Representing “U”: Popular Culture, Media, and Higher Education

Making a College Professor Film: A Case Study

“…From Umphlett (1984) to Conklin (2008) and Reynolds (2014), the relationship between film and higher education has been discussed from the perspective of the viewer, the educator, and the historian. This project sought to consider this relationship from the filmmaker’s point of view.…”

“…Some scholars have argued that professors commonly appear as negative characters, which both damages public perceptions of the academy and the professoriate and reflects existing public opinion (Long, 1996; Polan, 1993; Reynolds, 2007, 2014). Further, a number of observers have documented recurrent negative on-screen stereotypes, including the absent-minded professor, the philandering cad, the lazy tenured instructor, and the bitter educator (DiPaolo, 2015; Guillermo, 2015; Overall, 2010; Roberts, 2010; Thomas, 2009).…”

Moving beyond immobility: Spatial stories of undergraduate mobility at the “local” college

“…Anna created a division between the purely educational aspect of undergraduate life, and the associated, societal understandings of “being a fresher” (Edgerton, ; Reynolds, ). These were temporally and spatially divided in Anna's account, so that she had experienced undergraduate socialising in another place before beginning her degree and currently studied “close to home” without the “socialising aspect of it.” The spatial story of her current closeness to home was therefore a drawing of boundaries around a place that contained her current educational success and guarded against its disruption.…”

Just the “Typical College Diet”: How College Students Use Life Stages to Account for Unhealthy Eating

“…While some research indicates students may emulate many of the food‐related behaviors they learned from their families (Schroeter, House, and Lorence ), peers may come to exert influence over the students' food choices (Gruber ). This movement away from family norms may be aided by the representation of college life in the popular media, which could help indoctrinate incoming students into the norms and expectations of life as a college student (Reynolds ; Tucciarone ). These media depictions may serve as a form of anticipatory socialization and lead students to believe certain eating behaviors (e.g., eating unhealthy food, often in large amounts, and late at night) are part of the college experience (Silver ).…”

“…Descriptions of college life from current students and the popular media tend to emphasize the social aspects of college, sometimes going so far as to portray the college years as a time of hedonistic exploration (Reid, Webber, and Elliott ; Reynolds ; Tucciarone ). Yet, these scenes take place in the context of an American culture concerned with matters of public health, particularly the obesity epidemic and increases in diet‐related illnesses (Guthman ; Maurer and Sobal ).…”