Research in Life Writing and Education

The field of life writing is innovative and ever evolving. The purpose of Research in Life Writing and Education is to create a robust space for scholars to examine the intersections of life writing, education, and research in varied forms. Volumes in the series will reflect a wide range of methodologies, interdisciplinary approaches, topics, and theories, and both historical and contemporary subjects that focus on life writing in education—from classic teacher biographies to innovative narrative, oral history, and arts-based approaches that continue to unfold in the field. We encourage scholars to consider varied educational spaces such as schools, workplaces, prisons, bookstores, and community centers as well as multidimensional vehicles for learning and teaching, such as oral histories, family storytelling, popular culture, public speeches and after-school programs; life writing exemplars as teaching tools; innovative life writing methodologies in educational work; and varied lives with lessons to teach, whether student activists, educational leaders, or unknown and rarely celebrated instructors. Each volume in the series draws from developments in methodology and in theorizing salient to education in its approach to life writing and education. 

We invite educators and researchers interested in the intersections between “educator’s lives and lives that are educative” (ISEB), who use life writing methodologies in their educational work, and who value life writing as educational tools to consider submitting a proposal.  

Topics might include: 

1)    Notable leaders’ or educators’ biographies in a particular space (e.g., high schools, prisons, homeschooling, foster care systems, after-school programs, social media contexts), intellectual or educational tradition (e.g. peace studies, spiritual traditions, poststructuralism, Montessorian education), or movement (e.g. progressive era, environmental movement, Black Lives Matter, #MeToo Movement). 

2)    Methodological innovations in carrying out, reflecting on, and representing life writing research and education; 

3)    Theoretical innovations in approaching life writing research and education; 

4)    Research into transformations in lives and education; 

5)    Intersectional analyses of educational lives in their sociocultural contexts (race, class, gender, nation, dis/ability, sexualities, age, generation); 

6)    Research into teaching with biography and other forms of life writing; 

7)    Research into students and school workers’ roles in and contributions to an educational effort of note, whether a historic high school, community program, or outreach effort.