Writers Den

Purpose

To fulfill the requirements of a core-curriculum
course

Objectives

In order to fulfill the requirements of a core-curriculum course, students
will participate in

an activity related to a common reading for all
core-curriculum courses.

Readings

Kwame Anthony Appiah, “The Case for
Contamination“; NY Times Magazine of Jan. 1, 2006.

Assignments

In his article, Appiah notifies us that in October 2005,
the UNESCO General Conference approved

a convention on the ‘protection and promotion’ of cultural
diversity. According to Appiah,

the motivation of
this convention was based on ‘the fear is that the values and images of

Western mass culture, like some invasive weed, are
threatening to choke out the world’s native flora.’

In the same article Appiah refers to some of the ‘women’s
rights’ like the right to vote,

the right to work outside their homes, the right to be
protected from the physical abuse of men, etc.

This activity will be undertaken individually into two
parts.

1. First
   you are required to write an essay in which you are going to develop the
   idea of up to

what point it is ‘cultural
imperialism’ for us to defend those women’s rights.

By advocating these rights, are
we then violating the convention of cultural diversity as we

promote the
protection of women’s human rights worldwide?