ABSTRACT
First-person perspectives are becoming increasingly common in academic work. As an ethical move, writers hope to reduce power imbalances by locating themselves within the knowledge that they produce and admitting the partiality of their perspectives. As an epistemological move, they argue that knowledge is always shaped by social and material forces. As an aesthetic move, they refuse to separate beauty from truth. As a political move, they hope to catalyze change by helping wider audiences to connect emotionally and intellectually with their work. This chapter offers reasons for telling first-person stories and examines some associated risks, while using the tools it describes.
