Jeffrey Alexander Martin

I like autobiographies, and I like education, and I like self-education. I've been thinking about doing a PhD and combining those subjects in some way. I came up with five autobiographies of Americans who largely taught themselves in advanced literacy and oracy. I went back and forth with an AI to see what that research and writing might look like. This is what I came up with. Basic PhD Research Proposal Working Title Making Themselves in Words: Autodidactic Education and the Self-Explanation of Self-Formation in American Autobiography Possible subtitle: Literacy, Oracy, and Self-Directed Education from Benjamin Franklin to Louis L'Amour Proposed Field The project could be situated within History of Education, American Studies, Intellectual/Cultural History, or Education, and is particularly suitable for a cumulative PhD or PhD by publication. Research Topic This project examines how prominent American autodidacts explained their own education and self-formation in autobiograph...