Christian Rostboll

I have had 2 experiences with professors here that were pretty much perfect, and Rostboll is one of them....he was a great lecturer and totally kept my attention, while being very natural and at ease in his lecturing style (unlike some professors who get your attention becuase they are theatrical or weird or just plain crazy). His speaking demeanor is a nice balance between commanding and engaging on one hand, and down to earth and unintimidating on the other--something few profressors achieve. He is truly interested in what students say, and really respectful and encouraging of everyone's opinions. Also he has a way of explaining things so that they ALWAYS make sense.....even really tough readings like Hegel are understandable when clarified by him. He places theories in broader contexts, both within history and within philosophy. and he's also great at stepping back and assessing the validity of ideas, relating them to other schools of thought, picking apart contradictions within theories, pointing out their failures, and callign attention to similarities and influences with other theories. On top of all this, he is approachable, patient, and nice, not the least bit arrogant. He is super intelligent and has no obvious personality problems. If you get the chance to take a class with him, definitely do it.

Christian is a very good professor. Great actually. He knows the material inside and out (and has that unique ability among CC professors to be able to explain it to you clearly and concisely - really, anything about it). He has achieved the perfect balance between lecture and discussion in the classroom - you felt like you got an excellent picture of the book's main points, and were able to discuss them with just enough time that discussion never really went off topic. The hardest part about this class is that its difficult to slack off and do well. You earn basically what you put into it. Admittedly, I never read the entire book (unless I had to write a paper about them, but even this was difficult as paper topics often involved 2 books), and in the past was able to rely on the midterm and final to bring up my grade since my class participation was lacking. This didn't work out so much in this class, since papers and class participation together made up a whopping 70% of your grade. To do well though,that means, you really have to put in the effort. Grading is therefore the fairest of any class I've been in. Overall, although he can be a little intimidating occasionally, he is a great CC professor. Just don't expect an easy A, and know that you'll basically get out of it what you put in.

The readings are reasonable--1 longer paper for grads. 2 short papers and 1 longer one for underdrads.

CC was a very interesting experience with Christian. I had no idea what to expect from someone from Denmark who was a visiting professor here. I ended up getting more than I bargained for. Firstly, Christian new his shit cold so it was impossible to BS in his class. I tried writing papers that looked really good and were filled with decent (not amazing) arguments and he was the first professor (out of 2 semester of Lit Hum, 1 semester of CC) to actually read and criticize them. So papers are graded a bit harshly, but the midterm (10%) and final (20%) were fairly straightforward. If you really want to learn the texts, then just the read the material for each class and try to write good quality papers; that'll ensure that you also get an "A"

Even though Christian is probably not teaching CC anymore, I feel like I must post a review on CULPA. CC was my favorite class sophomore year and Christian Rostboll was probably the reason why. He's flexible when it comes to assignments as well as interpretations of the text. He's also damn intelligent. The texts came alive, as did our class discussions. Probably one of the best teachers I have had. (By the way, 90% of our CC section returned Spring semester for a second helping of Christian)

Christian is really nice! His lecture is very well-prepared, well-structured, and truly informative. He is a bit inflexible, but he is not arrogant. His European style is elegant and a little imposing. He is not that apt in changing his opinion, but if he likes you at the beginning, he likes you forever.

To Christian's credit, he's a nice guy, willing to meet with you outside of class, cares about the class and returns papers promptly. Unfortunately, the he has a shallow (and EXTREMELY inflexible) take on the works that we read. In my opinion, he has an air of arrogance that he neither deserves nor has earned.

CC. A book a week, 3 4-7 page papers (15% each), straightforward midterm and final (10% and 20% respectively) and 25% class participation. Not easy, but not hard.

Weekly postings, 3 papers (15% each), midterm, final, class participation is like 25%