The 2022 International Symposium on Autoethnography and Narrative (ISAN) occurred via Zoom on January 3-5, 2022. The Symposium featured one keynote, four workshops, 11 special sessions, and 150+ individual presentations. More than 400 people registered for the symposium.
Below are recordings of many of the live sessions from the 2022 symposium. (We were not able to record the four workshops or three of the special sessions.) The recordings are listed in the order they appeared in the program.
Keynote Address
Taking it Home
Kitrina Douglas, University of West London & Leeds Beckett University
David Carless, University of the West of Scotland
Author Spotlight
Are You Two Sisters? The Journey of a Lesbian Couple
Susan Krieger, Stanford University (USA)
Interviewed by
Carolyn Ellis, University of South Florida (USA)
Authored by one of the most respected figures in the field of personal ethnographic narrative, Are You Two Sisters? serves as both a memoir and a sociological study, telling the story of one lesbian couple’s lifelong journey together. Using a lively novelistic and autoethnographic approach that toggles back and forth in time, Are You Two Sisters? addresses not only questions of gender and sexuality, but also of disability, as Krieger explores how the couple adapts to her increasing blindness.” Click here for more information about the book.
Author Spotlight
An Autoethnography of African-American Motherhood: Things I Tell My Daughter
Renata Ferdinand, New York City College of Technology (USA)
Interviewed by
Alec Grant, Independent Scholar
An Autoethnography of African-American Motherhood: Things I Tell My Daughter is a Black feminist autoethnography focusing on mothering and motherhood. As an anti-racist and anti-misogynist text, it situates the everyday life experiences of a Black mother as she contends with multiple forms of systemic racial and gendered oppression while navigating the challenging terrain of motherhood. Moreover, it is a multi-generational text that blends the author’s experience with that of her mother’s, grandmother’s, and her daughter’s in an effort to engage in a larger discussion of U.S. Black mother/womanhood. It is the first full-length explicitly identified autoethnographic text on African American motherhood. Click here for more information about the book.
Performance Spotlight
Still Point
Elyse Pineau, Southern Illinois University Carbondale (USA)
Jason Hedrick, Southern Illinois University Carbondale (USA)
Author Spotlight
Do I Look at You with Love? Reimagining the Story of Dementia
Mark Freeman, College of the Holy Cross (USA)
Interviewed by
Arthur Bochner, University of South Florida (USA)
Do I Look at You with Love? These are the words uttered by Mark Freeman’s mother when she learned, once again, that he was her son. Freeman’s book explores their relationship as it evolved during the final 12 years of her life, from the time of her diagnosis of dementia until her death at age 93. Much of the story is tragic. But there were other periods and other dimensions of relationship that were beautiful and that could not have emerged without her very affliction. Part autoethnography, part narrative psychology, Freeman’s story is also a tragicomic meditation on the beauty and light that may be found amidst the ravages of time and memory. Click here for more information about the book.
Scholar Spotlight
Robin Boylorn
University of Alabama (USA)
Interviewed by
Mary E. Weems, Independent Scholar
Editor | Author Spotlight
Wayfinding and Critical Autoethnography
Fetaui Iosefo, University of Auckland (New Zealand)
Stacy Holman Jones, Monash University (Australia)
Dan Harris, RMIT University (Australia)
Interviewed by
David Purnell, Mercer University
Wayfinding and Critical Autoethnography is the first critical autoethnography compilation from the global south, bringing together indigenous, non-indigenous, Pasifika, and other diverse voices which expand established understandings of autoethnography as a critical, creative methodology. This book centres around the traditional practice of “wayfinding” as a Pacific indigenous way of being and knowing, and this volume manifests traditional knowledges, genealogies, and intercultural activist voices through critical autoethnography. Click here for more information about the book.
Honorary Scholar Spotlight
Norman K. Denzin
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (USA)
Interviewed by
Carolyn Ellis and Arthur Bochner, University of South Florida (USA)
Scholar Spotlight
Craig Gingrich-Philbrook
Southern Illinois University Carbondale (USA)
Interviewed by
Ragan Fox, California State University Long Beach (USA)
Author Spotlight
An Autoethnography of Fitting In: On Spinsterhood, Fatness and Backpacker Tourism
Phiona Stanley Edinburgh Napier University (Scotland)
Interviewed by
Christopher Poulos, University of North Carolina Greensboro (USA)
An Autoethnography of Fitting In: On Spinsterhood, Fatness, and Backpacker Tourism is a feminist narrative about the social rules of obedience and acquiescence to the norm – embodiment, heteronormativity, partnering – and about fitting in, or not, with those narratives. Set in the context of transnational work in Qatar, China, and elsewhere, and “road status” as negotiated and performed among long-term backpacker tourists, this book serves as an exemplar of how autoethnography can illuminate socio-cultural normativities and their effects – which are rarely explicit, but which nevertheless have great potential to harm – while problematizing and rethinking the meanings and semantic boundaries of fatness, queerness, and (hetero)normativity. Click here for more information about the book.
Spotlight Memorial Panel
Remembering Mary Gergen
Moderators
Arthur Bochner and Carolyn Ellis, University of South Florida (USA)
Panelists
Diana Whitney, Corporation for Positive Change (Americas | Asia | Europe)
Sheila McNamee, University of New Hampshire (USA)
Frank Barrett, Naval Postgraduate School (USA)
Kenneth J. Gergen, Swarthmore College (USA)
Scholar Spotlight
Sandra Faulkner
Bowling Green State University
Interviewed by
Keith Berry, University of South Florida