"With a stated objective that "any person can find instruction in any study," Cornell exemplifies academic diversity. The institution has a long tradition of excellence in writing and is home to one of the oldest academic writing programs. At the core of Cornell's approach is the idea that writing well is a concern that is not limited to one department or field, but is best approached in a multidisciplinary way. Thus, writing is taught at Cornell by faculty and graduate students in areas as varied as neurobiology, political science, and Near Eastern studies, among others. In the chapters of Local Knowledges, Local Practices, the faculty of this innovative program candidly share their visions, their practical pedagogical techniques, and the sometimes surprising insights they have gained." "After ten years of teaching, one contributor describes the impact her involvement in the writing program had on her career as "a massive paradigm shift: teaching centered not on what I knew, but what somebody else needed to know." A professor of urban studies also found something unexpected when he began teaching writing to first-year students: "In their concern to produce good writing, to get their ideas straight, and to think logically and use evidence honestly, the students forget to be careful ... As they struggle to write, they become freer to think. I like that!" Another seasoned academician observes, "Teachers, for their part, discover ways to reformulate abstract theoretical constructs into more accessible, useful, and interesting arguments for students to integrate into their own intellectual development. In so doing a teacher has the opportunity to both have an immediate impact on student understanding and to refine and extend the meaning and value of the more abstract work in his or her own writing."" "The voices collected in this volume encourage faculty and administrators from all disciplines and all institutions to reclaim responsibility for teaching the field-specific writing they want their students to learn, and affirm the importance of good writing as integral to learning in all fields and at all levels of the curriculum."--Jacket.