autoethnographer: one who uses lived experience as evidence with which to explore cultural phenomena.
FROM OUR ARCHIVES
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 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.
Ethology is a highly fictionalized ethnographic account of my travels around Tanzania, East Africa during my teens.
"This is my childhood memory of realizing the power of laughter when everything interior and exterior makes me scared."
"Because I was so immersed in both history, bound in good-smelling leather, no less, and in beautiful and evocative little bottles around me as playthings, I guess it needed no further prompting. It was within my blood before I could think about what I wanted to do with my life!"
"Have you ever crossed the desert in a circus train? I took such a detour—by choice— in 1978 when I hung up my pointe shoes to ride an elephant named Peggy."
In The AutoEthnographer’s latest podcast, Marlen Harrison talks with Sandra Faulkner about collage and visual poetry.
"Damned," the first publication in The AutoEthnographer's Bodily Autonomy issue, is the product of my confused reflection and internal conversations with the culture that raised me."
In this new issue from The AutoEthnographer, we highlight work from authors and artists in the USA, Finland, Bangladesh/Canada, Chile/USA, and India.
“What is it like to live and work in a regional comprehensive university during a time of major organizational change and intense conflict?”
"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."
These pieces explore through personal experience the cultural phenomena of migrant loss of identity and subordination, post colonialism, othering
LATEST POSTS
autoethnographer: one who uses lived experience as evidence with which to explore cultural phenomena.
What is autoethnography? The AutoEthnographer's international team of editors offer definitions & suggested readings.
“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
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC LITERARY NONFICTION
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC LITERARY FICTION
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC POETRY
I’d take the past and make it straight, Even though it’s complicated, We’ve got time to start again, I don’t know if you can hear me…
Laurel Richardson and U. Melissa Anyiwo writes the introduction to this special issue celebrating Dr. Patricia Leavy’s work.
There’s also a larger goal underscoring my work. I aim to create a philosophy of the arts and a philosophy of love.
I wrote “The Crevasse: A Love Letter” to help me grapple with confusing changes to the terrain of my life.
I share real world examples of why I believe the trans community uses empathy as a powerful tool to combat transphobia and promote self-love.
"My Old Kentucky Homo," highlights my failure to assimilate into the community in which I still live, fourteen years later.
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.
The AutoEthnographer is excited to announce its new Call for Submissions, 2023 Special Issue: “Laughter”
Humor acts as a defense mechanism, a pressure release valve, a teaching tool. As a heart surgeon, I have used laughter for all these reasons.
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.
"This is an autoethnographic narrative where I use my own marriage to tell a story about love, bodily autonomy, acceptance and illness."
LEARN MORE “Bodily Autonomy: A Fetus for a Fetus” explores the cultural issues of what it means to...
"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."
"Here is a humble attempt for the 2022 special issue that comes in simple words to show how climate change begins at home."
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC WRITING
Through these reflections on heritage, I delve into being a child of parents who immigrated from the Bronx to a suburban lifestyle.
"In "Becoming Multilingual," part 2 of my column, "¡Aguacate! Bringing Up Bebe Bilingüe," I use autoethnography as a writing approach to capture and represent the personal experiences of myself, a qualitative researcher, who has become the researched."
"In this autoethnodrama, a woman terminates a pregnancy without telling her husband."
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC MULTIMEDIA
"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."
Today we're talking with the award-winning author, researcher, and performer, Shanita Mitchell about performance and autoethnography.
In The AutoEthnographer’s latest podcast, Marlen Harrison talks with Sandra Faulkner about collage and visual poetry.
This essay and video introduce an autoethnographic study of my life as a deaf child in Finland learning sign language.
We address how to fragment and unite in this autoethnographic study, which we developed over the Messenger App. It utilises poetry and collage around death, loneliness, postmodern culture, and the latter’s related oppressive discourses and language, and alienation.
The focus of this piece is to highlight and celebrate the asexual and aromantic community and what it means to exist outside of the expectation to be partnered.
In my poetry, I highlight negative depictions of Catholic religion and discuss how they differ from my own experiences as a Catholic.
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.
"It is in finding these solutions, the tape and the glue that holds us all together, that we find the beauty of who we are as people."
How do creatives find joy in artistic performance as a form of black feminist autoethnography? Podcast & video.
Christine Sleeter writes about Dr. Patricia Leavy's new genre, Sleeter's own books and her reflections on the social fiction series.
"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."
NEWS, INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS
In the following interview with award-winning author, Patricia Leavy, we discuss writing fiction and her new novel Hollyland.
"Dr. Nadine Khair discusses why autoethnography is essential to successful businesses in this latest podcast."
"The AutoEthnographer is proud to announce that it has been selected by the United States Library of Congress for inclusion in their collections!"
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC ESSAYS
NEWS, INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS
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