autoethnographer: one who uses lived experience as evidence with which to explore cultural phenomena.
A Hard Look at Home: On the Paradoxes of Place Author’s Memo...
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.
This piece is a creative reflection which emerged out of the auto-ethnographic reflections from my PhD around research extraction.
Can a colorless person have any sense of what it feels like to be prejudged against, before “the you - inside yourself” opens your eyes in the morning?
I’ll take you back through my journey and then reveal how I overcame my mental health challenges and reconnected with my true self.
In my work , the issues of depression, anxiety, and bulimia nervosa are discussed heavily.
Madison, Wisconsin is full of surprises, sometimes entertaining, always enlightening. But I didn’t plan for an abortion protest during a family weekend.
I write out of the consciousness that I am both a product of the violence of war and a migratory being—not only in the strictest sense of physical displacement, but also in belonging.
You’re Still Here: Art and Grief in Autoethnographic Textiles Artist’s Memo You’re...
As I discuss my first queer event, a book discussion about a queer young adult book, Canto Contigo, I will explore my anxieties about my sexual identity, and the repercussions of this community warfare.
This article is a prequel to ongoing research into DIY Healing Within Ancestral Lands. A project born of growing up in a family system that was not kind, welcoming or loving.
This piece of original short fiction contains plot elements based on my recent adventures hiking remote trails in Ecuador and Colorado.
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SPECIAL ISSUE 2024: PATRICIA LEAVY & SOCIAL FICTION
An Invitation to Story: "Everything in my life has shown me that stories matter. Sharing stories matters. Through stories we generate connection, resonance, empathy, reflection, discovery, learning, change, resistance, visibility. Storytelling is at the heart of my work. It’s also at the heart of autoethnography. I hope when you read my books and the contributions in this special issue that you’re inspired to think about how you might tell the stories of your research and your life." Dr. Patricia Leavy
LATEST POSTS
autoethnographer: one who uses lived experience as evidence with which to explore cultural phenomena.
“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
What is autoethnography? The AutoEthnographer's international team of editors offer definitions & suggested readings.
Readers can ask questions about autoethnography or invite an editor to speak to their group or classroom.
MISSION
THE AUTOETHNOGRAPHER is a digital magazine dedicated to creating a public, open-source space for creatives to share their personal stories of cultural experience. We aim to support emerging authors and artists, to promote cultural diversity and appreciation, and to celebrate creative expression as a vehicle for shared understanding and positive change.
MISSION
THE AUTOETHNOGRAPHER is a digital magazine dedicated to creating a public, open-source space for creatives to share their personal stories of cultural experience. We aim to support emerging authors and artists, to promote cultural diversity and appreciation, and to celebrate creative expression as a vehicle for shared understanding and positive change.
![](https://theautoethnographer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screenshot-2024-02-11-234133.png)
![](https://theautoethnographer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screenshot-2024-02-11-234133.png)
![](https://theautoethnographer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screenshot-2024-02-11-234133.png)
SPECIAL ISSUE 2024: PATRICIA LEAVY & SOCIAL FICTION
An Invitation to Story: "Everything in my life has shown me that stories matter. Sharing stories matters. Through stories we generate connection, resonance, empathy, reflection, discovery, learning, change, resistance, visibility. Storytelling is at the heart of my work. It’s also at the heart of autoethnography. I hope when you read my books and the contributions in this special issue that you’re inspired to think about how you might tell the stories of your research and your life." Dr. Patricia Leavy
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC LITERARY NONFICTION
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AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC LITERARY FICTION
Visitation, an Autoethnodrama in One Act
In this autoethnographic play, a woman terminates a pregnancy without telling her husband.
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AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC POETRY
FEATURED POET: MILTON KARP
"My poems are not entirely mine. They belong to the people and events of my passage through life. For once the dam is breached its contents flow unabridged. - Milton Carp, poet at 91"
Patricia Leavy is a genuine trailblazer, the real deal, an inspiration.
Leavy is more than the mother of the social fiction movement in the social sciences; she’s its fairy godmother.
Story-worlds were magical—they transported me to different places where I’d meet new people, and learn about their lives in visceral ways.
In this essay, the current reality of queerness is juxtaposed against milestones in my own life as a queer man in America.
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.
I explore the intersection of queer identity and popular culture through the lens of my adolescent crush on rock legend Tina Turner.
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.
The AutoEthnographer is excited to announce its new Call for Submissions, 2023 Special Issue: “Laughter”
This is a love letter to my people, my family and a version of me trying to overcome the trauma of almost seeing their mother die.
"In this autoethnodrama, a woman terminates a pregnancy without telling her husband."
