Irina Oryshkevich

Irina is a wonderful person, and she's a very engaging lecturer. She has a lot of interesting stories and nuances to share about the art we look at. In addition, her guided tour at the Met was incredible. The one downside to this section is that her grading, especially on the exams, can be a bit harsh. However, she really renewed my interest in art, and I want to take more art history classes in the future.

TAKE THE CLASS WITH IRINA! You will not regret it. She is engaging, kind, sweet, and such an incredible professor. She is the reason I am considering an Art History major. I've felt so inspired by her and how much she cares about her classes. I also took Art Hum with and she was incredible again. I cannot tell you enough how awesome she is! If you get the opportunity take her class! Try to get to know her too!

Irina was amazing! I recall the first day of class she casually mentioned that she's taught Art Hum more than anyone at Columbia, and it truly shows. She is so knowledgeable, so helpful, and she really makes an effort to get to know you personally. I was dreading Art Hum because I thought it would suck, but she made it one of my most enjoyable classes at Columbia. I always wanted to go to class and the periods flew by because they were so good. We went to the Met with her, and she gave us a tour. She's the best tour guide I've ever had. One time she had to cancel class because a guy committed suicide on the 1 train that day and it was too disturbing.

Irina is a fantastic and interesting professor. She truly knows her stuff. The thing that is so amazing is that you can ask her about the art, geography, monarchy, life styles, Christianity, ANYTHING related to that period of time, and she will know the answer. I loved the class and found it to be the perfect foundation for a medieval art class. The work is not gruesome, and she will look over your essay before it's due. I highly recommend her. Plus, she's a lovely person and doesn't mind spending time with students for extra TLC to review material.

Irina is a good lecturer - she can deliver the materials well. THe class discussions were nice. HOWEVER, she is a tough grader, and the class can be a bit disorganized because there is no summary of the analysis for each artwork. In short, you can never know what she really wants in an essay. Spent a lot of time writing my essays but still couldn't get good grades. If you can b.s. your way through class, I think you will fit her class nicely. If not, maybe try another one with easier grading. If this is a P/F class, I would defo take it with Irina because the lectures are interesting

Very straightforward, readings, exams (lots of studying), papers. Irina does not throw anything your way that you weren't prepared for.

Finding out you got Irina as your Art Hum professor is like winning the lottery, so congratulations if this is you! I am a math major who has little interest in art coming in and this was by far my most enjoyable class this semester. I've never taken an art history class before so the whole lights-off / lecture-slides-on style was a trip and I loved it. I thought her lectures were really interesting as were the class discussions. As some previous reviewer mentioned, she spins every student comment into a useful contribution. This is great positive reinforcement, and it made everyone unafraid to speak up. On top of that she's just a really friendly and positive person. If there were an optional Art Hum II that she taught, I'd take it in a heartbeat. I can't compare the workload to other Art Hum profs; it seems most Art Hum classes are pretty light in workload anyway. But it certainly felt very light in comparison to the average class. In the first few weeks she assigned readings and would ask about them in class. But after that she really didn't assign any readings. Before the exams she emails us a list of the specific readings to know (usually around 7 or so) and what to know from them. So aside from the first few weeks, you don't have to do any readings until right before the exams, and even those were usually short and straightforward. There were 4 essays, of which you could…

Irina is great. She is a fantastic teacher, never dull and always willing to hear comments from the class (even if they were a little dumb.) She is incredibly understanding about almost everything and rarely has a problem with handing in assignments a few days late if you let her know. She is very intelligent and well-spoken. I left every class feeling really good about what I just learned and because of her great teaching style I really remembered everything she said - which means studying for her very fair midterm and final won't be difficult. Overall, Irina will be a great Art Hum teacher and definitely stick with her.

Professor Oryshkevich is truly a gem. Brillant is all I can say. After having spent some time at Columbia, I've learnt the distinction between someone who knows their stuff as opposed to someone who can actually teach. Professor Oryshkevich is both. What I find impressive is that when she asks a question and if the answer isn't what she is looking for, she is able to link the 'wrong' answer to the 'correct' answer. That has a profound impact, since it allows you to remember more vividly on what the material is about. I wouldn't say she is a lenient professor but she gives you chances to make up for your grade should you bomb any of the exams/essays. An A in this class is not easy. Be prepared to work your ass off, especially with the essays. An extremely friendly professor who will make the extra effort to help you outside her office hours. To me at least, your grade accurately reflects how much effort you put into the course.

I'm going to have to emphatically disagree with the previous review. Ms. Oryshkevich is actually a pretty good professor, who teaches an all-around decent class, and she's pretty friendly to boot. She ensures that class discussion proceeds at a slow but regular pace. Those who are intelligent but uneducated in art will probably find that she goes a little too slowly or is a little to easy on the student but that the class is nonetheless a solid introduction. Those who are well versed in the discipline, though, might have reason to complain that it is all just too easy.