Today, we’ll look at Tiffany Rainey’s autoethnography “Her Own Voice: Coming Out in Academia with Bipolar Disorder.”

CONTENT ALERT: This text mentions suicidal ideation.

Individual Writing

Rainey writes about her experience with bipolar disorder, how her symptoms manifested and made her feel, hiding her mental health struggle, and the process of ultimately understanding her diagnosis. Access Rainey’s text and the in-class writing you started last time. Write in response to the following:

• Describe the structure of Rainey’s autoethnography.
• How is it similar to and different than Inayatulla’s autoethnography that we read for last class?

Sharing as a Large Group

Pick one sentence of your in-class writing to share with the whole class.

After our round-robin style sharing, we’ll revisit our collaborative definition of autoethnography. How do Inayatulla’s and Rainey’s texts fit our definition?

Drafting BP5

This prompt is intended to prepare you to write your own autoethnography as your final project for this class. Consider the two autoethnographies we’ve read so far. In your opinion, what is the most interesting or compelling quality of either Inayatulla’s or Rainey’s works? What do you like about one of these texts? Cite an example and explain why you are drawn to it. What do you think you might want to write about for your autoethnography and why?

HOMEWORK

COMPLETE BP5 before next class on 11/21. Your post should be about 300 words and should engage with Inayatulla’s or Rainey’s texts in some way. Don’t forget to include and in-text and end-text citations.

READ Andrew Spieldenner’s “Statement of Ownership: An Autoethnography of Living with HIV” (available on BrightSpace).