Autoethnography as a Lighthouse

A volume in Contemporary Perspectives on Access, Equity and AchievementSeries Editor Chance W. Lewis, University of North Carolina at Charlotte,The purposes of this book are rooted in the move from invisibility to visibility and silence to voice. This workuses autoethnography as an enterprise to break down traditional barriers that support the invisibility of diverseepistemologies (Altheide & Johnson,2011). The reality of invisibility and silence has plagued scholars of colorin their attempt to make known the cultural significance found in the planning and execution of research. As aresult, this book purposes to support the visibility and voice of scholars of color who conduct autoethnographicresearch from a racial, gendered, and critical theoretical framework. This work further supports the researchcommunity as it examines and reexamines culturally indigenous epistemologies as a viable vehicle for rigorousand authentic inquiry (Dillard, 2000).The significance of this book can begrafted from its attention to new ways of thinking about doing research.While much of the previous scholarship on autoethnography highlights the importance of personal narrative and voice, this book includes the latter butalso examines the concept of race and culture as undisputable factors in the doing of research. Burdell & Swadener (1999) contends thatautoethnography should interrogate the subjective nature and question master narratives and empirical assumptions. Spry (2011) emphasizesautoethnography as a moral discourse that foster intimate experiences grounded in historical processes. Authoethnographic research then, has thepotential to provide a lens by which researchers candelve into research with a greater sense of personal experiences and critical understanding of theinquiry context.