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autoethnographer: one who uses lived experience as evidence with which to explore cultural phenomena.
FROM OUR ARCHIVES
When Whistles Melt into Beeps: Four Poems for AutoEthnographer Author’s Memo I...
"I wrote Asha’s story to give voice to all the women in rural Bangladesh who cannot speak out against their abusers or society."
"What if autoethnography were treated not as an academic subject but as an artistic one?"
This piece recounts a trip I took to the Czech Republic and it is proof that language barriers similarly embolden people to speak cruelly.
"Here is a humble attempt for the 2022 special issue that comes in simple words to show how climate change begins at home."
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.
This is a humorous narrative nonfiction account of the strangest job I ever had working for a kooky fitness guru in Manhattan for six years.
“Letter from Okinawa” describes my research and observations into the impact the U.S. military has had on the island, and tells the story of the Japanese government’s historical culpability by colonizing, controlling, and discriminating against the island.
""Mourning (Unfinished)" is an essay about the way my experiences with farm animals helped me come to terms with a miscarriage."
Autoethnographic Literary Nonfiction: I Just Want to Go Home – Moving, Loss and Unacknowledged Grief
"Moving away from a beloved home at a tender age was traumatizing, in part, because that home was the only place in which I felt safe."
I write of parental grief & my mother's sweater as a comfort to me, exploring cultures of grief where pain meets love and love meets pain.
Madison, Wisconsin is full of surprises, sometimes entertaining, always enlightening. But I didn’t plan for an abortion protest during a family weekend.
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
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.
"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."
"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."
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC MULTIMEDIA
"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.
Terry Graff·
All ContentAutoethnographic Art & MultimediaAutoethnographic EssaysClimate Change Special Issue, 2022Special Issues
··13 min read"In retrospect, it was inevitable that birds and machines would converge in my work as a life-long exploration and expression of the relationship between nature and technology through the creation of avian cyborgs, the genesis of which can be traced back to my early drawings of robots and of the bygone birds of my childhood."
Hard Water: An Autoethnography of American Rust is concerned with the spatial formations of capitalism and the psychology of class hegemony.
"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."
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.
Dilek Isler Hayirli·
All ContentAutoethnographic Art & MultimediaEducationFrom the EditorsMoreReflections on MethodVolume 2, Issue 3 (2022)
··13 min read"I had not been aware that this emotional research was also performing autoethnography, collecting memories from the field"
"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."
Through our collaborative autoethnography, we learned that intentionally spending time with grief is well worth the effort.
This piece situates me in a set of sour in-laws relationships that also involved the legal system and it is in the form of autoethnography.
"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."
"Combining autoethnography and artwork, Supreme Justice aims to reveal the persistence of institutionalized oppression of women through history."
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The Autoethnographer, an award-winning, non-profit, peer-reviewed, digital literary & arts magazine, invites you to submit your work.
"The AutoEthnographer is hiring paid interns! A federally recognized 501(c)(3), we're looking for a Social Media Editor and a Layout and Design Editor."
"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."
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