Teaching Autoethnography: Personal Writing in the Classroom Teaching Autoethnography: Personal Writing in the Classroom Melissa Tombro Open SUNY Textbooks ©2016 Melissa Tombro ISBN: 978-1-942341-21-5 ebook This publication was made possible by a SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grant (IITG). IITG is a competitive grants program open to SUNY faculty and support staff across all disciplines. IITG encourages development of innovations that meet the Power of SUNY’s transformative vision. Published by Open SUNY Textbooks, Milne Library (IITG PI) State University of New York at Geneseo, Geneseo, NY 14454 This book was produced using Pressbooks.com, and PDF rendering was done by PrinceXML. Teaching Autoethnography: Personal Writing in the Classroom by Melissa Tombro is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. Contents About the Book ix Reviewer’s Notes xi Carole Deletiner Teaching Autoethnography Introduction 3 1. Understanding our Students’ Relationship to “I” 15 2. Getting Started in the Classroom 18 3. Writing Essays for Class: The First Steps 25 4. Workshop and Peer Review Process 30 5. Memory/Character Essays 33 6. Writing about Spaces and Events 37 7. The Autoethnography Project 41 8. Choosing Topics for the Autoethnography 50 9. The Interview Process 54 10. Conducting Observations 58 11. Putting It All Together 60 12. Challenges of Personal Writing 62 13. Concluding Thoughts 64 14. Sample Class Schedule 65 15. Additional Readings on Autoethnography 67 Deep Observation Assignment: Eleven Examples Melanie 71 Joomi Park Rattling Thoughts 72 Neziah Doe Southern Belle 74 William Rossi The Battle 76 Emma Suleski The Woman with the Purple Mat 78 Heather Brackman Steven Bertram 80 Anna Ehart The Man 82 Justine Giardina Colors, Lines, and Shapes 84 Jillian McDonnell v Angelic Atmosphere 86 Chadbourne Oliver Sylvia 88 Tyana Soto One 90 Adriana Pauly Self-as-Character Assignment: Eight Examples Sight 95 Neziah Doe Fastforward 97 Emma Suleski Reflections 99 Zachary Volosky Unfortunate Truths 101 Justine Giardina Hanatomy 103 Hannah Lajba What I Never Thought 105 Or Gotham Past Midnight 107 Jeffrey Cheung Five Feet Mighty 109 Joomi Park Memory Assignment: Six Examples The Curse 113 Zachary Volosky Memory of the Maine 115 Joomi Park A Memory of Mr. Oko 117 William Rossi Inhale, Exhale 119 Emma Suleski An Honest Living 121 Justine Giardina A-Relief 123 Hannah Lajba Memory/Character Essay: Thirteen Examples How to Survive 127 Or Gotham A Living Contradiction vi Mike Gomez 130 Georgia on My Mind 133 Joomi Park To the Center 135 William Rossi Growing Through Dirt 138 Magdalene Moore Playbill 140 Hannah Lajba I Told You So 143 Jillian McDonnell Genetic Disposition 146 Emma Suleski Shomer Nagia 149 Neziah Doe Brooklyn, Madness, Lust, Death, and the Apocalypse 153 Chadbourne Oliver Mommy 156 Katie Braner The Job That You Want 159 Jeffrey Cheung Self-Destruct 163 Danny Gomez The Space or Event Essay: Thirteen Examples In-Patient 171 Mike Gomez Daringly Different 175 Tyana Soto Two Places, One Home 178 Maria Beyer See the World 181 Adriana Pauly Manhattan 185 William Rossi November First 188 Neziah Doe Get a Grip 191 Emma Suleski Room in the Back 194 Justine Giardina Aging Not so Gracefully 198 Anne Ehart vii There and Back Again: A Comic-Con Tale 202 Hannah Lajba Sundays 206 Jillian McDonnell Family Ties 210 Zachary Volosky Focus 215 Erika Veurink The Autoethnography: Ten Examples On Anarchism in New York 221 Adriana Pauly Allies, Advocates, Activists 227 Tyana Soto Unicorny, the Only Way a Coder Will Define Rails 231 Hannah Lajba Friendship Is Magic 234 Heather Brackman Gin and Tonic: A Look into the Subculture of Taxidermists 239 Jillian McDonnell Don't Judge the Bible by Its Cover: An Honest Story with a Cliché Title 244 Emma Suleski Autoethnography on Manhattan Drag 248 William Rossi NaNoWriMo 252 Joomi Park Steel Paradise: The Hardcore Metal Aesthetic 255 Justine Giardina YouTube: Science Isn’t Just for Geeks Anymore 260 Neziah Doe Works Cited 265 About the Author 269 viii About the Book Teaching Autoethnography: Personal Writing in the Classroom is dedicated to the practice of immersive ethnographic and autoethonographic writing that encourages authors to participate in the communities about which they write. This book draws not only on critical qualitative inquiry methods such as interview and observation, but also on theories and sensibilities from creative writing and performance studies, which encourage self-reflection and narrative composition. Concepts from qualitative inquiry studies, which examine everyday life, are combined with approaches to the creation of character and scene to help writers develop engaging narratives that examine chosen subcultures and the author’s position in relation to her research subjects. The book brings together a brief history of first-person qualitative research and writing from the past forty years, examining the evolution of nonfiction and qualitative approaches in relation to the personal essay. A selection of recent student writing in the genre as well