Mile Higher Ed Podcast

Have you ever wondered what a higher education class at DU is like? Then you won’t want to miss this! For our Season 3 finale, we are featuring the Higher Ed in Film and TV Seminar and its students. Dr. Marc Johnston Guerrero joins Sarah and Caitlyn to talk about the seminar course he taught in winter quarter, how he developed the syllabus, and what the Higher Ed Seminars are all about.

Then, we bring you a special debrief conversation several students in the class had in March as the quarter concluded. We talk about our takeaways from the course and why examining depictions of higher education in film and TV matter.

About our guests:

Marc Johnston Guerrero is Professor of Higher Education at the University of Denver. He is an accomplished scholar in the interdisciplinary fields of Higher Education & Student Affairs and Critical Mixed Race Studies and a seasoned higher education leader.

Adela Smith is a second-year PhD student and the Registrar for the Graduate School of Social Work. She is excited to study the animal that is higher education due to her deep commitment to examining the systemic injustices that shape higher education.

Alex Prusator is a first-year higher education doctoral student and graduate admissions specialist in the Morgridge College of Education. When she’s not doing school things, you can find her sipping coffee from her collection of mugs that represent fictional companies from TV shows.

Annie Ngo is a second-year PhD student in Higher Education with research interests centered on student access, support, and institutional structures. She works as the Manager for Academic and Student Affairs in the Morgridge College of Education.

Jully Dong is a first-year higher education PhD student and the Program Coordinator for First-Generation Experience at DU. She is interested in exploring Asian American student experiences at predominantly white institutions.

Here are some links to scholars, creators, and work we discuss in this episode:

Lori Patton Davis and her seminar on Examination of College Life Through Film

Pauline Reynolds and her course Representing U: Popular Culture, Media, and Higher Education

Katherine Ramsland

Brynna Howard of HoneyWell Films

John E. Conklin (2008). Campus Life in the Movies: A Critical Survey from the Silent Era to the Present. McFarland & Company, Inc.

Pauline J. Reynolds (2014). Representing U: Popular Culture, Media, and Higher Education. ASHE Higher Education Report, 40:4. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The Things We Imagined Documentary

“Featherstone University,” an ad for Colorado Mesa University

Here are the films and TV shows we discussed in this episode:

3 Idiots (2009)

Admission (2013)

All-American: Homecoming (2022-2024)

Animal House (1978)

Bama Rush

The Chair (2021)

College Hill: Celebrity Edition (2022)

Community (2009-2015)

Dear White People (2017-2021)

Gilmore Girls (2000-2007)

Gossip Girl (2007-2012)

Greek (2007-2011)

Higher Learning (1995)

Jim Thorpe: Lit by Lightning (2025)

Joe’s College Road Trip (2026)

The Kissing Booth 3 (2021)

Miseducation (2023-present)

Mixed-ish (2019-2021)

Monsters University (2013)

My Oxford Year (2025)

The Novice (2021)

Sex Lives of College Girls (2021-2025)

Surviving Ohio State (2025)

The Social Network (2010)

The Sopranos (1999-2007)

Spinning into Butter (2007)

Tres Idiotas (2017)

Van Wilder (2002)

Whiplash (2014)

 

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**Listeners! We want to hear from you. Please take our listener survey to help us plan for Season 4!**

 

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.

Are you interested in a master’s or doctoral degree in higher education? Come join us! If you’re ready to start the conversation use this link to request information. Ready to apply? Complete the admissions application here.

Follow our podcast on Instagram at milehigheredpodcast. Follow Morgridge College of Education at MorgridgeatDU.

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

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.  

Are you interested in a master’s or doctoral degree in higher education? Come join us! If you’re ready to start the conversation use this link to request information. Ready to apply? Complete the admissions application here. 

Follow our podcast on Instagram at milehigheredpodcast. Follow Morgridge College of Education at MorgridgeatDU.  

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

On this episode of Mile Higher Ed, Sarah and Caitlyn talk with Dr. Dwenna Holden, a graduate of the Ed.D. program.  

