The Arts of China · AHARV
Light. Weekly reading which is not necessary. Two 3 page paper. Midterm and final which requires memorization of lots of Chinese names, which can be hard for non native speakers. All graded harshly.
The style of this course is quite descriptive, by which I mean you're not expected to make profound interpretations of the arts; what you need to is to describe what you see. And that's how Professor Harrist teaches. By the end of the course you'll probably be able to tell others about facts on some specific artworks, but that's kinda the expectation of the course. In this sense the style is quite like Arthum. However, the grading is much harder. Potentially you could get ~2/3 lower letter grade. If you are interested in Chinese art and are thinking about taking this course as a global core, I would discourage you if you care about grading at all. Just go read the text book and go to the MET yourself. And about the comments of him being racist, etc. He sure is a bit pretentious in lectures but that shouldn't be any issue for learning. After class I actually find him an approachable person.
Midterm, Final, two short papers. Easy B/B+ if you study.
Professor Harrist is an old fashioned professor. He expects you to come to class and takes attendance because he wants to learn the names of all his students. If you have no interest in Art History or China, this class will bore you. If you can pretend to be interested for 2 hours a week, you will learn a lot from a professor who obviously knows what he is talking about. Yes, he is a tough grader and yes he expects you to memorize a huge amount of dates and Chinese names. You will be much better off if you are familiar with Chinese language. I found the readings were very unnecessary and stopped doing most of them after the first month. On the comments that he is a jerk: he's pretty arrogant and an elitist and don't ask him for anything additional. Answer his questions correctly and show interest in the topics and he will take notice.
He's a jerk and a racist. Listen to previous reviews.
Two papers (short but take time); a midterm and a final requiring thorough revision
If you are looking at this to fulfill your core, consider your options carefully before you take this class. You may regret it, or maybe not. The drawback: The previous reviewer had it right. Harrist is great for lectures but absolutely awful for anything (and that means ANYTHING!) else. The course demands a huge amount in terms of sheer amount of memorizing. While this isn't the drawback per se, you should be forewarned that there's we cover quite a big chunk of art and then he asks for dates, period, name of work, name of artist and context in his exams. The issue is this: that besides his beautifully presented albeit slightly pretentious lectures plus the necessary office hours, do not expect any other kind of help from Harrist. He is the only Columbia professor I have met who genuinely races out of the door when lectures are over, leaving the TA's to collect his things, pretty much to avoid student questions (if you try to intercept him as he's just about to slip by, he has an undisguised look of impatience). From talking to other students, he doesn't seem to schedule extra office hours even prior to papers and exams, gives no extensions and does not overlook typos or spelling errors. Your only chance is to try to catch him at office hours, but he switches these all of a sudden often only emailing the day of. On the one hand, we need to take into account that from he is ce…
two papers, 3 pages each, midterm, final
Professor Harrist is an excellent, extremely knowledgable man, over-educated, at the top of his field, arrogantly witty, clever, etc. His lectures are outstanding; he fits in more material than one could imagine, yet in a manner meant for comprehension and cohesiveness. He makes the often dull material interesting and all is quite aethetically pleasing. However, if you begin this class, as I did, with little to no knowledge of the geography and language of China, be prepared for extra studying and difficulty. He emphasizes throughout the course the necessity of memorizing the changing map of the provinces and cities of China, an absolute painstaking must. Also, you have to do a lot of cross-referencing of your notes with (few and far between) slidelists, the text, and miscellaneous readings. Also, when approached outside of class, Harrist is curt, annoyed, and often seemingly offended and the idiocy of his students. Delightful lectures, dreadful for anything else.