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autoethnographer: one who uses lived experience as evidence with which to explore cultural phenomena.
FROM OUR ARCHIVES
"My research on tattoo meanings utilised autoethnographic accounts of practice to increase understanding of tattooing as practice & profession."
In this new issue from The AutoEthnographer, we highlight work from authors and artists in the USA, Finland, Bangladesh/Canada, Chile/USA, and India.
"This is an autoetnography of a black fatherhood journey which encapsulates my hopes, my fears, my love of baby and mother, while trying my best to make sense of a Black fatherhood I wanted so very dearly."
”I still aim to engage in the process of life, commit to a meaningful purpose, and structure my life around an intrinsically satisfying activity. For me, I will continue writing as a way to make sense of what it means to be alive.”
The process of seeking pregnancy alone (by necessity, not choice) showed me how limited reproductive rights in the U.S. truly are—even before the recent loss of Roe vs. Wade, that policy that had so shaped my generation’s belief in our bodily autonomy.
“A Seat at the Table” is the autoethnographic manifestation of my vulnerability, anger, and anguish, of my black feminist grit."
Patricia Leavy·
All ContentAutoethnographic EssaysCelebrating Dr. Patricia Leavy's Social Fiction 2024Special Issues
··26 min readThere’s also a larger goal underscoring my work. I aim to create a philosophy of the arts and a philosophy of love.
Patricia Leavy·
All ContentAutoethnographic EssaysCelebrating Dr. Patricia Leavy's Social Fiction 2024Special Issues
··30 min readIn Part One, I situated my work within the context of the work of writers. Now, I’m situating my work within the context of women writers.
I strived to represent the experience of being a pediatric healthcare worker during COVID.
I use poetry to describe living with ME/CFS, an illness that is chronic and invisible, thus bringing awareness to this little known diagnosis.
“My ability to be creatively vulnerable with my mental illness as well as the experiences which contributed to it will serve as a method of self-healing.”
"At friends’ homes and the inexpensive trattorias where I usually ate, there was always wine and water on the table, but often only one glass."
FROM OUR ARCHIVES
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 WRITING
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC POETRY
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC WRITING
This autoethnographic essay offers a musing on the intricate relationship between language, writing and identity through an autoethnographic account of my reading and writing experience from childhood to present, and from China to the UK via Germany.
This piece recounts a trip I took to the Czech Republic and it is proof that language barriers similarly embolden people to speak cruelly.
It grew out of my personal experience researching Black history museums; but in reality, it began a lot earlier, maybe before I was born.
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC MULTIMEDIA
Vivian Wagner·
All ContentAutoethnographic Art & MultimediaAutoethnographic PoetryClimate Change Special Issue, 2022Special Issues
··8 min read“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.”
"My oil on canvas series, "Journey of Self Love," depicts a variation of obstacles I've personally had to endure throughout my life as a woman."
This artwork is based on a startling and memorable encounter at the local vet while attempting to get Anaïs spayed.
Poems As a Form of Powerful Activism and Barrier-breakers is a compilation of three poems which mean a lot for me.
I strived to represent the experience of being a pediatric healthcare worker during COVID.
"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."
"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."
I introduce artistic autoethnography and how the term a/r/tifact opens up the imagination to the possibilities of autoethnographic artmaking.
"I tend to take every loss of rainforest personally. My autoethnographic poetry 'The Threat' and 'John Doe' are reflective of this."
David Heineman·
All ContentAutoethnographic Art & MultimediaClimate Change Special Issue, 2022Special IssuesVolume 2, Issue 3 (2022)
··2 min read"The Pandemic Nature Project is a 35-minute short autoethnographic film that traces a series of personal experiences, emotional reactions, and critical responses to COVID across a series of short vignettes."
Patricia Leavy·
All ContentAutoethnographic EssaysCelebrating Dr. Patricia Leavy's Social Fiction 2024Special Issues
··6 min readStory-worlds were magical—they transported me to different places where I’d meet new people, and learn about their lives in visceral ways.
NEWS, INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS
"In Turkey, we must consider opening folklore & the social sciences, but this time more powerfully, staggeringly, and creatively."
In The AutoEthnographer’s latest podcast, Marlen Harrison talks with Sandra Faulkner about collage and visual poetry.
"Editor Guillermo Gil reviews Renata Harden Ferdinand's An Autoethnography of African American Motherhood: Things I Tell my Daughter."
SPECIAL ISSUES
EDUCATION, INTERVIEWS, PODCASTS, & REVIEWS
REFLECTIONS ON METHOD
