
SenseMakes, LLC
Communication Perspectives

Communication
Diversity & Inclusion
Welcome.
My name is Brian.
communicating fully
Bessel van der Kolk M.D. (2014)
the opposite of being traumatized

What has been silenced?
$100 per hour
Frameworks and processes for
sharing meanings with each
other and understanding the
different contexts of our world.
communication
Julia T. Wood (2004)
a fluctuating, unpredictable,
multivocal process in which
uncertainty infuses encounters
between people and what
they mean and become

Responding to both trauma
and systemic oppression.
Rights Equality
A Free Space
Communicating in and through
an uncertain world.
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What is the American dream?
Who does it serve?
Who does it subjugate?
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Wednesday, July 15th @ 4:30 pm
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neoliberalism
historical record
competing arguments
informed choices
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an ideology
Chomsky & Robinson (2024)
the belief that their domination
is for the good of the dominated

How are our borders structured?
SenseMaking Forums
$25 per space
absolute death
Mikhail Bakhtin
state of nonbeing
being unheard, unrecognized, unremembered

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to be is to communicate
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IntraDialogue
State Of Being
Selves develop in and through
communication with others.
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What has been psychologized?
What has been institutionalized?
Who has been granted status?
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Thursday, July 16th @ 12:30 pm
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mindfulness
human perception
personality patterns
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loneliness
Thich Nhat Hanh (2013)
the suffering of our time

What has become normal?
Story Sensing
Experiences
Asking "why" about our
experiences with the world.
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What's your story?
What takes form?
How does it inform?
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Thursday, July 16th @ 6:00 pm
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stories
listening-storytelling
narrative sensemaking
critical trauma studies
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an earlier story
Arthur W. Frank (2010)
works to hold us to a particular understanding of our lives

What's your story?
Justice Journals
Identities
Expanding in our experiences
of identities.
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What's inside?
What's outside?
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Thursday, July 23rd @ 6:00 pm
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standpoints-locations
identities-based approaches
interpersonal communication
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power
Mumby & Kuhn (2026)
a dynamic process of struggle that
rests on a complex relationship
between control and resistance

What has been taken for granted?
CoAuthorings
Relationships
Co-creating, negotiating, and
sharing meanings with others
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Who are we?
How do we relate to others?
Who are we becoming?
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Monday, July 22nd @ 6:00 pm
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relational communication
communication patterns
family systems
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love
bell hooks
cannot exist in the
context of domination

How do we respond to others?
A Narrow Ridge
Practices Of Good
The critique of monologue.
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Where are you positioned?
How are you persuaded?
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Monday, July 20th @ 4:30 pm
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communication ethics
rhetorical approaches
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the learner
Arnett, Harden-Fritz, &
Bell-McManus (2018)
one who meets difference without forgetting the limits of one's own situation and particular commitments to the good

What are the discretions?
Critical Consciousness
Cultures
Investigating the
commonsense assumptions.
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How did it come to be this way?
Who does it harm?
Who does it benefit?
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Wednesday, July 27th @ 4:30 pm
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diversity-inclusion
critical-cultural approaches
organizational communication
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critical inquiry
Fassett, Warren, & Nainby (2018)
asking complicated questions about the consequences of our (in)actions.

What are the basic assumptions?
Lead Learners
Followerships
Forms of discipline.
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What is protected?
What is promoted?
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Monday, August 3rd @ 4:30 pm
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consent-dissent
communication pedagogy
intercultural communication
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the oppressed
Paulo Freire
the very structure of their thought
has been conditioned by the
contradictions of the concrete
existential situation by which
they were shaped

What are the consequences
of our (in)actions?
Folx Media
Social Change
Meaningful change does not
trickle from the top on down.
It happens when we act upon
time, space, and what we can
socially form and inform together from the
bottom on up.
Meaningful change happens in
and through communication.
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a right to be understood
a right to communicate
a right to the decision-making process
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Coming Soon.
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sound reporting
podcasting
digital storytelling
photo/video journalism
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the power of the people
The Honourable Vida Yeboah (2006)
relies on people to endure, to advocate
for the change that will benefit them,
to work through their differences, to
come together and form social
movements in order to
demand their rights

Despair is not an option.
