Eric Gamalinda

Asian American cinema, history. Professor will only lecture for the first three lectures and the rest of the class is student presentations. Only once a week, a bit longer of a class so at times I was tired but overall chill class, good discussion, would definitely recommend for a Global Core. I honestly learned a lot and the professor is super nice.

Each week, Professor Gamalinda assigns a 1-2 hour film to watch before the class' weekly 1 hour and 50-minute meeting. Either Professor Gamalinda or a group presents on the assigned movie for 30 minutes and the remainder of the class is allocated to discussion. After class is over, Professor Gamalinda assigns a 300-word response due by end of the weekend. He is so kind that he consistently ends class 20 minutes early to allow students to get a head start and even finish their response paper before class is over. This class is truly a hidden gem. It is a 4-credit global core that meets for 90 minutes once per week. There is no easier class to fulfill the global core requirement and if you have the option to take this class, sign up immediately, you will not regret it.

Prof. Gamalinda's class is 80% watching videos/listening to inane discussion/trying not to fall asleep and 20% self-investigation of what seem to be interesting texts. The reading selections run the gamut, from gay Indian poets to angry Chinese/Korean/Japanese writers. As a person who usually does well in these types of classes, I found the papers to be graded rather harshly--maybe our TA, Jason, finally realized that the lack of teaching in the classroom translated to a lack of integration in written work. In other words, I feel like Prof. Gamalinda does not teach at all--what the other reviewers said about classes being lead by student discussion groups is absolutely true. While this may be a useful pedagogical tool in theory, this probably ranks up there with Da Vinci's flying machine--probably a useful invention but in reality a complete and utter failure. That being said, if you usually do well in English classes, you'll probably do well in this class. If you want a slacker class and get a decent grade--B/B+, take this class. This class is DEFINITELY not an easy A.

Prof seems like a nice guy, very understanding and a really interesting course if you're into film. Doesn't seem like a harsh grader & you can get by most weeks without doing readings/watching the assigned films. First few weeks are lectures before group presentations are assigned for the rest of the semester.

Professor Gamalinda is a very nice man who can not teach. He started off the class going through slides rapid-fire, and when one student asked if these slides would be uploaded on Courseworks, Gamalinda said no because he's trying to get them published? Seriously? Then don't go through them so quickly. He's also very vague in teaching us critical ideas such as racialization versus racial formation. Although he tried many times to see if we understood the difference, he is never effective. Gamalinda really also could have given us more grades during the semester so that we have some sort of idea as to how we're doing during the semester. The final paper feels like it's our entire grade, but he is unwilling to look at drafts before the submission date. Perhaps it's because he's an adjunct professor, and so he's disconnected to Columbia (he didn't even know what the tree lighting ceremony was), but this is a four credit class that won't help your gpa. Don't take it.

I enjoyed Gamalinda's class. He picks interesting readings. I liked his teaching style and his poetic sensibility. However, I loathed going to class when the TA took over because she was the poster-child for pretentious English PhD students. At times, I appreciated her effort. It's sucks that the grading depends mostly on teh two papers due right around mid-terms and finals.

Easy A! Take this class for your Global Core. Prof. Gamalinda teaches the first 3 lectures, and the rest of the semester is group presentations, which is honestly really chill. This is such an easy A and the material discussed is also very interesting -- pertaining to Asian American diaspora, the immigrant experience, Model Minority Myth, history of Asian American cinema and its developments, etc. He took a lot of a backseat for this class, and you only present with your group once for the entire class.

Pros: Overall I would recommend this class because the movies we watched in Asian American Cinema were very interesting and gave a good idea of the evolution of Asian American film. The movies were very diverse in subject; the material itself was really enjoyable and I thought the movies and readings were definitely worth the time. The class didn't really cover intense film theory (although that could be seen as a pro or a con depending on what you're looking for). It really focused more on ethnic studies and the beginning of the class was really centered around the history of Asians in America in general. The discussions were pretty interesting for the most part and I felt that the class taught you how to think critically about film in general. You should make an effort to say something every time because a lot of the grade is participation. The workload isn't bad because it's all just watching movies and reading articles for a 2 hour class that only meets once a week. Cons: In my humble opinion, Professor Gamalinda wasn't very good at giving the students feedback. He's very knowledgable about Asian American cinema and film in general, and clearly has a lot of interesting things to say, but he was pretty vague in explaining concepts (racialization vs. racial formation??). Taking a class for the love of learning is all nice and good but realistically it would be nice to know h…

I only took this class because I thought it would be an easy A. The class was easy but not everyone got As. (I think the majority got Bs and B+) The only two books that were important in Professor GamalindaÂ’s class are America in the Heart and The English Patient. DonÂ’t ask how the last book fits into this course but itÂ’s important. I think it would be wise to get the syllabus from last semester and look at the essay question he assigned for each book, since a large portion of your grade comes from the two essays. Work out the papers way in advance if you want a good grade. I really donÂ’t think anyone got lower than a B in the class but I didnÂ’t know too many people who walked away with As. I think Professor Gamalinda didnÂ’t do the grading and it was our TA. She was harsh with the grades and she was very specific with what she wanted in our papers. I agree with the last review that this is a good slacker class, but if you want A in this class you have to write two excellent papers. Workload: Extremely light its ridiculous. A story or a poem for class each time we meet. One week off from class to read each of the novels. Saw around two movies (“Finding Chan” and I forgot the other one). In the beginning of the semester he split us into groups to discuss poems. So you were left on your own to decipher itÂ’s meaning, which usually lead to nowhere. DonÂ’t expect too much f…

Readings and films were very relevant and workload very fair. 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Fall 2024 Course: CSERUN3922_001_2024_3-RACE&REPRESENTATIONINASIANAMERCINEMA : CSERUN3922_001_2024_3 - RACE&REPRESENTATION IN ASIAN AMER CINEMA Instructor: Mario Eric Gamalinda