Sensory autoethnography: Engaging the senses, emotions and autobiographical narrative towards a transformative pedagogical practice in higher education

Abstract

By combining the sensorial and narrative ways of knowing, I consider sensory embodied experiences and autobiographical narrative as a means of producing ‘academic knowledge’, as described in Sarah Pink’s Doing Sensory Ethnography (2015). Sensory embodied experiences and autobiographical narrative not only expose us to the life of the researcher, but also to a culture and to those being researched and how they are making and remaking meaning. In this article, I explore my use of a reflexive approach and my autobiographical narrative to tell the story of my experiences of Caribbean diaspora festive culture and tradition in the United Kingdom. I consider my sensory embodied experiences in both culture and academia, seeking to discover the making of self in culture and academia.