We’re currently seeking three Sussex postgraduate researchers to design and deliver workshop sessions to peers as part of a one-day creative research methods gathering taking place on Wednesday 18 June 2025, in the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (ACCA).

Workshop facilitators will be paid £100 to prepare and lead a 1.5-hour session exploring autoethnographic methodologies with approximately 20 PGR peers in attendance. Facilitators will be given a budget of up to £50 for workshop materials needed for their session. Tea, coffee and lunch will be provided on the day. The deadline to apply is Thursday 17 April 2025. 

This is a fantastic opportunity to share some of the strategies for working autoethnographically in doctoral research, meet other researchers interested in autoethnographic methodologies, and build workshop facilitation skills in a supportive peer environment. 

The event

Close to My Heart: Autoethnographic Approaches invites PGRs from across Sussex to explore diverse methodologies related to autoethnographic research on a day of collaborative, interdisciplinary workshops.

A method of self-study that combines characteristics of autobiography and ethnography, autoethnography connects the autobiographical and personal to broader social meaning, analysing the researcher's lived experience to better understand cultural phenomena.

Building on the conversations and connections forged as part of the RLI-funded Close to My Heart: PGR Perspectives (May 2024), a symposium exploring ethical considerations for postgraduate research around ‘closeness’ in research, Close to My Heart: Autoethnographic Approaches proposes a more finely tuned focus on locating points of interdisciplinary intersection through exploring innovative autoethnographic methodologies. This event seeks to unravel the possibilities for connection that can emerge from situating our individual, personal experiences in the context of others, our commonalities and our differences, to consider new ways of working across our different fields of postgraduate study. After all, ‘the personal is political’.   

Workshop guidelines

Autoethnographic methods combine personal experience and cultural analysis to understand social phenomena. Workshops will be collaborative and interdisciplinary by design, employing methodologies and strategies for all postgraduate researchers working with subjects close to our hearts. Workshop proposals might employ autoethnographic methods and data collection techniques, including self-observation, reflective and reflexive journaling and documentation, qualitative interviews including ‘talking to yourself,’ memory data, life-writing, and narrative and chronicle analyses of experience towards meaning-making. Workshop themes and questions might consider ethical challenges around researcher identity, positionality and lived experience, negotiating intimacy and closeness, and strategies for ethical working practices and researcher self-care. 

Flexibility and creativity underpin autoethnography, and this event seeks to explore methods that can be applied and adapted across a range of research backgrounds. Workshop sessions must be relevant to postgraduate researchers from a broad range of research backgrounds and disciplines, and proposals will be considered on how they respond to the event’s themes with strategies for interdisciplinary collaboration. Accessibility and inclusivity are also key, so please consider multiple modes of interaction, participation and participant well-being. During the day, we will operate in a ‘relaxed environment’, and a breakout space will be available nearby. 

How to apply 

To apply to be a PGR workshop leader, please email the following to event organiser Tiffany Murphy (tm505@sussex.ac.uk) by Thursday 17 April: 

If you have any questions, please do get in touch. The three successful applicants will be informed by the end of April. If you are unsuccessful, please consider attending the event in June as a participant, as it will be an excellent opportunity to interact, discuss your work and make connections. Registration to attend is now open – the full programme is to be confirmed.

Close to My Heart: Autoethnographic Approaches is supported by the Sussex Researcher School’s Researcher-led Initiative (RLI) Fund and the Media, Arts and Humanities Research Culture Fund. The event is part of the Summer of Research 2025, a two-week festival of researcher-led talks, workshops and exhibitions celebrating our fantastic research here at the University of Sussex. Find out about and sign up for other exciting events here!