When university is a journey: The deliberate use of journey metaphors on university websites
Metaphor and the Social World, 2026 (ESCI, Scopus)
- Publication Type: Article / Article
- Publication Date: 2026
- Doi Number: 10.1075/msw.25004.tal
- Journal Name: Metaphor and the Social World
- Journal Indexes: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus, Index Islamicus, Linguistic Bibliography, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, MLA International Bibliography, EBSCO Communication Source, Communication Source (EBSCO)
- Keywords: conceptual metaphor, deliberate metaphor, journey experience, metaphorical mapping, university image
- Dokuz Eylül University Affiliated: Yes
Abstract
This article aims to determine the suggestive potential of journey metaphors deliberately used on university websites. The data of the research comprises homepage texts from 100 American university websites. The Critical Metaphor Analysis is applied as a primary method that consists of three stages: Identification, Interpretation, and Explanation. The Identification stage demonstrates that the university is represented through the journey source domain, which encompasses the elements: start, path, path-making, obstacles, exploration, and destination. The Interpretation stage reveals six metaphorical mappings, with the most frequent one — student — a pathmaker, highlighting the importance of prospective students to the universities. The Explanation stage outlines the rhetorical and ideological functions of the journey metaphors: reducing applicants’ admission anxiety and naturalizing a neoliberal vision of higher education rooted in individualism, the “American Dream, ” and pragmatism. The findings show that the university is a journey metaphor constructs an attractive digital image of the institution by framing education as a personal investment and unlimited social mobility, while obscuring systemic inequalities and the commodified nature of contemporary academia.