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autoethnographer: one who uses lived experience as evidence with which to explore cultural phenomena.
FROM OUR ARCHIVES
”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.”
"For the first time since my adolescence, I am recognizing that I don’t have to believe what everyone believes, nor do I have to base my morals on faceless strangers who don’t know who I am, or what my experiences are."
The poems in this collection are a reflection on my zero waste aspirations (and the values behind the movement at large).
My weird depression showed up this summer like “hey sis!” And I was like “fuck my life”! I wasn’t ready. This time, it caught me off guard.
This piece works to contextualize aging in the queer community, the complexities of developing trends in spectacle versus intimacy, the depth and shallow natures that are found in performance, as well as the fear and hope that can be found as a queer person.
Patricia Leavy·
All ContentAutoethnographic EssaysCelebrating Dr. Patricia Leavy's Social Fiction 2024MoreReflections on MethodSpecial Issues
··11 min readWriting fiction allows me to document reality and to reimagine it, just as we can always reimagine ourselves. And that is why we need stories.
In this essay, the current reality of queerness is juxtaposed against milestones in my own life as a queer man in America.
Poems As a Form of Powerful Activism and Barrier-breakers is a compilation of three poems which mean a lot for me.
“Tired,” the titular poem and the collection at large, is an autoethnography looking at the cause of so much pain, so much fatigue. Anthropomorphizing the feeling of being tired gave me creative license to dramatize and explore the real experiences of needing a break...
“blackwomanatwork” came out of my experiences working in academia as a first-generation immigrant black woman from the Caribbean.
"She needs to be an artist to be an artist-teacher in adult community learning. She needs to do both to become the best she can be."
The Karen Disorder: Breaking Free from the Chains of Institutional Labels emerges from my research in the field of illness and identity.
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
In this 2nd of my Processing Parental Grief series, Calliandra receives a letter from her mother weeks after her death.
This autoethnography is the first-hand experience and exposure of imposter syndrome from a new adjunct instructor's point of view.
This writing is based on storytelling, common in Mexican culture.
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC MULTIMEDIA
"Armored Corps: The spirit of combativeness and human resilience" is the theme of a graphic narrative project.
Terry Graff·
All ContentAutoethnographic Art & MultimediaAutoethnographic EssaysAutoethnographic WritingClimate Change Special Issue, 2022Special Issues
··15 min read"As the world’s bird populations decline precipitously, will the many winged creatures we knew as children live only in the mists of memory?"
“Woken Word” was born as my inner voice was awakening and the world, ironically was becoming “woke” while simultaneously retreating into isolation.
This work of experimental poetry examines the interaction between the happy user of the open source format and the automated surface.
Through these reflections on heritage, I delve into being a child of parents who immigrated from the Bronx to a suburban lifestyle.
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.
Laurel Richardson and U. Melissa Anyiwo·
All ContentAutoethnographic EssaysCelebrating Dr. Patricia Leavy's Social Fiction 2024MoreReflections on MethodSpecial Issues
··14 min readLaurel Richardson and U. Melissa Anyiwo writes the introduction to this special issue celebrating Dr. Patricia Leavy’s work.
Through our collaborative autoethnography, we learned that intentionally spending time with grief is well worth the effort.
"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."
My essay tells my life story in relation to a specific moment in the history of American women’s access to abortion and reproductive justice.
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.
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.”
NEWS, INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS
”As of January, 2022 The AutoEthnographer Literary & Arts Magazine is recognized by the United States Internal Revenue Service as a registered nonprofit organization with the mission of becoming a trusted, open-source platform to share and educate readers about evocative personal inquiry, to support emerging authors and artists, to promote cultural diversity and appreciation, and to celebrate creative expression as a vehicle for shared understanding.”
"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."
"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."
SPECIAL ISSUES
EDUCATION, INTERVIEWS, PODCASTS, & REVIEWS
REFLECTIONS ON METHOD
