Poetry as Institutional Identity Frame

Cultural forms such as poetry, liturgy, and rhetoric function as tools institutions use to craft and signal their public identity, not merely ornaments. Debates over an institution's doctrinal fidelity therefore play out as aesthetic and narrative choices that shape who feels at home, who donates, and how the institution is perceived in politics. — Recognizing aesthetic framing makes disputes over institutional identity (e.g., Catholic colleges) a cultural battle with downstream effects on governance, recruitment, and public legitimacy.