Carolyn Ellis is an American communication scholar known for her research of autoethnography, a reflexive approach to research, writing, and storytelling that connects the autobiographical and personal to the cultural, social, and political. Her research centers on how individuals negotiate identities, emotions, and meaning making in and through close relationships.^[1][2]

She is a Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of South Florida.^[3]

Awards

Ellis received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Qualitative Inquiry from the International Center for Qualitative Inquiry in 2012,^[4] and a Legacy Lifetime Award from the NCA Ethnography Division in 2013.^[5]

Ellis-Bochner Autoethnography and Personal Narrative Research Award

The Ellis-Bochner Autoethnography and Personal Narrative Research Award is given annually by the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction affiliate of the National Communication Association for the best article, essay, or book chapter in autoethnography and personal narrative research.

Arthur Bochner and Carolyn Ellis Resonance Award

The Arthur Bochner and Carolyn Ellis Resonance Award is given every two years by the International Association of Autoethnography and Narrative Inquiry. The award recognizes a classic work (book, article, book chapter, staged performance, art installation) that has served as a stimulus for novel approaches to and understandings of autoethnography and narrative.

Selected publications

• Ellis, C. & Bochner, A (2016) Evocative Autoethnography: Writing Lives and Telling Stories. Routledge
• Adams, T. E., Holman Jones, S., & Ellis, C. (2015). Autoethnography. Oxford University Press.
• Ellis, C. & Patti, C. (2014). With Heart: Compassionate Interviewing and Storytelling with Holocaust Survivors. Storytelling, Self, Society, 10, 389-414.
• Ellis, C. (2013) (director). Behind the Wall. 45 min. film featuring Jerry Rawicki. Warsaw, Poland: Total Film.
• Ellis, C. (2009). Revision: Autoethnographic Reflections on Life and Work. Left Coast Press.
• Ellis, C. (2004). The Ethnographic I: A Methodological Novel about Autoethnography. AltaMira Press.
• Ellis, C. and Bochner, A. (2000) “Autoethnography, Personal Narrative, Reflexivity: Researcher as Subject,” In The Handbook of Qualitative Research (2nd edition), edited by Norman Denzin and Yvonna Lincoln, Sage, pp. 733-768.
• Ellis, C. (1995). The Other Side of the Fence: Seeing Black and White in a Small, Southern Town. Qualitative Inquiry, Vol. 1, 147-167.
• Ellis, C. (1995). Final Negotiations: A Story of Love, Loss, and Chronic Illness. Temple University Press.