Recent Denison Communication graduate Amanda DiMartini '13 discusses the successes of her autoethnography that she wrote for one of her Communication classes:
“Writing this paper was probably one of the most challenging things I have ever had to do. I took ‘Researching Self’ with Dr. Amanda Gunn on a whim, not knowing what autoethnography was, or what I was getting myself into. Everyone in my class that semester grew to know each other more intimately than we had ever anticipated, and it truly changed and challenged us. A few of us submitted our papers to the 76th Annual Ohio Communication Association Conference, where this paper was accepted and won 2nd place Student Poster. I also won Honorable Mention for the Denison Orlando Taylor Award for it in the Spring of 2013, and I went on to submit this paper to the first Lambda Pi Eta Undergraduate Student Journal, where it one of five papers accepted for the first edition. I am truly thankful and in awe of the continual support of the Denison Faculty, especially Dr. Gunn and Dr. Laura Russell, in this paper’s journey.”
The following is an abstract of Amanda's paper:
“This paper contains an autoethnographic account of my experiences as a young girl and adolescent dealing with an extremely negative self-schema. It explores the cultural expectations and ideals of young women in the United States, as well as the bias I felt against my natural shyness and introversion. The possible influences of why my negative schema developed, as well as its consequences, are explored.”