autoethnographer: one who uses lived experience as evidence with which to explore cultural phenomena.
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I strived to represent the experience of being a pediatric healthcare worker during COVID.
This work, a narrative and poetic account of a school shooting, provides an experiential entry into the experience from the point of view of a faculty member.
This collection of poems is a glimpse into the lives lived on the margins, where the laws put in place to protect basic rights and bodily autonomy cease to apply.
This is a love letter to my people, my family and a version of me trying to overcome the trauma of almost seeing their mother die.
This autoethnographic account explores the complex relationship between language and identity.
This piece on hair describes how ideas of what is and is not fashionable, as depicted in popular media, can indelibly affect one’s self-perception and identity.
"My Old Kentucky Homo," highlights my failure to assimilate into the community in which I still live, fourteen years later.
In the women’s history month, The AutoEthnographer supported "Her Story Leads: Amplifying Women’s voices through digital storytelling".
"From dancing at New York’s Metropolitan Opera to the Cow Palace in San Francisco, every venue taught me valuable lessons."
Today we're talking with the award-winning author, researcher, and performer, Shanita Mitchell about performance and autoethnography.
I offer the following five poems to you. I hope that when you read/hear them you see a way into your own stories and ideas of poetic voice.
Through all of the things that separate us, there is one universal experience that transcends all barriers: love.
LATEST POSTS
A new call for submissions that celebrate, problematize, challenge, or illuminate the many meanings of "queer."
ABOUT
autoethnographer: one who uses lived experience as evidence with which to explore cultural phenomena.
Our future depends on readers like you.
We believe that research over the last 4 decades has illustrated how autoethnography is a powerful tool for critical, cultural, personal, and professional reflection and expression; our publication illustrates how autoethnographic creative expression can educate, heal, inspire, illuminate, and challenge.
Just $1 can help us reach our goals and continue to provide an open-source platform for important voices and stories.
“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.
NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS
SPECIAL ISSUE 2023: LAUGHTER
American author Mark Twain said it best when he wrote, “Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.” With the world ever balancing so much to cry about with so much to laugh about, The AutoEthnographer Literary and Arts Magazine is excited to announce its call for submissions for the 2023 special issue.
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC LITERARY NONFICTION
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Sign up for our seasonal newsletter, only four times a year.
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC LITERARY FICTION
Visitation, an Autoethnodrama in One Act
In this autoethnographic play, a woman terminates a pregnancy without telling her husband.
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.
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"
SPECIAL ISSUE 2023-24: QUEER
A new call for submissions that celebrate, problematize, challenge, or illuminate the many meanings of "queer."
"My Old Kentucky Homo," highlights my failure to assimilate into the community in which I still live, fourteen years later.
"This is my childhood memory of realizing the power of laughter when everything interior and exterior makes me scared."
"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.
I wrote a study of my own faith, bankrupt as it may be, using story of my father, through the lens of Jewishness as I define it for myself.
"In this autoethnodrama, a woman terminates a pregnancy without telling her husband."
"The AutoEthnographer announces a new call for submissions for a late 2022 special issue, 'Bodily Autonomy Rights (Abortion, Circumcision, Contraception).'"
This collection of poems is a glimpse into the lives lived on the margins, where the laws put in place to protect basic rights and bodily autonomy cease to apply.
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."
"Throughout 2022, The AutoEthnographer invites rolling submissions in any of our categories (writing, poetry, multimedia, video, performance, etc.) around the theme of "Climate Change"."
"I have continued to explore the usefulness of various poetic forms as a mechanism for providing access to suppressed internal voices."
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC WRITING
"How universal homesickness is, even for those who didn’t come from the best homes; these salmon came from Concrete, Washington, and they still fight like hell to come back every single year."
This piece on hair describes how ideas of what is and is not fashionable, as depicted in popular media, can indelibly affect one’s self-perception and identity.
"A tree once taught me that those moments of ruin are only a pause, a passage really, on the way to something else."
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
"Dr. Nadine Khair discusses why autoethnography is essential to successful businesses in this latest podcast."
In The AutoEthnographer’s latest podcast, Marlen Harrison talks with Sandra Faulkner about collage and visual poetry.
In today's new podcast & video Marlen Harrison talks with current marketing interns about the role of culture in using Google Ads.
"This autoethnographic poem resembles a wave: coming, going, history, hereafter...an endless exchange."
”I share this artistic piece as an invitation to problematise and think further about not only the Autoethnographic “I/We” in what I/we can know about ourselves and our bodies but also to make space for the incoherence that becomes a part of “being” and “knowing” in explorations of fragmentation and loss.”
“We noticed signs of climate change and felt a sense of impending doom, even as we witnessed how human beings across the continent are trying to keep alive a sense of culture, art, and kindness.”
IAANI AWARD WINNER
“A Seat at the Table” is the autoethnographic manifestation of my vulnerability, anger, and anguish, of my black feminist grit."
Get updates about The AutoEthnographer direct to your inbox!
Sign up for our seasonal newsletter, only four times a year.
Get updates about The AutoEthnographer direct to your inbox!
Sign up for our seasonal newsletter, only four times a year.
"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 strived to represent the experience of being a pediatric healthcare worker during COVID.
"This autoethnographic poetry is born of my personal experience, witness, as well as currently chronicled and ancestral lore."
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"
I introduce artistic autoethnography and how the term a/r/tifact opens up the imagination to the possibilities of autoethnographic artmaking.
"Once I have the first line or two, the rest of the poem seems to flow rather easily. I write whatever comes to mind. Somewhat like a story rather than a poem. I then start to take out the excess words and phrases and pare it down to the essence of what I wish to say. Other times I do not change a word. The muses come and go on their own. I also believe poetry has chosen me."
"It is my hope that these words will serve as the beginning of an ongoing dialogue about what it means to live autoethnography."
Get updates about The AutoEthnographer direct to your inbox!
Sign up for our seasonal newsletter, only four times a year.
NEWS, INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS
“The 2022 International Symposium on Autoethnography and Narrative deadline for submissions and awards has been extended AUGUST 1, 2021.”
"The AutoEthnographer announces a new call for submissions for a late 2022 special issue, 'Bodily Autonomy Rights (Abortion, Circumcision, Contraception).'"
How do creatives find joy in artistic performance as a form of black feminist autoethnography? Podcast & video.
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 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
