SenseMakes, LLC
Communication Perspectives
Uncertainty
Actualities & Possibilities
Welcome.
My name is Brian.
absolute death
Mikhail Bakhtin
state of nonbeing
being unheard, unrecognized, unremembered
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to be is to communicate
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a right to be understood
Communication
Diversity & Inclusion
Communication practices that move
toward resilient and sustainable
selves, relationships,
and communities.
communicating fully
Bessel van der Kolk M.D. (2014)
the opposite of being traumatized
a right to communicate
Communication Consult
Consultation: $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
a right to the decision-making process
SenseMaking Forums
$25 per space
Making sense of our world.
worldviews
Kenneth Burke
a way of seeing is also
a way of not seeing
Responding to both trauma
and systemic oppression
IntraDialogue
State Of Being
Selves develop in and through
communication with others.
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Who are we?
Who are we becoming?
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Thursday, June 11th @ 6:00 pm
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human perception
mindfulness
narrative inquiry
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loneliness
Thich Nhat Hanh (2013)
the suffering of our time
What has been psychologized?
Story Sensing
Experiences
Individuals act within
particular narratives.
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What's your story?
What takes form?
How does it inform?
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Monday, June 15th @ 4:30 pm
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sociality
narrative sensemaking
personality patterns
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an earlier story
Arthur W. Frank (2010)
works to hold us to a particular understanding of our lives
What has been institutionalized?
CoAuthorings
Relationships
Co-creating, negotiating, and
sharing meanings with others.
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What are your
communication patterns?
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Thursday, June 18th @ 6:00 pm
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autonomy-closeness
relational communication
communication patterns
family systems
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love
bell hooks
cannot exist in the
context of domination
What is your level of
relational satisfaction?
Human Dialogue
Competing Meanings
Willingness to risk change in our
perspectives of selves, others, and
the world we inhabit together.
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What is centered?
What is marginalized?
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Thursday, June 25th @ 6:00 pm
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harmony building
conflict management
intercultural communication
relational dialectics theory
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turning points
Leslie A. Baxter (2011)
moments of heightened
dialogic struggle
What is all that is not centered?
Critical Consciousness
Organizations
Asking "why" about our direct experiences with the world.
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How did it come to be this way?
Who does it harm?
Who does it benefit?
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Saturday, June 20th @ 12:30 pm
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agency-control
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.
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forms of discipline
consent-dissent
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Rights Equality
Neoliberalism
Communicating in and through
an uncertain world.
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How are our borders structured?
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Monday, June 22nd @ 4:30 pm
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American idealism
moral principles
rules of law
resilience
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an ideology
Chomsky & Robinson (2024)
the belief that their domination
is for the good of the dominated
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What is the American dream?
Who does it serve?
Who does it subjugate?
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A Narrow Ridge
Practices
The critique of monologue.
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Where are you positioned?
How are you persuaded?
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Thursday, June 18th @ 12:00 pm
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rhetorical approaches
strategic ambiguity
communication ethics
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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 has been taken for granted?
Justice Journals
Performances
Expanding in our experiences
of identities.
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What's inside?
What's outside?
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Thursday, June 25th @ 12:00 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 silenced?
Lead Learners
Followerships
Investigating the
commonsense assumptions.
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What is protected?
What is promoted?
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Saturday, June 27th @ 12:30 pm
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critical trauma studies
communication pedagogy
qualitative methods
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knowledge production
Mumby & Kuhn (2026)
a highly contingent, contested,
and ever-changing process
What are the discretions?
CoCompositions
Cooperative Movements
Reflecting and acting upon the communication we witness.
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Communication for social change
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Monday, June 29th @ 4:30 pm
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a right to be understood
a right to communicate
a right to the decision-making process
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oppression
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 has become normal?
Communicating Media
Media & Technology
The historical record.
Freedom of the press
Coming Soon.
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sound reporting
podcasting
digital storytelling
photo/video journalism
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mutual authoring
Mikhail Bakhtin
the joint act of creating
What are we going
to do about it?
Folx Media
Freeing Our Living
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.
Coming Soon.
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historical contexts
competing arguments
informed choices
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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 option.
