The rhetoric of making a difference is about speaking up for your commitments and speaking wisely and persuasively for change in everyday settings. This class combines the study of such rhetoric with real world experience making a change in which students organize and document the discoveries of an intercultural Carnegie Mellon Community Think Tank (see www.cmu.edu.thinktank ). The writers we read (coming out of the American Pragmatist tradition from Emerson and King to bell hooks and Cornel West) all wrestle with the tensions between critique and commitment, between non-conformity and building connection, and they model distinctive approaches to posing problems, negotiating conflict, and creating change. In the second half of the term, we will put these ideas and strategies to use in a Think Tank on a problem in urban education, when teenagers, teachers, administrators and employers come to the table as collaborative problem solvers. This project will also teach you research tools for discovering and dramatizing a shared problem, conducting an intercultural inquiry, and documenting and publishing your findings.
