Life narrative studies is a broad term used to reflect the interrogation and analysis of practices of self-representation. Such practices include textual (life writing, memoir, auto/biography, diary), digital (websites, blogs, social media), material (visual art, quilting), and performative (performance art, theatre). The study of life narratives therefore sits at an interdisciplinary crossroads, drawing from relevant fields of inquiry as relevant to the specific narrative under examination.

This panel brings together three presenters who primarily work with literary and textual life narratives (both critical and creative) yet have felt uneasy with the reception of life writing in Australian literary scholarship. We will discuss the malleable boundaries of life narratives, the breadth of modes of self-representation, the unique ways life writing scholarship intersects with other fields, and some reflections about what all this looks like in Australia right now.
 

Sian Campbell is a writer and PhD candidate at RMIT, where she is researching the potentialities of contemporary autofiction. She holds an MA in Writing and Literature from Deakin University and a BFA in Creative and Professional Writing from QUT.

Bianca Martin (she/her) is a third-year PhD candidate at James Cook University researching contemporary sexual violence memoirs. She has been published in a/b: Auto/Biography Studies and Portal Journal, and she co-edits Exhume, a journal of postgraduate writing in Australian literary studies.

Emmaline Monteith is a researcher at the Australian National University exploring gender, sexual violence, and digital cultures, with a particular interest in how gender shapes the stories we tell about sex, relationships, and violence, and how these narratives can contribute to social change. Her PhD explores the afterlives of #MeToo, examining how online testimonies influence approaches to sexual violence prevention and policy, while also shaping how younger generations understand and navigate intimacy. Emmaline is also a Research Assistant at the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, where she works across research and applied projects addressing gender equality, sexual violence, and technology.

To receive the zoom link, please email Monique Rooney.