Teaching Life Writing: Theory, Methodology, and Practice

This book combines research in life writing and pedagogy to examine the role of life stories in diverse learning contexts, disciplines, and global settings. It assembles contributions from a diverse group of international educators, weaving together life writing research, critical reflection, and concrete pedagogical strategies.

Orly Lael Netzer is Assistant Professor (teaching stream) at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. She is scholar of autobiography, cultural, and memory studies. Her research explores the ways that audiences are invited to bear witness to difficult knowledge in autobiographical literature and art to better understand how relations between communities are shaped by the ways we listen and respond to each other’s stories of protest.

Amanda Spallacci is Lecturer in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, where she received her PhD (’21). Her research publications centre on survivor/victim representations of sexual assault across various media, including memoir, television, film, and social media, that she critically engages with through frameworks including but not limited to memory studies, affect theory, trauma theory, and feminist print culture studies. Her most recent work is a forthcoming edited book collection on digital memory cultures in Canada (2024).