Class creates Darfur site

In most freshman English classes, students learn different techniques that implement the use of style, grammar and tone in their writing. Many classes require students to put the elements learned into a well-thought-out research paper. But for students from Mica Darley's autumn Honors English 102 class, research went beyond writing to allowing the research to create activity and discussion on the genocide in Darfur.

Instead of creating formal research papers, students in Mica Darley's class had the opportunity to create a Web site. Students created www.cincinnatifordarfur.org , a Web site dedicated to sharing and educating others about the conflict in Darfur.

"We had been discussing genocide and Darfur had been one of the subjects we talked about, so we did decided to do our project on it," said Sam Anneken, a first-year chemical engineering student.

"As a teacher, I wanted to emphasize research not as something confined but rather as a living, breathing important thing that can help shape ideas," said Darley, a doctoral student in English.

The class, through its unique format of using rhetoric and argumentation as important elements of writing, focused on social injustice and humanitarianism around the world. Students watched Hotel Rwanda and read A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmeal Beah, which documented his experience as a child soldier in Sierra Leone. The class also got the chance to meet Beah, according to Darley.

The class also focused on the idea of social invisibility, its affect on social norms and how writing fits into the picture.

"Writing allows us to see these things or issues that are hidden," Darley said.

Darley also invited Nick Clooney, a journalist, television host and former politician to come and speak to her class.

"I asked him to come for a couple of reasons," Darley said. "First, because he's a writer and knows the power of written and spoken word and second, because his work in Darfur was something interesting to talk about."

For Chelsea Gidden, a first-year musical theater student, it was Clooney's visit that sparked the students' interest in doing a project on Darfur.

"Nick Clooney worked with us and even wrote an introduction specifically for our Web site," Gidden said.

Each student involved in the project worked hard to research and design all aspects of the Web site. As part of their research, students looked at ways to make their Web site effective and user friendly.

"We wanted to appeal to people who already care about the conflict and also to young people so they can take action," Gidden said.

According to Anneken, "Mica helped us, but primarily we did the work on the Web site on our own."

The site is updated monthly and includes a history and time-line of the conflict, photographs, a calendar of events and organizations in the Cincinnati area where people can get involved. Students also created a poem and prose section, a result of a creative response to Darfur and other materials during the quarter.

Visitors can also post poems, reactions or letters sent to their local senators and government officials regarding the conflict on the Web site.

"English is one class that we have to take together, Gidden said. "We all found something in Darfur that we could relate to, a common thread.

"[It] doesn't matter what your major or race is. Anyone can get involved and make a difference."