"The AutoEthnographer announces a new call for submissions for a late 2022 special issue, 'Bodily Autonomy Rights (Abortion, Circumcision, Contraception).'"
"My poems for this special issue seek to document a history of my choice, not just personally but humanly, to use autoethnography to weave through the personal and the political."
Our future depends on readers like you.
$1 a month can help us reach our goals and continue to provide a platform for important voices and stories.
“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.”
"Here is a humble attempt for the 2022 special issue that comes in simple words to show how climate change begins at home."
"Ongoing horrific events painstakingly filled my mind when I submerged into Dante’s Commedia Divina. Our tragedy with nature revealed itself to me in its deepest form."
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC WRITING
"Horse, Therapy is a story of my own experience and is a commentary on trauma, both in animals and humans."
"She has been so careful at work; she has had all of her shopping delivered for weeks, actually for months, now; she's even wiped down the items with bleach as they are delivered, and still does. How can this have happened?"
I’ll take you back through my journey and then reveal how I overcame my mental health challenges and reconnected with my true self.
![](https://theautoethnographer.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/photo-of-laptop-glasses-and-earphones-by-Mauro-Segura.jpg)
![](https://theautoethnographer.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/photo-of-laptop-glasses-and-earphones-by-Mauro-Segura.jpg)
![](https://theautoethnographer.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/photo-of-laptop-glasses-and-earphones-by-Mauro-Segura.jpg)
HAVE YOU HEARD?
We're podcasting!
Listen to The AutoEthnographer in the car or on the go and enjoy discussions with artists, authors, performers, and researchers from around the world. In our 20-minute episodes we examine how autoethnography can be utilized in diverse contexts, from marketing and coaching to painting and songwriting.
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC MULTIMEDIA
How do creatives find joy in artistic performance as a form of black feminist autoethnography? Podcast & video.
In today's new podcast & video Marlen Harrison talks with current marketing interns about the role of culture in using Google Ads.
"Dr. Nadine Khair discusses why autoethnography is essential to successful businesses in this latest podcast."
“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.”
The Ultimate Wave: Prose Poetry of the Pandemic and Parents Author’s Memo “The Wave” examines the problem of...
"While living in Ecuador, I wrote “Home” which essentially is an homage to the “third-culture kid” phenomenon, when your parents are from another country than the one you grew up in."
IAANI AWARD WINNER
“A Seat at the Table” is the autoethnographic manifestation of my vulnerability, anger, and anguish, of my black feminist grit."
Get updates about The AutoEthnographer direct to your inbox!
Sign up for our seasonal newsletter, only four times a year.
Get updates about The AutoEthnographer direct to your inbox!
Sign up for our seasonal newsletter, only four times a year.
“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.”
There are multiple approaches to find one's poetic voice depending on the lens one chooses as a part of the author’s creative process.
"This autoethnographic poetry is born of my personal experience, witness, as well as currently chronicled and ancestral lore."
FEATURED POET: MILTON KARP
"My poems are not entirely mine. They belong to the people and events of my passage through life. For once the dam is breached its contents flow unabridged. - Milton Carp, poet at 91"
"I had not been aware that this emotional research was also performing autoethnography, collecting memories from the field"
Today we're talking with the award-winning author, researcher, and performer, Shanita Mitchell about performance and autoethnography.
"I’ve already resisted that scholarship is not creative and poetry is not part of my scholarly self. I think the idea of autoethnography allows for that cultural divide between the creative and academic to be really disrupted."
Get updates about The AutoEthnographer direct to your inbox!
Sign up for our seasonal newsletter, only four times a year.
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.”
In The AutoEthnographer’s latest podcast, Marlen Harrison talks with Sandra Faulkner about collage and visual poetry.
"I’ve already resisted that scholarship is not creative and poetry is not part of my scholarly self. I think the idea of autoethnography allows for that cultural divide between the creative and academic to be really disrupted."
AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC ESSAYS
NEWS, INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS
![](https://theautoethnographer.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/photo-of-laptop-glasses-and-earphones-by-Mauro-Segura.jpg)
![](https://theautoethnographer.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/photo-of-laptop-glasses-and-earphones-by-Mauro-Segura.jpg)
![](https://theautoethnographer.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/photo-of-laptop-glasses-and-earphones-by-Mauro-Segura.jpg)
HAVE YOU HEARD?
We're podcasting!
Listen to The AutoEthnographer in the car or on the go and enjoy discussions with artists, authors, performers, and researchers from around the world. In our 20-minute episodes we examine how autoethnography can be utilized in diverse contexts, from marketing and coaching to painting and songwriting.
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