ABSTRACT
Autoethnography is the study of culture through the study of self (ELLIS, 2004ELLIS, C. (2004). The Ethnographic I: A methodological novel about autoethnography. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press; ELLIS et al, 2011ELLIS, C. (2011). Jumping on and off the runaway train of success: Stress and committed intensity in an academic life. Symbolic Interaction, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 158-172.). In this paper, we explore the value of autoethnography in the study of academic literacies. We draw on our own experiences as ethnographers and autoethnographers of literacy to provide illustrative examples. We show how autoethnography has provided a fresh understanding of the role of place and space in developing academic writing across countries and between English and Spanish (OLMOS-LÓPEZ, 2019OLMOS-LÓPEZ, P. (2019). Back and forth between languages: An early-career bilingual academic’s writing odyssey. Critical Multilingualism Studies, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 32-43.). We discuss the value of team autoethnography in researching academic writing (TUSTING et al., 2019TUSTING, K.; MCCULLOCH, S.; BHATT, I.; HAMILTON, M.; BARTON, D. (2019). Academics Writing: The dynamics of knowledge creation. London and New York: Routledge.). And we reflect together on our own journey of development as academic writers, showing how a mentoring relationship has been part of both of our trajectories. The paper aims to argue for the value of autoethnography as an approach to studying academic literacy practices, particularly in providing insight into identity and personal experience.
Keywords:
autoethnography; academic literacies; place