I recently co-authored an academic article with my colleague Dr. Susan Beth Rottmann, Assistant Professor at Özyeğin University in Turkey. Susan and I met at a conference in Madrid and discovered we had a mutual interest in writing about the lives of refugees.

Called Embracing vulnerability in writing migrant lives, our article explores how an anthropologist like Susan, and a life writer like me, need to be open to making themselves vulnerable when sharing peoples’ stories.

Vulnerability is not only an experience of migrants and refugees but is also experienced by researchers and writers. Susan and I discuss the ethical and political practice of vulnerability with regards to writing peoples’ stories and how we both used our own stories to enhance the readers’ understanding. Even with our different backgrounds, we found lot of common ground in our approaches. We also look at the risks associated with this kind of approach – one which does attract criticism.

When there is trust, the vulnerable storyteller, the vulnerable narrator, and the vulnerable reader open the door to different ways of imagining a fairer and more just society.

Susan draws heavily on her fascinating research over many years with German-Turkish migrant women and Syrian refugees. She focusses particularly on one story about her friend Leyla which was published in the 2019 book In pursuit of belonging: forging an ethical life in European-Turkish spaces. I draw on my research and writing experience with people from a refugee background who have settled in Australia, using examples from More to the story – conversations with refugees and my research for my doctorate on refugees and life writing.

I’m very pleased that our article was recently published in the prestigious journal a/b: Auto/Biography Studies. While you would generally need a paid subscription, the publisher has provided me with some free online copies to share with my network. So, if you are interested in reading the full article, you may be able to access it via this link.