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autoethnographer: one who uses lived experience as evidence with which to explore cultural phenomena.
FROM OUR ARCHIVES
J.E. Sumerau·
All ContentAutoethnographic EssaysCelebrating Dr. Patricia Leavy's Social Fiction 2024Special Issues
··16 min readGratitude is a recurring theme I hear from readers of Patricia Leavy’s social fiction. This is an essay about Patricia Leavy novels.
"We were constantly in fear of her hitting or pushing a friend, destroying a friend's toy, or throwing a block at someone’s head. We started to isolate ourselves because we were embarrassed of how our child acted around others."
In Breaking Free: Reclaiming Authenticity in a Capitalist World, I reveal how I overcame my mental health challenges and reconnected with my true self discovering the benefits of holistic therapies and shamanic healing.
"If abortion can be banned, largely due to Christian beliefs, what is to stop an overturning of the legalization of gay marriage or the disestablishment of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?” If The Handmaid’s Tale taught me anything, it is to never believe that I am truly safe, untouchable."
"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!"
Atlas Markers: An Emerging Autoethnography Author’s Memo Atlas Markers n is largely...
Marlen Harrison·
All ContentAutoethnographic Art & MultimediaClimate Change Special Issue, 2022InterviewsMorePodcastsSpecial Issues
··15 min read"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."
"I called out the demons one by one. I named them. I gave them precise blocking and ultimately, I controlled where they stood, breathed, and bourréed. I gave them an entrance, and a stage, and then I sent them away."
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.
Daze Jefferies·
All ContentAutoethnographic Art & MultimediaAutoethnographic PoetryClimate Change Special Issue, 2022Special Issues
··3 min read"This autoethnographic poem resembles a wave: coming, going, history, hereafter...an endless exchange."
MILK, ANTHOLOGIES, HORSES, & JOUISSANCE contained work as a meta-performance of the idea of texts passing through other texts.
In this piece, a queer university student from China reflects on his understandings of sexual and ethnic/national identities as he moves from China to the UK to study.
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
"My parents drank wine with dinner every night. There’s nothing remarkable about that, but to a kid growing up in Mid-Missouri it was weird."
Ash Watson·
All ContentAutoethnographic EssaysCelebrating Dr. Patricia Leavy's Social Fiction 2024Special Issues
··13 min readLeavy’s 2019 novel about a week-long all-inclusive Icelandic research seminar wends its way through meetings, planning sessions, excursions, debates and dinners to the heart of the paradigms and epistemological questions that structure and drive scholarly research.
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.
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC MULTIMEDIA
Daze Jefferies·
All ContentAutoethnographic Art & MultimediaAutoethnographic PoetryClimate Change Special Issue, 2022Special Issues
··3 min read"This autoethnographic poem resembles a wave: coming, going, history, hereafter...an endless exchange."
"Then comes that special brand of rage and dejection that the patriarchy inspires by attempting to steal away with my bodily autonomy."
"I'm not exactly sure when I decided to make a performance piece about my sister's traumatic brain injury and death. In fact, I'm not sure there ever was a single moment of decision. Her story had become public in many ways, from online care sites to prayer chains to social media posts from family and friends. Her story was being performed out in the world before I started telling it."
Ulla-Maija Matikainen·
All ContentAutoethnographic Literary FictionAutoethnographic PoetryAutoethnographic WritingVolume 2, Issue 1 (2022)
··12 min read"A woman alone doesn’t belong to any male power or protection sphere. She can be kidnapped into fears and dreams."
In my poetry, I highlight negative depictions of Catholic religion and discuss how they differ from my own experiences as a Catholic.
This work of experimental poetry examines the interaction between the happy user of the open source format and the automated surface.
"In Turkey, we must consider opening folklore & the social sciences, but this time more powerfully, staggeringly, and creatively."
How do creatives find joy in artistic performance as a form of black feminist autoethnography? Podcast & video.
Shanita Mitchell and Marlen Harrison·
All ContentAutoethnographic Art & MultimediaMorePodcastsReflections on MethodVolume 3, Issue 2 (2023)
··18 min readToday we're talking with the award-winning author, researcher, and performer, Shanita Mitchell about performance and autoethnography.
"I write at length about my experiences surviving rape and abuse as a Western woman in Japan. I was lucky to get out alive."
What this essay tries to capture is both the wonder and the inherent horror in potty training.
"I tend to take every loss of rainforest personally. My autoethnographic poetry 'The Threat' and 'John Doe' are reflective of this."
NEWS, INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS
"In Turkey, we must consider opening folklore & the social sciences, but this time more powerfully, staggeringly, and creatively."
In the women’s history month, The AutoEthnographer supported "Her Story Leads: Amplifying Women’s voices through digital storytelling".
"The AutoEthnographer is excited to announce the 2022 International Symposium on Autoethnography and Narrative (ISAN), a fully online conference. The conference will occur via Zoom on January 2-5, 2022."
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