures and communities of survivors of childhood sexual abuse and violence.
This piece is a creative reflection which emerged out of the auto-ethnographic reflections from my PhD around research extraction.
Can a colorless person have any sense of what it feels like to be prejudged against, before “the you - inside yourself” opens your eyes in the morning?
I’ll take you back through my journey and then reveal how I overcame my mental health challenges and reconnected with my true self.
In my work , the issues of depression, anxiety, and bulimia nervosa are discussed heavily.
Madison, Wisconsin is full of surprises, sometimes entertaining, always enlightening. But I didn’t plan for an abortion protest during a family weekend.
I write out of the consciousness that I am both a product of the violence of war and a migratory being—not only in the strictest sense of physical displacement, but also in belonging.
You’re Still Here: Art and Grief in Autoethnographic Textiles Artist’s Memo You’re...
As I discuss my first queer event, a book discussion about a queer young adult book, Canto Contigo, I will explore my anxieties about my sexual identity, and the repercussions of this community warfare.
SPECIAL ISSUE 2024: PATRICIA LEAVY & SOCIAL FICTION
An Invitation to Story: "Everything in my life has shown me that stories matter. Sharing stories matters. Through stories we generate connection, resonance, empathy, reflection, discovery, learning, change, resistance, visibility. Storytelling is at the heart of my work. It’s also at the heart of autoethnography. I hope when you read my books and the contributions in this special issue that you’re inspired to think about how you might tell the stories of your research and your life." Dr. Patricia Leavy
LATEST POSTS
autoethnographer: one who uses lived experience as evidence with which to explore cultural phenomena.
“The AutoEthnographer is an award-winning, non-profit, open-access, peer-reviewed literary and arts magazine dedicated to presenting the creative side of autoethnography, a qualitative research method uniting ethnography and autobiography that utilizes lived experience as evidence with which to explore cultural phenomena." ISSN: 2833-1400
What is autoethnography? The AutoEthnographer's international team of editors offer definitions & suggested readings.
Readers can ask questions about autoethnography or invite an editor to speak to their group or classroom.
MISSION
THE AUTOETHNOGRAPHER is a digital magazine dedicated to creating a public, open-source space for creatives to share their personal stories of cultural experience. We aim to support emerging authors and artists, to promote cultural diversity and appreciation, and to celebrate creative expression as a vehicle for shared understanding and positive change.
MISSION
THE AUTOETHNOGRAPHER is a digital magazine dedicated to creating a public, open-source space for creatives to share their personal stories of cultural experience. We aim to support emerging authors and artists, to promote cultural diversity and appreciation, and to celebrate creative expression as a vehicle for shared understanding and positive change.
SPECIAL ISSUE 2024: PATRICIA LEAVY & SOCIAL FICTION
An Invitation to Story: "Everything in my life has shown me that stories matter. Sharing stories matters. Through stories we generate connection, resonance, empathy, reflection, discovery, learning, change, resistance, visibility. Storytelling is at the heart of my work. It’s also at the heart of autoethnography. I hope when you read my books and the contributions in this special issue that you’re inspired to think about how you might tell the stories of your research and your life." Dr. Patricia Leavy
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC LITERARY NONFICTION
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AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC LITERARY FICTION
Visitation, an Autoethnodrama in One Act
In this autoethnographic play, a woman terminates a pregnancy without telling her husband.
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AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC POETRY
FEATURED POET: MILTON KARP
"My poems are not entirely mine. They belong to the people and events of my passage through life. For once the dam is breached its contents flow unabridged. - Milton Carp, poet at 91"
Writing fiction allows me to document reality and to reimagine it, just as we can always reimagine ourselves. And that is why we need stories.
Story-worlds were magical—they transported me to different places where I’d meet new people, and learn about their lives in visceral ways.
As a feminist poet and (auto)ethnographer, I found Leavy's themes of Film Blue speak to what I want my work to do and be.
These pieces explore through personal experience the cultural phenomena of migrant loss of identity and subordination, post colonialism, othering
A Startling Note: "Looking for Gay Friends" in the Triangle Place narrates a gay man’s experience of sexual awakening on a university campus.
On Emerging Liberated of the Glass Box Author’s Memo Like many others in the American South, I began...
is an essay about the way technology can intrude and obscure what may be our most important human experiences
"Give Me a Strawberry Cockroach" is the first article in our 2023 special issue on laughter and tells a story of Japanese language learning and performance.
What this essay tries to capture is both the wonder and the inherent horror in potty training.
In this story I shifted my attention to the young woman –a nurse or a volunteer– who sat beside me and held my hand throughout abortion.
"The AutoEthnographer announces a new call for submissions for a late 2022 special issue, 'Bodily Autonomy Rights (Abortion, Circumcision, Contraception).'"
