Each year, the International Association of Autoethnography and Narrative Inquiry (IAANI) invites nominations for several awards to be presented at the annual International Symposium on Narrative and Autoethnography (ISAN):
- Outstanding Book
- Outstanding Edited Book
- Outstanding Book Chapter and/or Journal Article
- Outstanding Audio and/or Visual Project
- Outstanding Thesis (Masters)
- Outstanding Dissertation (Doctoral)
- Early Career Award
- Arthur Bochner and Carolyn Ellis Resonance Award
The Outstanding Book Chapter and/or Journal Article, Early Career Award, and Arthur Bochner and Carolyn Ellis Resonance Awards are presented every odd year (2023, 2025, 2027); the Outstanding Book, Edited Book, Audio and/or Visual Project, Thesis (Masters), and Dissertation (Doctorate) awards are presented every even year (2024, 2026, 2028).
Nominations for the following awards will open June 2023:
- Outstanding Book
- Outstanding Edited Book
- Outstanding Thesis (Masters)
- Outstanding Dissertation (Doctoral)
- Outstanding Audio and/or Visual Project
See below for more information about each award. A review committee will determine award recipients. Award recipients will be recognized at the annual ISAN.
The Outstanding Book, Edited Book, Book Chapter and/or Journal Article, Audio and/or Visual Project, Thesis (Masters), and Dissertation (Doctorate) awards are given to projects published, created, or defended in the two calendar years prior to the year of the conference at which each award was given. Publication date is determined by the date on the final published work.
Submissions are reviewed based on originality; creativity; accessible and well-crafted evocative and analytical writing; engagement with lived experience, such as emotion, subjectivity, and the body; contribution to the field of autoethnography and personal narrative; and practical significance and contribution to social justice.
Outstanding Book
2022: M. Soledad Caballero, I Was a Bell
Outstanding Edited Book
2022: Andrew F. Herrmann, The Routledge International Handbook of Organizational Autoethnography
Outstanding Audio and/or Visual Project
2022: Josh Hamzehee, “Burnt City: A Dystopian Bilingual One-Persian Show!”
2022: Honorable Mention: Shanita Mitchell, “A Seat at the Table: A Dance Performance”
Outstanding Dissertation
2022: Lindsay Wagner, The Aletheia Project: An Autoethnographic Study of Sexual Harassment in Higher Education Facilities Management
Outstanding Thesis
2022: Alicia Marie Utecht, Big/Little Sister
Outstanding Journal Article
2021: David F. Purnell, “I Should Have Been Wearing the Pink Triangle”
2023: Michael Tristano Jr., “Performing Queer of Color Joy Through Collective Crisis: Resistance, Social Science, and How I Learned to Dance Again”
2023: Honorable Mention: Joe Cleary, “A Suburban Funeral”
Outstanding Book Chapter
2023: Elizabeth Weinberg, “Fire” (from Unsettling: Surviving Extinction Together)
Early Career Award
The Early Career Award is designed to recognize scholars who have a demonstrated record of using autoethnography and narrative in exemplary and promising ways. Eligible nominees include anyone who has completed a terminal degree (e.g., MFA, PhD, EdD) during the five years prior to the year the award is given.
2021: Loretta LeMaster
2023: Julianna Kirschner
Arthur Bochner and Carolyn Ellis Resonance Award
The Arthur Bochner and Carolyn Ellis Resonance Award recognizes a work (book, article, book chapter, staged performance, art installation) demonstrating excellence in autoethnography and narrative and that has stood the test of time. The work could be considered a “classic” text that has served as a stimulus for novel approaches to and understandings of autoethnography and narrative. For this award, nominated works must be at least five years old at the time of the nomination.
2021: Ronald J. Pelias, A Methodology of the Heart
2023: Mark Freeman, Hindsight: The Promise and Peril of Looking Backward
Journal of Autoethnography Article of the Year Award
This annual award goes to the article published in the Journal of Autoethnography in a given year that best demonstrates originality and creativity, the use of well-crafted evocative and/or analytical writing, shows the author’s engaged lived experience, and makes a significant contribution to the field of autoethnography.
2020: Devika Chawla, “The Essay”
2021: Anonymous Author, PhD, “Highlighting Numbers: Students Stalking Faculty and the Lasting Impacts of a Flawed System”
2022: Ritika Popli, “Writing with Grief: Coping with My Father’s Death“