Finding the limits: autoethnography and being an Oxford University Proctor

Abstract

This article discusses autoethnography –in particular, in relation to an autoethnography of my experience as a University Proctor for Oxford University during 2001–2002. It is a article of several parts which in themselves form an autoethnography of my experience of trying to write and think about autoethnography. It starts with a personal account of part of the day during which I was admitted as a Proctor. It then recognizes and provides some contextual material in which the account can be situated both historically and in the present day. The next section describes the empirical basis on which the autoethnography could be constructed. This is followed by a more theoretical section that considers the nature of autoethnography and critiques some of its forms. The article concludes with a discussion of the merits and drawbacks of some forms of autoethnography as a research method and as a research product.