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J. Michael Denton, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

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Bio

Dr. Michael Denton grew up in Tupelo, Mississippi. He worked for over 15 years as a university housing and residence life professional at the University of West Georgia, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Georgia State University, and the University of North Carolina Charlotte. He then left practitioner life and earned his doctorate at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He then joined the faculty of the University of South Florida in Tampa, FL, as an instructor and program coordinator of the College Student Affairs Masters program in the College of Education. He transitioned into a tenure-track assistant professor job at USF in 2018. When his life partner of over 25 years took a job in San Antonio in 2023, it was good fortune that a position at UTSA opened up soon after. He admired the values, scholarship, and commitments of the COEHD and ELPS faculty and students. He is thrilled to be able to join the ELPS faculty and higher education program and rejoin his partner.

 

Teaching

  • College Student Development Theory
  • College Student Success
  • Campus Environments
  • Social Justice in Higher Education
  • Qualitative Methods

Research Interests

My scholarly agenda is guided by two central questions: A) What are the experiences of college students who undergo life-altering bodily changes? B) What methodologies and methods enable anti-oppressive research about and with these students? I have conducted narrative and arts-based research with gay college men living with HIV/AIDS and transgender college students who gender transitioned while in college. I am currently beginning my next research project, a national study of college students living with Long COVID.

Degrees

  • Ph.D., Student Affairs in Higher Education, Miami University, Ohio, 2014
  • M.S., Counselor Education with an emphasis in College Student Development, Mississippi State University, 1995
  • B.A., English, Mississippi State University, 1992

Honors and Awards

  • Annuit Coeptis Senior Professional Award from College Student Educators International (ACPA) Faculty Pride Award
    • Year Awarded: 2023
    • Organization: The University of South Florida Committee on Issues of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Queer Studies
  • SIG Dissertation of the Year Award
    • Year Awarded: 2015
    • Organization: The American Educational Research Association (AERA)

Presentations

  • Making Waves in Student Development: The Influence of Academic Genealogies. Symposium with A. Duran, S. Jones, E. Hernandez, & V. Torres.
    • Location: Meeting of College Student Educators International (ACPA), Nashville, TN
    • Presentation Date: March 2020
  • Denton, J. M. (2019, November). Borrowed Methods: Using Queer AIDS Activism to Re-imagine Research on Collegians.
    • Location: Meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), Portland, OR.
    • Presentation Date: November 2019
  • Denton, J. M., & Cain, L. K.. Transitioning trans students’ gender discourses.
    • Location: Meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), Tampa, FL.
    • Presentation Date: November 2018
  • Cain, L. K., Denton, J. M., Alvarez, R., & Smith, A. Trans student narratives of transitioning while in college.
    • Location: Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), New York, NY.
    • Presentation Date: April 2018

Grants, Patents and Clinical Trials

  • University of South Florida Sarasota Manatee Interdisciplinary Research Grant  -- Long COVID Prevalence among College Students and Its Impacts.
    • Duration: 2023-2024
    • Total Amount: $20,000

Publications

  • Denton, J. M. (2023). “Some days it’s the best thing . . . Some days it’s the worst”: Gay college men living with HIV navigating the meanings of AIDS. Journal of College Student Development, 64(6), 615-629. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2023.a917019
  • Denton, J. M., & Cain, L. K. (2023). Creating queer epistemologies and embodied knowledge through narrative and arts-based research. Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, 12(4), 133-157. https://doi.org/10.1525/dcqr.2023.12.4.133
  • Cain, L. K., Denton, J. M., Alvarez, R., & Smith, A. (2024) Examining trans student narratives of transitioning while in college. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 37(4), 1174-1190. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2023.2181422
  • Denton, J. M., & Abes, E. S. (2022). The art of masked advocacy: Gay college men living with HIV. Journal of College Student Development, 63(4), 383-398. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2022.0033
  • Denton, J. M. (2020). Queering college student retention. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 21(4), 544-566. https://doi.org/10.1177/1521025119895515
  • Denton, J. M., & Cain, L. K. (2020). The impact of the gender binary on two transitioning trans men in campus housing. Journal of College and University Student Housing, 46(3), 60-77. https://www.acuho-i.org/journal
  • Denton, J. M. (2019). Queer theory. In E. S. Abes, S. R. Jones, & D.L. Stewart (Eds.), Rethinking college student development theory using critical frameworks (pp. 55-63). Stylus.
  • Denton, J. M., Kortegast, C. A., & Miller, C. (2018). Overview of the use of visual methods in research. In B. T. Kelley & C. A. Kortegast (Eds.), Engaging images for research, pedagogy, and practice: Utilizing visual methods to understand and promote college student development (pp. 13-28). Stylus.
  • Denton, J. M. (2016). Critical and poststructural perspectives on sexual identity formation. New Directions in Student Services, 154, 57-69. https://doi.org/10.1002/ss.20175