Critical Autoethnography: Intersecting Cultural Identities in Everyday Life (Writing Lives: Ethnographic Narratives)

This volume uses autoethnography—cultural analysis through personal narrative—to explore the tangled relationships between culture and communication. Using an intersectional approach to the many aspects of identity at play in everyday life, a diverse group of authors reveals the complex nature of lived experiences. They situate interpersonal experiences of gender, race, ethnicity, ability, and orientation within larger systems of power, oppression, and social privilege. An excellent resource for undergraduates, graduate students, educators, and scholars in the fields of intercultural and interpersonal communication, and qualitative methodology.

Robin M. Boylorn is Assistant Professor of Interpersonal and Intercultural Communication in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Alabama. Her research focuses on issues of diversity and social identity, and the intersections of race, class, and gender/sex. Her work offers social and cultural critiques of representations of black women utilizing her personal lived experience(s) and creative and performative writing. She has published articles in leading academic journals, including Cultural Studies <=> Critical Methodologies, Qualitative Inquiry, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, and Critical Studies in Media Communication, and the book Sweetwater: Black Women and Narratives of Resilience, (Peter Lang 2013).

Mark P. Orbe is Professor of Communication and Diversity in the School of Communication at Western Michigan University where he has a joint appointment in Gender and Women’s Studies. His teaching and research explore the inextricable relationship between culture and communication in a variety of contexts. He has published over 100 journal articles, book chapters, and books on issues related to culture, power, and communication, and is past secretary-general of the World Communication Association.