“Pivoting Between the Past/Present and Towards the Future/perfect of Autoethnography”

Abstract

Following the guide of the Autoethnography Special Interest Group preconference at the 2021 International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (ICQI), this short think piece was placed on the closing panel. The charge was to “speculate on autoethnographic futures.” This contribution uses the notion of national and international pivoting due to the Covid pandemic in practical everyday engagements to theorize on the notion of “the new normal,” not only reduced to conditions of pandemic but political and civic unrest linked with a range of identities to push commitments to social justice. The piece engages a provocation of autoethnographic futurity that is not just about standing in the present reflecting on the past, but a call for civic action for future (queer) worldmaking.