Ashli White

Ms. White was a great CC teacher. She is very softspoken so sometimes it was easy to zone out in the class, but she is very intelligent, and capable of leading discussion well. The reading is no more extensive than any other CC section. While she is a tough grader initially, she does notice improvement and rewards it. She is also very eager to meet and talk during office horus, and provide guidance for any paper problems.

This was Prof. White's first time teaching this course (I think that she only recently received her PhD), which is neither here nor there because each and every lecture was a joy! She is a wonderfully organized thinker, fluid speaker (with hints of sarcasm in all the right places), and passionate historian. Reading list, for the most part, was right on. The one and only paper we had requires no outside research, but asks you to utilize key arguments from each of the books to support your thesis - not possible without having done the readings (for me, anyway). Midterm had ID's, final was just essays. Neither was too difficult. Attend lectures, do the readings - no big tricks here. Attend lectures and, oh, ATTEND LECTURES... I promise, she's worth it.

Professor White conducts her seminars with remarkable grace. She excels at identifying the most problematic aspects of the subjects we studied and can prompt a thorough discussion with a single well-chosen question. At times you might wish she would interrupt the discussion a bit more frequently to steer it away from unnecessary tangents, but more often you find that she incorporates what you thought was tangential and transforms it into insight. You'll come away from her course with a very solid understanding of the material and will probably find that your intellectual approach to history has improved as well.

Overall Ashli is a fairly nice professor. She teaches a very standard seminar style class. She certainly doesn't demand participation from anyone and she'll never ask any leading questions to get you to talk, but it's clear that she really appreciates those students who do speak up on their own. She requires that each student choose a day to be the "discussant," which means on that particular day you need to make sure you are well prepared. During the second half of class you summarize (for the rest of the class) what was talked about in the first half and then you ask a question about the literature that you'd like to explore deeper. It's really not that stressful, though. Ashli is a stickler about attendance and will follow-up with you via e-mail if you miss a class. She is also a pretty tough grader, although I did end up with a 'B' when I expected to get a 'C+'. Overall, Ashli's a pretty good choice for CC - don't be scared off be her frequent use of "big" words.

Professor White is an incredible lecturer. She is able to answer any question posed and provides essential and obscure but interesting details about early America. She prepares an outline which is distributed at the beginning of class, which includes a list of important figures and terms. The grading is very fair, and the paper served as an excellent preparation for the final. The reading assignments ranged from extremely interesting to pretty boring, but only two of ten would be considered the latter. This is an essential class for anyone interested in America prior to the Revolution.

Sparkling intellect. Prof. White guides discussions with clarity, insight, and creativity. A gem of a professor in terms of her ability to foster conversation. Selected an outstanding number of books for our investigation into Atlantic slavery. Extremely helpful in ofice hours. Changed the way I understand and relate to history. Felt intellectually and personally transformed by the research I did for my final paper. Highly recommended to anyone with interest in European history of Atlantic history.

For this level course, very reasonable: one paper, midterm and final.

midterm (4 ID/ 1 essay), final (2 essays), 8-10 page paper, weekly readings averaging over 200 pages