Intimacy in Autoethnography: A Framework for Autoethnographic Trustworthiness

The hallmarks of autoethnographic research are the centering of personal experience to interpret the ways of being of a culture-sharing group and then representing that group in evocative text. This focus on personal experience in situ and representation sets autoethnography apart from other methodological traditions, even while it blends elements of autobiography and ethnography. We assert, given its unique characteristics, that autoethnography is best understood as a project rooted in intimate epistemologies. Intimate epistemologies are those that eliminate all distance between the knower and the known. Epistemologies should guide the strategies (i.e., warrants) researchers use to assert that their research is trustworthy; trustworthiness is an inherently epistemological concept. This article articulates a framework grounded in four intimacy-aligned strategies. The planks of this framework are researcher reflexivity, prolonged engagement, thick description, and collaboration. We explore how each of these four strategies is practical in the context of autoethnography projects and are consistent with intimate epistemologies.