Good evening, everyone! The end of
the semester rapidly approaches—only a few days of class remain!—and all of us on
campus are starting to feel the final push. But I know that all of you are facing
a similar feeling as the end of this month approaches, so here is a post to
help with your decision making process:
Awesome Professors.
This list will by no means be
inclusive—I haven’t been here for so long after all—but I would like to share two of my favorite professors I've had since joining the Barnard/Columbia community. I have
yet to have a single professor who would not meet with me in office hours. So
take heart: amazing teachers and mentors await on both sides of Broadway!
Professor Casey Blake, Professor
of History and American Studies
Blake is the bomb. I took US Intellectual
History with him last semester, and I can say in all seriousness that it was
life-changing. And I know at least a dozen people who agree with me.
A quote from CULPA (Columbia Underground Listing of Professor Ability) reads, “It took a little while to get
used to Blake's lecturing style, since he talks a bit like Woody Allen and sort
of stares at a point on the back of the room about 10 feet over all our heads.
That being said, he's brilliant.” I could not agree more: he is definitely a
genuine academic, and he teaches that way. He stands at the front of the room
and lectures for the full hour and fifteen
minutes; there are no flashy gimmicks, no cheesiness, and no dumbing-down of
the material. But he is incredibly passionate and wonderfully well spoken (I
frequently frantically copied down whole sentences, with the hope that I could
learn to speak like him…though that has yet to happen).
During the first few weeks of school, I gathered all my
courage, marched myself into his office, and introduced myself, just because I
was so enjoying his class. He invited me in, and we ended up spending half an
hour discussing my classes and interest in history. Not every professor would
take that amount of time to chat with a student who came in for no real reason,
but Blake is not just any professor.
This semester I’m in a seminar with him, and he manages it
brilliantly. Many profs have a hard time passing the discussion on to the
students, rather than monopolizing it themselves, but not him. What a guy!
Antonio Carmena, Lecturer of Dance (Read: Ballet Teacher)
Antonio is…also the bomb? I thought I’d use a new word, but nothing else quite
captures how great he is. Even if you are a less hardcore dancer (like me), Antonio squarely fits the great-professor requisites of being a) inspiring, b)
helpful, and c) caring. Also he’s really, really funny.
Antonio is a soloist with New York City Ballet, which is a
pretty big deal, and it is really cool to have a teacher who comes up to
Barnard for an 8:40 class, and then goes downtown to rehearse and perform.
I admit that I was rather nervous about taking his class: Am
I really at the ballet five level? Am I really cut out to take class with a
dancer of his caliber? Technically, the answer to both of those questions may
be “no.” But it doesn’t matter, because Antonio somehow manages to be
completely welcoming and relaxed, even as he urges us to work as hard as we
can. Also, he recognizes that we are not 12-year-olds at a conservatory, and he
treats us accordingly: he repeatedly tells us that we are adults, capable of
making our own artistic decisions, and pushes us to move away from strictly
academic interpretations. And though he doesn’t seems entirely clear on exactly
how we spend the rest of our days, he does understand the stress we’re under
and is very sweet and funny about it. A quality Antonio quote: “And then it’s
spring break, and after that all your…middle-terms and things will be over!”
Ok, folks, that’s all for now. I highly recommend both of
these teachers, and if you would like more recommendations, or if you have any
other history or dance, professor or class questions or comments, leave me a
comment! They make my days spent reading and translating much more exciting :)
Have a good one,
Chloe
Last semester, I took a basic survey class
at Barnard that covered American history up until the Civil War. This is the kind of class that tends to focus primarily on the experience of white males, so I
went in with fairly low expectations of inclusivity. 
Barnard, by virtue of being a women’s college, is more
sensitive to issues of privilege and marginalization. Time and time again, I have realized that
professors at Barnard (and I speak only from personal experience here) are more
likely to focus on “the other” and, for me, that makes a stronger class. Between
the priorities of Barnard professors and the incredible intelligence and
passion of every student here, I have learned more at Barnard than I think I would have learned at another
school.
