2017 MVA Thesis Projects 

This film is about three students on a journey to pursue hope in higher education. Anthropologist Cheryl Mattingly defines hope as “…most centrally involving the practice of creating, or trying to create, lives worth living even the midst of suffering, even with no happy ending in sight (2008:15). Unlike the Western idiom ‘a means to an end,’ hope works as way of inhabiting the present moment while working towards a brighter future. Hope, thus, is not a means to an end but resonates as a way of persisting in higher education, despite the challenges that are often met with despair. How do college and graduate students continually persist in the shadows of insurmountable institutional and personal challenges? This driving question beckons each person’s journey of self-knowing and is illuminated by ephemeral moments of hope (Miyazaki: 2004). The Pursuit of Hope in Higher Education offers a glimpse into the lives of three individuals grappling to apprehend the “sparks of hope” (Miyazaki: 23) within the contours of their private and public lives as students. Through mental health conditions such as bipolar disorder, depression, and the psychological stress induced by systemic and institutional racism, the journeys of Tyeisha, Terence, and Daniel are explored.

Running time: 28 minutes