Defying Gravity with Ceyoncé

In this special episode of Mile Higher Ed, Sarah and Caitlyn talk to Ceyoncé, a student in the Master of Media & Public Communication program at the University of Denver. They recently took the Higher Education Seminar course “Higher Ed in Film & TV,” which Dr. Marc Johnston Guerrero taught this past winter quarter. We are excited to share their final class project “Defying Gravity,” a podcast episode examining Elphaba’s experience with otherness and onlyness as student at Shiz University in the film Wicked. We also talk with Ceyoncé about their experience in the course. 

Here is a list of scholars and references Ceyoncé cites in this episode: 

Briscoe, K., Hall, C., & Steele, T. (2024). “Against All Odds”: A Collective Black Feminist Autoethnography of Black Women Doctoral Students’ Experiences in Higher Education Programs. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 1-14. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000573  

Cohen, E. (1991). Who Are "We"? Gay "Identity" as Political (E)motion (A Theoretical Rumination). In D. Fuss (Ed.), Inside/out: Lesbian Theories, Gay Theories (pp. 71-92). Routledge.  

Groenewald, E., & Addinall, E. (2024). Living on the Margins: A University Student’s Narratives of Social Isolation. Journal of Culture and Values in Education, 7(4), 249-266. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcve.2024.51  

Imre, A. (2011). Lesbian Representation and Postcolonial Allegory. In M. Aydemir (Ed.), Indiscretions: At the Intersection of Queer and Postcolonial Theory (pp. 185-202). Rodopi.  

Joshi, A., Shavers, M., Spencer, B., Artis, S., & LeSure, S. (2024). Exploring the Impact of “Onlyness” Among Black Women Doctoral Students in Computer Science and Engineering. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000583  

Lopez, L. (2020). Racism and Mainstream Media. In L. K. Lopez (Ed.), Race and Media: Critical Approaches (pp. 13-26). NYU Press.  

Porter, C. (2022). (Re)Imagining Belonging: Black Women Want More Than Survival in Predominantly White Institutions. Journal of College Student Development, 63(1), 106-110. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2022.0002  

Quiñonez, N. (2002). Re(Riting) the Chicana Postcolonial: From Traitor to 21st Century Interpreter. In A. J. Aldama & N. H. Quiñonez (Eds.), Decolonial Voices: Chicana and Chicano Cultural Studies in the 21st Century (pp. 129-151). Indiana University Press.  

Showunmi, V. (2023). Visible, invisible: Black women in higher education. Frontiers in Sociology, 8, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2023.974617  

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Thanks for listening to this episode of Mile Higher Ed. Mile Higher Ed is produced within the Morgridge College of Education at the University of Denver by Dr. Sarah Hurtado and Caitlyn Potter Glaser.  Our theme music is “Summer” by Liborio Conti.  

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Keep up the good work everyone. See you next time!