The purpose of this study is to understand what a mascot controversy reveals about university culture. More specifically, the study sought to examine how discourse around the University of Denver's "Denver Boone" mascot controversy reflects and produces institutional identity and leadership priorities. Situated within cultural studies of higher education (Manning, 2000) and drawing upon theories of organizational change (Kezar, 2014) and poststructural assumptions of discourse and power (Foucault, 2008), this study is oriented around the following research questions:
- How does discourse of campus conflict/controversy produce institutional identities?
- How does discourse of campus conflict/controversy reveal leadership priorities?
- How is institutional history re-imagined through discourse?
Cumulatively, findings from this study contribute to a deeper understanding of how organizational culture – as produced through discourse – enables and constrains institutional effectiveness and reflects/produces democratic imperatives as a social institution in the U.S.