Autobiographical and researched experiences with academic writing: an analytical autoethnodrama

The author identifies analytical autoethnography as an empirical methodology that synthesizes autobiography and social critique in order to resist, and also change, dominant academic discourse. The data from twelve open-ended interviews with academics from a variety of subject areas at one university has been considered and the author has carried out narrative analysis in order to elicit autobiographical experiences with academic writing and the audit culture. Evidence from the author's autobiographical experiences and the interview data have been used to inform a short autoethnodrama set in a university on the south coast. This triangulation of research-autobiography-script seeks to prioritize the experiences of the people involved and maintain the balance between rigorous academic analysis and experiential autobiographical reflection via a creative and emotionally charged text. The autoethnodrama considers the "impact" of the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) and current such exercises, and the possible and real effects of neo-liberalism and the audit culture on institutional culture and individual lives.