"This essay on bodily autonomy specifically discusses abortion access and rights in the United States and Canada, and the politics that often follow."
Our future depends on readers like you.
$1 a month can help us reach our goals and continue to provide a platform for important voices and stories.
"This autoethnographic poem resembles a wave: coming, going, history, hereafter...an endless exchange."
"This autoethnographic poem is a question about the power of autoethnography in the face of the climate crisis. It is an expression of my dark fears, my depression that keeps me away from writing."
"I have continued to explore the usefulness of various poetic forms as a mechanism for providing access to suppressed internal voices."
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC WRITING
"A tree once taught me that those moments of ruin are only a pause, a passage really, on the way to something else."
Madison, Wisconsin is full of surprises, sometimes entertaining, always enlightening. But I didn’t plan for an abortion protest during a family weekend.
MILK, ANTHOLOGIES, HORSES, & JOUISSANCE contained work as a meta-performance of the idea of texts passing through other texts.
HAVE YOU HEARD?
We're podcasting!
Listen to The AutoEthnographer in the car or on the go and enjoy discussions with artists, authors, performers, and researchers from around the world. In our 20-minute episodes we examine how autoethnography can be utilized in diverse contexts, from marketing and coaching to painting and songwriting.
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC MULTIMEDIA
In today's new podcast & video Marlen Harrison talks with current marketing interns about the role of culture in using Google Ads.
How do creatives find joy in artistic performance as a form of black feminist autoethnography? Podcast & video.
"Award-winning artist, Suzanne Hughes, talks about autoethnography and painting. Suzanne is responsible for the cover art for our special issue based on climate change."
"Combining autoethnography and artwork, Supreme Justice aims to reveal the persistence of institutionalized oppression of women through history."
The Ultimate Wave: Prose Poetry of the Pandemic and Parents Author’s Memo “The Wave” examines the problem of...
The lyrics of "World's Greatest Man" grapple with the paradoxes of participant-observation as well as the ambiguity of development work in Thailand.
IAANI AWARD WINNER
“A Seat at the Table” is the autoethnographic manifestation of my vulnerability, anger, and anguish, of my black feminist grit."
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Get updates about The AutoEthnographer direct to your inbox!
Sign up for our seasonal newsletter, only four times a year.
"I see myself as someone whose organic inquiry and teaching are shaped by radical love, and I am willing to let myself be changed by my students."
"This autoethnographic poem is a question about the power of autoethnography in the face of the climate crisis. It is an expression of my dark fears, my depression that keeps me away from writing."
This sestina poem reflects and validates my own personal experience as a 14-year-old who was dealing with something I couldn’t initially even name; anxiety.
FEATURED POET: MILTON KARP
"My poems are not entirely mine. They belong to the people and events of my passage through life. For once the dam is breached its contents flow unabridged. - Milton Carp, poet at 91"
This piece is intended to give you a sense of the ways in which I use Low-Fat Love in the classroom and why just using it makes the world a better place.
"In my interview with award-winning author Patricia Leavy on literary research, we also discuss her evolution from academic to novelist, her genre of "social fiction," and her latest novels series, Celestial Bodies."
"My thesis began to unfold after doing some research on my final topic idea about Tolkien’s world, female characters, female gamers, and the stereotype that females are the love interests or damsels in distress. I chose autoethnography because it allowed me to add that personal angle to the paper because I am a female writer, reader, and gamer."
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Sign up for our seasonal newsletter, only four times a year.
NEWS, INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS
"In Turkey, we must consider opening folklore & the social sciences, but this time more powerfully, staggeringly, and creatively."
"The AutoEthnographer is committed to diversity, equity, & inclusion in its administration; support of emerging authors and artists; & celebration of creative expression as a vehicle for shared understanding & positive change."
"The AutoEthnographer announces a new call for submissions for a late 2022 special issue, 'Bodily Autonomy Rights (Abortion, Circumcision, Contraception).'"
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC ESSAYS
NEWS, INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS
HAVE YOU HEARD?
We're podcasting!
Listen to The AutoEthnographer in the car or on the go and enjoy discussions with artists, authors, performers, and researchers from around the world. In our 20-minute episodes we examine how autoethnography can be utilized in diverse contexts, from marketing and coaching to painting and songwriting.
REFLECTIONS ON METHOD
SPECIAL ISSUE 2024: PATRICIA LEAVY & SOCIAL FICTION
SPECIAL ISSUE 2023-24: QUEER
SPECIAL ISSUE 2023: LAUGHTER
SPECIAL ISSUE 2022-23: BODILY AUTONOMY
Visitation, an Autoethnodrama in One Act
In this autoethnographic play, a woman terminates a pregnancy without telling her husband.
SPECIAL ISSUE 2022: CLIMATE CHANGE