Hello!

I’m Tony Adams, a Professor in the Department of Communication at Bradley University.

Much of my writing stems from my experiences with queer life. I am especially curious about how people navigate stigma, find support, and decide when and how to share their desires and identities with others. I also write about queer spaces and communities, media representations of LGBTQ+ lives, and ways to maneuver homophobic or transphobic slights. Additionally, I use my work to support the international and interdisciplinary community of autoethnography—a method that blends personal storytelling with cultural analysis.

I’ve written and edited multiple books and have been fortunate to have my work translated into several languages. I serve as a co-editor of the Writing Lives: Ethnographic Narratives book series and as the founding co-editor of the Journal of Autoethnography. In 2023, I created the Certificate in Autoethnography program at Bradley University, a program designed to introduce people from around the world to what autoethnography is and how to do it.

I’m a proud first-generation college student. I graduated from Danville Area Community College and continued my education at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and the University of South Florida. I attended Catholic school as a kid, worked as a bartender at Yellowstone National Park, have played softball for many years, and have been a vegetarian since 1998. These parts of my life—inside and outside the classroom—continue to shape the questions I ask and the ways I approach my work as a writer, teacher, and scholar.

Contact Information

Tony E. Adams, Ph.D.
Caterpillar Professor
Department of Communication
Bradley University
1501 W. Bradley Ave., CGCC 300
Peoria, Illinois 61625
tony.e.adams [at] gmail.com

Curriculum Vita (3/26)