“You Can Make a Difference”: Human Rights as the Subject Matter for a First-Year Writing Seminar: Anthropology

After twenty-three years of teaching at Cornell, I have become concerned about the kind of citizens we are producing in an increasingly interconnected global environment. As N. Giroux (1997, 690) has asked: “What kind of society do we want to create in the context of the present shifting cultural and ethnic borders? How can we reconcile the notions of difference and equality with the imperatives of freedom and justice?” I believe that our educational system is at odds with the demands of the complex world in which students will find themselves. This First-Year Writing Seminar dealing with the discourses and