Increasing numbers of researchers in the field of higher education research are searching for meaning rather than metrics: something in their data that call to them and that make their hearts soar. This paper leans into post-qualitative approaches and attempts to resist methodological arrest, drawing on the disciplinary language of literary…

This original teaching idea is designed for a course unit on protest communication. It consists of a performed protest speech, dubbed the "fantastical speech," and a post-speech reflective analysis. Students utilize the subversive genre of fanfiction to compose a protest speech in which, as a fictional character, they convince their…

This paper combines social fiction and academic analysis to envision hopeful futures for higher education. At the heart of the exploration is Phoebe Wagner's speculative fiction piece, "University, Speaking," which personifies a university grappling with environmental, political, and social change. Phoebe Wagner's first-person narrative…

The use of narrative has been a time-honoured way of exploring complex ideas, and a valuable way to learn. An obvious example that epitomises this thesis, are the dialogues of Plato. Indeed, what gives significance to these dialogues is the way in which complex ideas are revealed through the struggles and conflicts of one or more characters. With…

AI and robots have the potential to transform Higher Education (HE) but pose many ethical and implementation challenges. To ensure the widest debate about our choices for the future of HE with these technologies, engaging ways to present the issues are needed and this article is part of an exploration of the potential of fictional narratives to do…

Higher education is at a pivotal point of reflection due to the forces of neoliberalism, anti-Blackness, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In the past, higher education has overlooked the university's far future, opting to focus on readily conspicuous change. Along with this disregarded conversation, these crises present higher education faculty,…

"Cancel culture" can be used in punitive ways to withdraw financial or intellectual support from those whose perspectives are deemed offensive. Some suggest disengaging from authors, artists, donors, institutional founders, and others whose histories and perspectives are problematic. However, what do student affairs professionals do…

This case study describes a project that combined speculative fiction and co-design as qualitative social science research methods. It also describes how planned methods had to be adapted from physically co-present to online implementation and how we also had to change our expectations regarding the outcomes of the project. The combination of…

In this paper, we use process philosophy to address the increased feeling of alienation and resignation among students and teachers in Norwegian academia. By trusting the generative forces of childhood, as Deleuze and Guattari suggest, we explore changemaking potentialities in what we label 'organic methodologies' in higher education. Our question…

In this article we attempt to envision what utopian higher education could be given the realities that currently shape students' experiences. Postsecondary education is fraught with admissions that favor those with social, cultural, and economic capital; with course enrollment, class size, and instructor accessibility governed by bureaucratic…

This article is a reflection of the author's experiences teaching a course titled 'Women In Islam' [WIS] in an English Department at a medium, public, Masters granting, Liberal Arts university in the Midwestern United States. This paper argues for the importance of teaching WIS through a multi-genre, interdisciplinary, and global approach. The…

Like the depiction of plagues in apocalyptic science fiction, neoliberalism continues to infect education at all levels. This infection causes educators to care not for the children, but to embrace the figure of the Child. Reproductive futurism, in the imagined redemptive figure of the Child has been regulating the structure of education not for…

Although there is a great deal of available material on using nontraditional resources for teaching sociology, the pedagogical uses of science fiction have not been examined for 20 years. This essay first asserts the need for an update based on changes in society and in science fiction over the past two decades. The paper then focuses on the uses…

This article considers fan fiction as (self-)publication, particularly noting the tensions between institutional notions of textual production within academia and how fan writing works against paradigms of publishing espoused in higher education. Such tensions are indicative of institutional pressures for "legitimate" publications.…

Applying the critical lenses of feminism, autographical theory and literary analysis, this essay performs a triple reading of Vera Brittain's multi-genre writings about gender, war,and university education. Focusing specifically on "The Dark Tide" (1923), "Testament of Youth" (1933) and "The Women of Oxford" (1960),…