On Being at Home with Myself

Abstract

The author uses a metaphor of home to discuss and situate a way of being in and seeing/experiencing the world through a raced and gendered lens. She uses what she calls blackgirl autoethnography to talk about embodied, critical, and culturally situated research that begins (and/or) ends at home, in the bodies we live with, and the social circumstances we live through. Using sensory data and preliminary interviews with women she has shared “home” spaces with, she incorporates intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991), cultural representation (Hall, 2003), endarkened epistemology (Dillard, 2000), and critical autoethnography (Adams, Holman Jones, & Ellis, 2015; Boylorn & Orbe, 2014; Madison, 2012) to argue for blackgirl autoethnography as a praxis for black and brown women to do the home/work of self-construction, absent the influences of racist, classist, and misogynistic culture.

Mama Taught Me

“…Notes 1. Boylorn (2016) explains blackgirl autoethnography as a way to make sense of the world as a blackgirl, as a "way of owning who I am [as a blackgirl], expressing being at home in my [melanated and gendered] skin, avoiding the pause [between black and girl], accepting the contradictions [within that personhood]" (p. 50) and that "blackgirl autoethnography also includes an analysis and cultural critique of racism, sexism, classism, and the matrixes of those oppressions in the lives of women of color" (p. 56).…”

Tutkimusta lasten kanssa

“…Sukupolvien suhteet eivät liity vain tutkijan ja tutkittavien suhteisiin, vaan myös menneisiin sukupolviin ja itseemme lapsina. Kuten Boylorn (2016) on todennut, tutkimus alkaa ja päättyy kotiin eli sinne, mistä olemme lähtöisin, sillä emme voi irrottaa tutkijuutta itsemme ulkopuolelle. Toisaalta itsestä kirjoittaminen on samalla kirjoittamista myös kulttuurisesti jaetuista arvoista, käytännöistä ja kokemuksista (Adams & Manning 2015, 352).…”

The Core of Critical Performative Autoethnography

“…As such, and most always critically oriented (above), autoethnography consists of a multitude of different forms, many of which overlap. Some examples are betweener, Blackgirl, collaborative, community, decolonial, duo, Indigenous, interpretative, layered, meta, Mystory, performative, personal, and reflective (Bochner & Ellis, 2016;Boylorn, 2016Boylorn, , 2017Chang, 2013;Denzin, 2008Denzin, , 2010Denzin, /2018cDenzin, , 2013Denzin, , 2014Diversi & Moreria, 2009Ellis, 2009;Ellis, Adams, & Bochner, 2011;Poulos, 2016;Ronai, 1995Ronai, , 2002St-Denis & Walsh, 2016;Tillman, 2016;Whitinui, 2014;Zapata-Sepúlveda, 2016). This list of 14 types of autoethnography is not exhaustive.…”