Recent scholarship in autobiography and life writing has expanded beyond traditional literary forms to encompass a wide range of practices through which individuals narrate, perform, and negotiate their identities. As scholars such as Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson have argued, life writing constitutes not merely the representation of a life but a dynamic process through which identities are constructed, mediated, and made visible within specific social and cultural contexts. Consequently, autobiography has evolved into an interdisciplinary field of inquiry encompassing visual art, graphic narratives, performance, body art, digital media, and other forms of self-representation. For many women and members of historically marginalized communities, autobiographical practices function not only as acts of self-expression but also as means of asserting agency, challenging dominant narratives, and resisting social exclusion. Through the articulation of personal experience, individuals reclaim the authority to represent themselves and, in many cases, their communities while contesting systems of power that have historically silenced or marginalized their voices. Across literature, visual culture, performance, graphic narrative, and other creative practices, autobiographical expression serves as a site where personal testimony intersects with broader questions of gender, race, sexuality, disability, migration, colonialism, memory, and social justice. This interdisciplinary session welcomes papers that examine autobiography, life writing, and self-representation as practices of agency and resistance. Possible topics include, but are not limited to: women’s autobiographical writing; feminist life writing; graphic memoirs; performance art; memory and trauma; decolonial and Indigenous life writing; LGBTQ+ autobiographical narratives; digital self-representation; and autobiography as social or political intervention.

Please submit a 250-word abstract on a topic of your choice via the NeMLA website. The session will be held in-person, but a few remote presentations may be included.