African Civilization · African American and African Diaspora Studies
This is a cautionary tale which is utterly different from what you are going to see downstairs. You CANNOT step on instructor Mokoena's toes, this woman got a pinched nerve. Translation--she is extremely sensitive about any racial commentaries(She is a black woman from South Africa), even though she is teaching African Civilizations. If in any way that she thinks you might have any bias or prejudice against blacks, then you are doomed. She will fail you regardless how good you think your essays are and how hard you worked on your papers. Despite the fact she gives a lot of As in her class, she also failed a legion of students in the past for the above reasons. She even got threats from former students. This is not what I said. All the information in this review is what she said in class herself. So be warned if you are not black.
15-20 pages of reading per class, 4 papers ranging from 4-10 pages, a presentation on one of the readings, and a one page response to a class activity. Easy sauce. Tie in the themes covered in class in an intelligent way, and you're bound to get an A.
Average. A lot of reading. Take home midterm, 8 page paper and a final.
Heavy weekly readings but many of them are interesting. Midterm essay Final essay Three short refections Extra credit opportunity
More than you will ever do. 50 page reading assignments for each class, 1 pg reading summary for each class, 2 1 pg summaries of the b.s. "visual hour," a 5pg paper, midterm, 8pg paper, and final (though he cancelled it at the last minute), plus you have to lead the class discussion once.
Three 4-6 page papers on topics of your choice. Take home final that should be 8-10 pages. There is no reason people should not get at least a B+. Attendance is very necessary.
Professor Stephens is a fine professor. I had her for African Civilizations, a seminar Core requirement. She is straightforward, fair, and unassuming. She isn't going to knock your socks off, but she definitely knows her subject matter. I would take a class with her again. She expects you to participate, going as far as to call on you directly if you haven't been contributing to the discussion. Just do the reading and the rest takes care of itself.
I have to disagree with the previous negative reviews about Ms. Palmer. I thought she was a great instructor. She was very nice and very approachable. There is a lot of reading and some of it can be a little dry but Ms. Palmer trys to make it as interesting as she can. This is really a pretty easy course at columbia. Much of the class is summarizing the readings so if you do at least part of the reading for the class you should have something to contribute. I would suggest this course for a major cultures class and anyone at all interested in Africa. There is also a weekly visual hour where we watched movies or heard lectures. This actually was my favorite part of the course because you could sit back and take it in without having to really think.
Professor Prais is amazing! I ended up having to take this class last minute and it ended up being one of my favorites. Professor Prais is passionate about Africa and it shows in her teachings. She appreciates participation in class but this class is chill. The weekly reading load is heavy but she provides most of the materials in courseworks. In addition to weekly class lectures she includes a MET field trip, in class movies relating to class material, last day of class lunch with catered African food. I learned so much from her and I enjoyed her class. I recommend this class to anyone for a global core.
Professor Mbodj is an interesting, thoughtful professor whose accent is very easy to understand, but whose thoughts are sometimes very strange and rambling. He's very knowledgable of African history, and is particularly keen on making you understand the subtleties of imperialism, colonialism, and neo-colonialism. Class is basically a bullshit "student discussion" until someone says something that sparks his imagination and then he goes off on a rant for the rest of class. Overall, there is way too much work, class is usually boring, and the "visual hours" once a week (sometimes almost 2 hours long) are unneccessary and incredibly boring. You could skip them but he takes attendance (as he does in class as well).