International Conference of Autoethnography, Zoom (!) 20th-21st July 2020

Tim Buescher writes:

This year has been rather different for all of us in many ways. Lockdown, travel restrictions, increased workloads and caring duties have made meeting up difficult for all of us and an academic conference sounds like an impossibility. Or so it seemed in February when the steering committee for the International Conference of Autoethnography (formerly the British International Conference of Autoethnography) had to admit that we wouldn’t be gathering in Bristol for the 7th annual conference this year. 

However, we agreed to look at moving the thing online and relaunching/announcing this through the twitter account @_ICAE_. It has been an eye-opening experience to see people from as far afield as Kazakhstan, Aruba, Brazil, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, Norway, Chile, Turkey and various US states come together online for two days and share autoethnographic work in a wide variety of styles on a wide range of topics from an array of disciplines.

The theme for this year was Reclamation:

The process or act of claiming something back; of reasserting a right Restoration, regeneration, recapture, recovery, repossession or retrieval Reclamation as an act of telling a continuing narrative with what is salvaged from the wreckage of crisis. Something new.

Paraphrased from Barker and Buchannan-Barker, 2003

Panels included surviving lockdown, stories of survival/loss/reclaiming self, Reclaiming voices through poetic and lyrical understandings, Black motherhood /girlhood/womanhood, Methodological challenges and insights, Disrupted and problematic bodies, and many others.

The full programme is available here:

A YouTube channel has been established to curate some of the presentations including keynotes from Sophie Tamas and David Carless and the lifetime contribution award, which went to Alec Grant. You can access the channel here.

Many attendees spoke of how the online format allowed them to contribute in a way which would be financially impossible in a traditional setting, a serious consideration in thinking about decolonising academic institutions. The whole thing has been exhausting, but so very rewarding.

Report from the 6th British International Autoethnography Conference 22nd-23rd July, Bristol

Tim Beuscher writes:

Chris Westoby presents

The theme this year was activism, social justice and collaboration. Delegates came from all over the UK, Bangladesh, the USA, Norway, Denmark, representing disciplines across health, the arts, humanities, social sciences, computer science, sport. Presentations and performances took many forms, including sketching, song, theatre, poetry and film. 

This year, Hull University had double representation with Chris Westoby performing his work “narrative’s power to educate and inspire open discourse about mental health” and Tim Buescher on the organising committee as well as performing “a shared silence”.

The committee and guests

The committee have agreed to run the conference again next year at Bristol harbourside. For those interested in trying out or finding out more about writing for and about the self, the next “What about me?” group for writing about the self/ autoethnography will take place on 29^th August, 13:00-15:00, venue TBC.

What a coincidence!

Tim Buescher writes:

 

I sat down on a plane to Cork, heading for the 10^th Critical Voices Network Ireland conference and heard a familiar voice coming from the seats behind me. I turned round and found one of the external examiners at my viva exam, sat right behind me! I was introduced to other academics from UCLAN who made feel like a welcome part of their group. This spirit of welcome and inclusion pervaded the conference, even though there were about 600 attendees.

This conference brings together activists, academics, service users, survivors of mental health services and systems and their supporters, clinicians, alternative practitioners, students (the conference runs around and within the usual teaching curriculum) and it’s free to attend. My presentation on compulsive hoarding and co-production was well received by those present and I can see future projects arising from this. In addition, people in my session managed to find local sources of help for people struggling with their possessions.

For anyone interested in finding out more about the conference, the book of abstracts can be viewed here

Some of the plenary sessions were live streamed and are available to view here

 

For anyone interested in developing coproduction in mental health research and practice, mad studies, peer workers, recovery, mad politics there is a lot to think about here.

Dr Tim Beuscher

Great news – our colleague Tim had his Viva recently and passed

Tim Buescher presents at International Conference

Last week I presented at the 5^th British International Authoethnography Conference in Bristol. There were approximately 100 people in attendance from a range of academic disciplines from institutions in the US, Norway, Malta, Portugal and all over the UK, including Hull alumni.

Here I am, addressing a full auditorium (no parallel sessions on the first day)! It went well and I made some new friends.

Panel Session 2: Collaborative autoethnographies: working at the border and as a member of a research team.

Tweets from the conference can found using the hashtag #reimaginingexperience.

A short film featuring some highlights from the conference can be viewed here.

More information is available here.

Help-seeking and mutual recruitment into work in compulsive hoarding

Tim Buescher

Tim Buescher and Tracy Pallett (co-researcher and expert by experience) presented:
A participatory narrative of help-seeking and mutual recruitment' into their work in compulsive hoarding at Public Engagement and Performance Conference (see YouTube) 2017 17-18 March in York.

Tim Buescher in YouTube video

Well done to Tim Buescher who attended and presented his work at this innovative conference where diversity and creativity in research methods is welcomed and supported.  

Tim Buescher

This short clip identifies some of the challenges and joys that our more creative colleagues experience and it encourages us to embrace and support difference and creativity in research. 

PhD student Tim Büscher is on to the next stage

PhD student Tim Büscher has successfully completed his interim viva in his own inimitable style. Tim and supervisors (Judith Dyson and Fiona Cowdell) offer sincere thanks to Kate Galvin and Penny Grubb for their creative, expert, insightful comments.

The picture supports Tim's PhD subject
of hoarding; it is not his office