Autoethnography is a qualitative research and writing methodology that incorporates the self-conscious voice of the researcher in the course of producing and representing ethnographic fieldwork and writing. The term autoethnography signals key aspects of the method, that which is personal to the researcher (“auto”) and that which relates to a larger cultural or social group (“ethno”), and the ways in which these aspects are historicized, theorized, interpreted, and depicted (“graphy”). Autoethnography brings to the fore the emotional, intellectual, and social positionality of the ethnographer. In doing so, it directs theoretical attention to historically constituted subjectivities, cultural meanings, and social dynamics. It also raises important ontological, epistemological, and ethical questions about authoritative knowledge and anthropology’s historical and contemporaneous role as a colonialist or neocolonialist, exploitative enterprise. The term, and practice of, autoethnography has given legitimacy and helped institutionalize alternative forms of ethnographic research and writing, including life histories and personal narratives.

MLA (Modern Language Assoc.)
Warms, Richard L., and R.Jon McGee. Theory in Social and Cultural Anthropology : An Encyclopedia. SAGE Publications, Inc, 2013.

APA (American Psychological Assoc.)
Warms, R. L., & McGee, R. J. (2013). Theory in Social and Cultural Anthropology : An Encyclopedia. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications, Inc.Autoethnography is a qualitative research and writing methodology that incorporates the self-conscious voice of the researcher in the course of producing and representing ethnographic fieldwork and writing. The term
autoethnography signals key aspects of the method, that which is personal to the researcher (“auto”) and that which relates to a larger cultural or social group (“ethno”), and the ways in which these aspects are
historicized, theorized, interpreted, and depicted (“graphy”). Autoethnography brings to the fore the
emotional, intellectual, and social positionality of the ethnographer. In doing so, it directs theoretical
attention to historically constituted subjectivities, cultural meanings, and social dynamics. It also raises
important ontological, epistemological, and ethical questions about authoritative knowledge and
anthropology’s historical and contemporaneous role as a colonialist or neocolonialist, exploitative enterprise.
The term, and practice of, autoethnography has given legitimacy and helped institutionalize alternative forms
of ethnographic research and writing, including life histories and personal narratives.