Academia Through the Lens of Autoethnography: Praxis and Institutional Dynamics

Academic autoethnographers use their personal experiences to explore life inside higher education. This method allows researchers to reflect on their own journeys while shedding light on broader academic structures and cultures. Yet, despite autoethnography’s value, academics often face professional pushback—from being marginalised to having their work dismissed. In this paper, I present the first global, up-to-date review of academic autoethnographies. These works tackle major issues including neoliberalism in universities, academic identity, doctoral struggles, teaching practices, career challenges, and ableism. Drawing from this body of work, I introduce the idea of autoethnographic praxis: a way to understand how institutions react to research that questions traditional academic norms. These reactions offer an additional window into how academic power operates—deciding which voices are welcomed and which are side-lined. Ultimately, I argue that autoethnography not only deepens our understanding of university life but also exposes the gatekeeping that shapes what counts as legitimate knowledge.