Life and Literature: A (Not So) Foolish Journey

Alone on stage: How one LGBTIQ+ educator uses poetic performative autoethnography for social change

“…To further my definitional dilemma, Spry (2011) has posited that "performance autoethnography is a critically reflexive methodology in a narrative of the researcher's engagement with others in particular sociocultural contexts" (p. 498). While Custer (2014) defined autoethnography as "a style of autobiographical writing and qualitative research that explores an individual's unique life experiences in relationship to social and cultural institutions" (p. 1), Carver (2014) defined the performance element of autoethnography thus: "I write my life story, intertwining the two together, performing life as an academic and an ethnographer of human communication, and writing for the stage" (p. 212). Each researcher "starts with a body, in a place, and in a time" (Spry, 2009, p. 603) to write about larger social and academic issues, and this moment on stage was my place and time.…”