Anne Higonnet

This professor is the most disengaging and boring professor I have ever sat in. She does not even talk in coherent thoughts, she also doesn't even say anything helpful. She matches contemporary art with an advancing timeline of medieval onward, and chooses the absolute ugliest contemporary pieces ever. The way she describes each piece is completely subjective and provides no information helpful for the students to learn from this course and furthermore does not help with the exams at all. I feel like I have lost knowledge sitting in each of her classes. She also picks and chooses which cultural pieces of art to focus on and respect. I have considered switching majors because of how much I dread this course and that I would rather go through the tedious and strenuous process of switching my major and providing a statement in front of the board than finish out this course with this professor. The exams are also not like standard art history exams and do not test studying skills or knowledge. Even the TAs were confused when the exam came out because it was the worst possible scenario she could've given because she just hates all the students. DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE WITH HER

Thought this would be a fun class. It was interesting, but it was NOT easy. Ended up with an A- in this class. If you're not an art history major and want to take this class just for fun, think twice. I heard a lot of good things about this class, but it was not as fun as I expected.

Professor Higonnet was a great professor! I preferred her lecturer style over that of professor Bryda who teaches part one of the Intro Art History classes (in case you are deciding whether to take part one or two). Although at times she can be a bit slow and stumble on her words, she provides amazing insights into the works of art and her lectures are very engaging. Her exams are also much easier than that of Professor Bryda's. The workload for the class is very minimal and most the readings are not necessary (really depends on your TA). There are two mandatory visits to MET which are really fun and you also have to go on your own for the papers. These MET visits merge class material beautifully with in-person experiences with works of art. Overall this I highly recommend this class and professor Higonnet. However, make sure you choose a good TA, because they will make or break your performance in this class. I received an A in part one of intro to art history but that same quality of work earned mostly Bs with a different TA in this class.

Anne Higonnet is the best professor I have so far had at Columbia. As a lecturer, she is engaging, incredibly knowledgeable, passionate and does her best to involve every student in the class in the discussion. Her lectures are built around input and debate from the students rather than her simply speaking at the class, and she gives a sense of really appreciating what everybody has to say. As a person, she is an absolute gem. Prof. Higonnet is both personable, kind and an absolute badass. Her outfits are consistently very cool and she interacts with students in a way that makes you feel relaxed, but also very much in awe of her. The combination of her extensive expertise and welcoming, funny personality meant that I always wanted to do better in her class, and found myself working very hard to impress her and do well. Essentially, I don't have a single bad thing to say. I took her class over the Summer in Paris and found it to be the most rewarding experience I've had at Columbia. Whilst other classes and professors where beginning to annoy me with their approach to education, ArtHum with her was a very welcome breath of fresh air.

Professor Higgonet is an amazing lecturer. Her lectures are engaging and interesting and always perfectly prepared for the class. I'm an art history major, and I thought this was one of the easiest Art History classes I've taken. Yes, you have to memorize slides but really a low number comparatively. I took this class and never had a conversation or interaction with Professor Higgonet. I liked my TA and they are really the ones there to interact with students. She doesn't take attendance, doesn't care if you spend the entire class on your laptop on fb, but its worth your while to go to class and pay attention.

I had to review in response to what someone had said about this class being a grade ruiner. While Professor Higonnet does expect a lot of slide memorization for the midterm and final, she tells you exactly what she's looking for. Really, art history has to have a lot of memorization and slides. It's not her fault. Aside from that, I agree that she is a good lecturer, but sometimes the guest lecturers are a little boring. I didn't attend class/discussion section enough so I deserved my B+. Basically, go to class and you'll be surprised at what you remember, when it comes down to studying or taking the exams. Take a laptop with you, since she posts the powerpoint slides sometimes only minutes before class is due to begin.

I want to write a review for Professor Higonnet because I believe the dissenting opinion needs to be expressed. I did not like her as a professor at all. She is so aloof and AWKWARD in office hours. Seriously. It's the most awkward office hours you'll ever go to. She also hesistates to give any feedback, ever. I'm not bitter -- in fact I did well in her class, but it's almost frustrating to have someone so knowledgable, but so unreachable. (literally and figuratively). The email comment is no joke. She absolutely ignores her emails. What the hell is up with that?!

First the good side. Prof. Higonnet was knowledgeable, well organized and articulate. She was in the process of writing a book on museums, so this course was a good adjunct of her. She is friendly and encourages class discussion to a limited degree. Prof. Higonnet made good use of Courseworks to post her syllabus and copies of the various slides used during the course. Now, the less good. The readings were well chosen and quite heavy. Unfortunately, never were any of the readings discussed or addressed. They just seemed to be an appendage unrelated to her lectures and had little or no effect on the course grade. As others have noted, SHE DOES NOT ANSWER E-MAILS, even to clarify her syllabus. There were a number of museum visits connected with the course, but her presentations there seemed superficial; she herself did not show up to a few of he museums because she had not received permission, in some case, to lecture there. Overall, the course suffered from indigestion since she seemed to discuss every museum under the sun superficially while not going into any depth about the truly important institutions. Perhaps, she was only doing the first draft of her book. The final exam was "cancelled" and the course grade depended on a few short and one longer take home papers. This does not mean that her grading was "easy". A number of students have commented on her clothing and how we…

I would definitly agree with the last review--Higonnet is awesome! This is my first art history class and I am so sad I am graduating, because if presented with the chance, I would have definitly taken more classes with her. Not only is she stylish and supremely cool, she is well spoken, funny, and knows her stuff! I made it a point to get to class early to get a good seat (and beware--lots of 'Lifelong Learners" show up to this one!) and rarely missed a class just because I wanted to hear what Higonnet had to say (and what she was wearing).

I took this class because I think that a basic knowledge in art history is an important aspect of functioning as an intellectual person. That said, this class gave me nothing. I went to class a few times in the beginning of the semester but stopped showing up shortly thereafter. The class was boring with most students mindlessly writing down every word Higonnet said (which was seemed thoughtless to me). There was nothing about the class that was at all worth showing up for. It was not at all stimulating and seemed to be a complete waste of time. If you want a class where you can spend an hour and 15 minutes hearing Higonnet speak in flowery, insubstantial, repetitive phrases...go for it. I wouldn't exactly recommend wasting your tuition money on that. The class wasn't all bad though. The artworks chosen were interesting and that made it fun studying for the midterm and final. It's a 4 credit class that is an easy A so that's also nice if you need a GPA boost.My TA also happened to be incredible and she made the class 10000000% more thought provoking as did the museum trips. All in all, everything but the lecture was pretty enjoyable. But you can probably gain just as much by making friends with the Art History PHD students in Avery and a trip to the Met.