Three theoretical frameworks ground podcast dissertation work in Diamond's tradition. You don't need to be an expert in all three before you start. But understanding them — even briefly — will help you advise with intention.
→ Deeper dive: The Guide, Part 2 — Theoretical Foundations
What it is: Developed by Django Paris and H. Samy Alim, Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy moves beyond earlier frameworks that asked educators to merely acknowledge or tolerate students' cultural backgrounds. CSP insists that educational practice should actively sustain the cultural and linguistic practices of communities of color — not as a bridge to "mainstream" academic culture, but as knowledge worth preserving and honoring in its own right.
Why it matters for podcast dissertations: Diamond's research centers Black and Brown creatives precisely because their gifts, practices, and ways of knowing are underutilized in higher education. The podcast form is itself an expression of CSP: it centers participants' voices, their cultural references, their humor, their spirituality, their specific language. It doesn't translate their experience into academic prose. It lets it be what it is.
In Diamond's work: The "secret sauce" concept that runs through her dissertation is an expression of CSP — that quality of connection, affirmation, and cultural fluency that shows up when Black and Brown creatives share space. Diamond didn't just study it. Her podcast demonstrates it.
What it is: Critical Media Literacy, as developed by Douglas Kellner and Jeff Share, teaches people not just to consume media but to interrogate it — to ask who made it, for whom, with what assumptions embedded in its form and content. It also insists that media creation is itself a form of critical practice: making media is how communities challenge dominant narratives and claim representational power.
Why it matters for podcast dissertations: A podcast dissertation is an act of critical media literacy by definition. Diamond and her participants are not passive subjects of a study. They are media creators who understand that the dominant narratives about Black and Brown people in higher education are incomplete — and who are using the podcast as a tool to produce counter-narratives.
In Diamond's work: Her research questions ask explicitly about how podcasting enables Black and Brown creatives to amplify their voices and present counter-narratives in higher education. The methodology enacts the theory: she is studying media literacy by practicing it.
What it is: Public scholarship is research designed not just for academic publication but for genuine public access and impact. It takes seriously the question of who research is actually for — and whether the communities being studied can access and use the knowledge being produced about them.
Why it matters for podcast dissertations: A podcast is inherently public. Diamond's episodes are available to anyone with an internet connection. That means her participants' community — other Black and Brown creatives, educators who work with them, students who see themselves in the research — can actually encounter this work. That is not incidental. It is the point.
In Diamond's work: Diamond's dissertation was conceived as public scholarship from the beginning. Her research questions are not written for a narrow academic audience. They are written to generate knowledge that higher education institutions can actually use to better serve the communities they are failing.
→ Deeper dive: The Guide, Part 2 — Theoretical Foundations
These three principles are not separate ideas that happen to coexist in Diamond's work. They are mutually constitutive. CSP provides the why — center and sustain the culture. CML provides the how — use and interrogate media with intention. Public scholarship provides the for whom — this knowledge belongs to the community, not just the academy.
Together, they produce a framework for research that is rigorous, creative, culturally grounded, and genuinely oriented toward change.