In today’s episode of the Telos Press Podcast, David Pan talks with Richard T. Marcy and Valerie J. D’Erman about their article “The Sensemaking and Construction of Political Narratives in Academic Settings,” from Telos 200 (Fall 2022). An excerpt of the article appears here. In their conversation they discuss Max Weber’s distinction between political advocacy and university teaching, and how this distinction is relevant for analyzing territorial acknowledgments; why the framework of narrative sensemaking is appropriate for analyzing territorial acknowledgments; the way in which territorial acknowledgments have developed through a process of sensebreaking, sensegiving, and senselocking; how the territorial acknowledgment represents a kind of truth in academia; Weber’s distinction between neutrality and objectivity and his argument that all research inevitably has some sort of value orientation; and how that value orientation should function in the university, particularly with regard to the university’s civic function. If your university has an online subscription to Telos, you can read the full article at the Telos Online website. For non-subscribers, learn how your university can begin a subscription to Telos at our library recommendation page. Print copies of Telos 200 are available for purchase in our online store.

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