Integrating Personal Narrative with Scholarly Writing: Exploring Strategies in Creative Non-Fiction

The purpose of this research cluster is to examine ways of making academic writing more meaningful for a wide public as well as for ourselves as scholars and publishing artists.

Within many disciplines in the humanities there remains a strong expectation to produce academic writing that is presented in a detached manner, making extensive reference to existing theories as a means for justification, and often using esoteric jargon of the field. Such writing is expected for tenure purposes, and is believed to be of a higher order than other modes of communication.

The members of this research cluster have been influenced by a variety of movements and experiences to explore alternative methods than are found in this paradigm. Some of these influences come from shifts within disciplines themselves, such as acceptance of autoethnography within anthropology. Others come from personal experiences in which a lack of satisfaction resulted from writing about highly charged situations with personal dimensions in a neutral, removed manner.

The main focus of the cluster is to examine examples of successful writing (including spoken / performed text) that 1) combine a personal voice with a more conventional scholarly voice, 2) are a blend of fiction and non-fiction. Some of these will be drawn from writings from people well-known for achieving this synthesis, while others will come from members of the group itself who have all actively engaged in experiments along these lines. At each meeting members will bring work to share and discuss.

The group began in spring 2011 with 5 meetings and 1 special event with Ruth Behar open to the ASU community. This year we will plan on holding monthly meetings throughout the year, with a larger group, field trips, and special events.

Possible outcomes include:
-- establishing long-term writing buddies
-- establishing a blackboard site or googledocs site where material is shared and a bibliography is established of relevant materials
-- planning of a series of articles related specifically to Latina/Anglo experiences across a range of disciplines from insider and outsider perspectives.
-- articles relating personal narratives and storytelling as it is used in academic writing and performative contexts (e.g. theatrical performances, classroom teaching, conference presentations)