Dr. Dwenna Holden has spent over 20 years in education at the secondary and post-secondary levels both as an educator and administrator. Her focus of praxis and research has been a critical interrogation of cis-white, able-bodied, heteropatriarchal colonial structures, especially as they seek to police QTPOC students, faculty, and staff. Central to her work is critical policy discourse analysis with a focus on liberatory awareness and transformation.   

And exciting news! Dr. Holden’s paper “Extending Critical Policy Discourse Analysis: Four Queer Analytic Practices for Higher Education Policy Research” was recently accepted for the Critical Policy Discourse Analysis International Conference to be held in June in Sheffield, United Kingdom. Congratulations, Dwenna! 

 

Here are some links to things we talked about: 

Complaint! book by Sara Ahmed  

What Do You Do With An Idea? By Kobi Yamada 

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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.  

Are you interested in a master’s or doctoral degree in higher education? Come join us! If you’re ready to start the conversation use this link to request information. Ready to apply? Complete the admissions application here. 

Follow our podcast on Instagram at milehigheredpodcast. Follow Morgridge College of Education at MorgridgeatDU.  

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

In this episode of Mile Higher Ed, Sarah and Caitlyn talk with Dr. Michael LaFarr, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Health and Wellbeing at the University of Denver and alumnus of the Higher Education Master’s program. We talk about what health care looks like in the context of higher education, how to support students’ holistic wellbeing, and how his degree in higher education shaped his career trajectory.  

About our guest: Dr. Michael LaFarr is a higher education leader based in Denver, Colorado, serving as an assistant vice chancellor at the University of Denver charged with overseeing health, wellness, and student services. Trained as a clinical psychologist with a doctorate in clinical psychology and an MBA, he combines deep behavioral health expertise with strategic and operational insight. With extensive experience running college health centers, he focuses on building systems that support student wellbeing, equity, and success, bringing a practical, mission-driven perspective to conversations about campus health, organizational change, and how institutions can better care for their students. 

Here’s a link to information about the University of Denver Health and Counseling Center 

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**Listeners! We want to hear from you. Please take our listener survey to help us plan for Season 4!** 

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.  

Are you interested in a master’s or doctoral degree in higher education? Come join us! If you’re ready to start the conversation use this link to request information. Ready to apply? Complete the admissions application here. 

Follow our podcast on Instagram at milehigheredpodcast. Follow Morgridge College of Education at MorgridgeatDU.  

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

On this episode of Mile Higher Ed, Sarah and Caitlyn talk to Dr. Ally Garcia, State Director for Adult Education Initiatives at the Colorado Department of Education and Adjunct Faculty in the Higher Education Department at the University of Denver. We talk about her experience in the EdD program, her teaching philosophy of Challenge-and-Support, and how she centers learners in her work both in the classroom and when implementing state policy. 

About our Guest: Dr. Ally Garcia (she,her,hers) received her Doctor of Education Degree from the University of Denver in 2019 and graduated from Metropolitan State University of Denver with both graduate and bachelor degrees (2011 & 2014). She currently serves as the State Director of the Adult Education Initiatives office at the Colorado of Department of Education.  She is an adjunct faculty member at both the University of Colorado Denver and the University of Denver. Dr. Garcia’s research and presentations have focused on issues relating to equity and liberation for marginalized communities where she utilizes poststructuralism and critical race feminist theories.  She was recently named the Ruth Murray Underhill Teaching recipient at the University of Denver.  She is a co-founder of a women’s fastpitch league in Denver, The United Women’s Fastpitch Coalition, and is the Principal Consultant at Equity Endeavors Consulting LLC.  She enjoys exploring Colorado, working out, watching independent films, walking her beautiful and friendly Chow Chow Chewbacca, and spending time jamming at concerts with her partner, Roman!    

Links to things we discussed: 

The dissertation process as one of healing and unmasking for sexual assault survivors—Dr. Hurtado and Dr. Garcia’s article on the experience of writing their dissertations 

 

**Listeners! We want to hear from you. Please take our listener survey to help us plan for Season 4!** 

 

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.  

Are you interested in a master’s or doctoral degree in higher education? Come join us! If you’re ready to start the conversation use this link to request information. Ready to apply? Complete the admissions application here. 

Follow our podcast on Instagram at milehigheredpodcast. Follow Morgridge College of Education at MorgridgeatDU.  

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