Centre for Qualitative Research : Masterclasses 2007
Masterclass 2: Writing Authoethnography
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Dr Carolyn Ellis, University of South Florida, Tampa Bay, Florida, USA. 10th & 11 April 2007 |
In the last two decades, many qualitative researchers have experimented with narrative and autoethnographic writing, concentrating on writing in a more evocative and literary style and including themselves as participants in their interview and ethnographic studies of others. Likewise, there has been a burgeoning of autoethnographic projects that focus directly on the research and personal experiences of the author. Dr. Ellis will lead a 2-day Masterclass on Writing Autoethnography in which participants will have the opportunity to examine and practice personal narrative writing as well as try out ways to incorporate these techniques into ongoing ethnographic research.
The Masterclass will include assistance in writing autoethnography as a stand-alone research article or as an integral part of a more traditional qualitative research project. Participants may bring 3-5 (or more) pages of writing to work on in the session. This may be descriptive material from a qualitative project of their own-including ethnography, interview, focus group, autoethnography, or other-or it may be personal narrative written specifically for this session. If participants do not have material to bring, they may try their hands at constructing narrative with other participants in small groups during the session. Session attendees will work on improving narrative and autoethnographic writing and on adding scenes, character development, conversations, dramatic action, and the "I" of the researcher to more traditional writing. Some familiarity with Ellis's The Ethnographic I: A Methodological Novel about Autoethnography would be helpful though not mandatory.
Carolyn Ellis is professor of communication and sociology at the University
of South Florida. She is the author of Fisher Folk: Two Communities on Chesapeake
Bay, Final Negotiations: A Story of Love, Loss, and Chronic Illness, The Ethnographic
I: A Methodological Novel about Autoethnography, four edited collections, and
more than 100 articles, chapters, essays, and autoethnographic stories. Her
forthcoming book is entitled, Making a Life: Autoethnographic Adventures. She
currently is the co-editor for the book series, Writing Lives: Narrative Ethnography
with Left Coast Press. Professor Ellis has served as President of Society for
the Study of Symbolic Interaction and chair and founding member of two divisions
of national organizations, "The Ethnography Division" of National
Communication Association and "The Emotions Section" of American Sociological
Association. She has given numerous workshops and keynote presentations all
over the world, including the United States, South Africa, Finland, Italy, Canada,
China, and Denmark.
Dr. Ellis is a qualitative researcher, who works at the intersection of social science and humanities. In her work, she seeks to convey a cultural way of life through the presentation of stories about particular lives, and to document the moment-to-moment, concrete details of a life story, both important ways of knowing. Her focus is on autoethnographic inquiry and narrative writing and storytelling, particularly in the areas of emotions, illness, grief and loss, aging, and relationships. Along with her colleagues, she has developed research and writing procedures that reflect the ways people cope with intense experiences and relate to close associates in everyday life. Her goal is to humanize social science projects, evoke emotional responses, and open up conversations about lived experiences and qualitative research.
Download PDF brochure (PDF 475 kb)
Please forward all enquiries to:
Stacey Mitchell,
Centre for Qualitative Research, Bournemouth University,
HSC, Royal London House,
Christchurch Road,
Bournemouth,
BH1 3LT,
UK
Tel: (01202) 962763
Fax: (01202) 962194
Email: cqr@bournemouth.ac.uk