as reflective student essays on the experience of conducting research in the classroom is presented in the context of exercises for coursework and beyond. Also explored in detail are guidelines for interviewing and identifying subjects and techniques for creating informed sketches and images that engage the reader. This book provides approaches anyone can use to explore their communities and write about them first- hand. The methods presented can be used for a single assignment in a larger course or to guide an entire semester through many levels and varieties of informed personal writing. About Open SUNY Textbooks Open SUNY Textbooks is an open access textbook publishing initiative established by State University of New York libraries and supported by SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grants. This initiative publishes high-quality, cost-effective course resources by engaging faculty as authors and peer-reviewers, and libraries as publishing service and infrastructure. The pilot launched in 2012, providing an editorial framework and service to authors, students and faculty, and establishing a community of practice among libraries. Participating libraries in the 2012-2013 pilot include SUNY Geneseo, College at Brockport, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, SUNY Fredonia, Upstate Medical University, and University at Buffalo, with support from other SUNY libraries and SUNY Press. The 2013-2014 pilot will add more titles in 2015. More information can be found at http://textbooks.opensuny.org. ix Reviewer’s Notes Carole Deletiner I would recommend this text to any undergraduate college instructor interested in developing and teaching a writing course that centers on using qualitative research methods to investigate, examine, reflect, and write about personal experiences. The strength of the text derives from how it can be used and the author includes precise and carefully considered “approaches anyone can use to explore their communities and write about them first-hand” (Tombro). Of particular use to a writing instructor is the step-by-step presentation of the author’s research methods that “can be used for a single assignment in a larger course or to guide an entire semester through many levels and varieties of informed personal writing” (Tombro). The text is clear and concise methodically laying out the steps necessary to complete a semester long project. Of particular value is the clarity of the assignments and how they build on one another helping to guide students through a sophisticated and challenging process. Carole Deletiner earned a PhD in English Education at New York University. Until her retirement in 2014, she taught a variety of writing and literature courses at the college level for more than twenty-five years. xi Teaching Autoethnography Introduction Goals and Uses of This Book The purpose of this textbook, aimed at college-level teachers, is to present a unified approach to using personal writing and qualitative inquiry, specifically autoethnography, in the first-year writing classroom. Its use can also extend into any classroom where the instructor wishes to use personal writing. Compositionists and university composition programs have embraced aspects of personal writing and qualitative research with varying degrees of success for many years. My book is meant to be a practical guide to integrating many of these methods, with help from the field of creative writing, into a course that teaches all of the aspects of writing that students should practice before leaving the first-year writing classroom. The book can be used to structure an entire first- year writing course or creative nonfiction course or as a resource for individual assignments in any classroom when the instructor wishes to use personal writing critically. All writing assignments included here can be considered either building blocks for autoethnography or autoethnographic in nature. Through conversations with colleagues over the past thirteen years, I have come to realize that many writing teachers need more opportunities to theorize properly and demonstrate the importance of the work they are doing with personal writing. Although personal writing remains a popular genre, varying opinions about its value and use keep it from being analyzed and studied in a way that allows its definitions to expand and evolve. The intention of this book is not to ask why personal writing has been such a contentious yet popular form in the field of composition but rather to trace its history in the field of composition and to explore how we can employ it critically and productively in our classrooms using qualitative inquiry. In my introduction, I draw together a number of working definitions and methodologies to situate the approach to the teaching assignments I include in the rest of the book. For my purposes, the focus on personal writing will be on its position in the field of composition studies. Depending on the academic field of study, there is much disagreement about the definition of the term autoethnography.