James Helgeson

I don't know. Helgeson clearly knows a lot, which is always handy I won't lie, but that does not mean he's a great professor. At least not in this class. It's not his specialty and I got the sense he was just fulfilling departmental duties while teaching it. Since it is an introduction to French literature since 1800, I expect not to be coddled per se, but logically directed through the important points of the texts. This did not happen. It was more like sit down, shut up, and wait while Helgeson seems to talk to himself about the odds and ends he has picked up about modern literature over the years. I think this sort of approach fosters a class where doing the reading is secondary. Wait, it did foster that class. Almost everyone showed up and talked about how much they didn't read before Helgeson walked through the door. I also never learned anything solid, like when I sat down to do the final I didn't know what I was expected to show that I had mastered. Very frustrating. In the end though, if you don't care about how you get through this survey course, then I guess he would be fine to take it with, but he's too lenient and nonchalant for my taste.

This class is only half-way through, but I wanted to write to say how much I'm enjoying it! OK- I'm realizing that my French isn't as good as I thought it was- but he has us translating Frank O'Hara poems and Quebecois slang into English which can be hard. It also kicks ass to always be excited about the next text we'll tackle. Professor Helgeson is really approachable, speaks a beautiful French and gives an intellectual spin to an exercise that I thought would be a no-brainer. Who thought you'd actually learn about ideas in a translation class?

Like everyone else says, this guy is amazing. I am really bummed out that he only taught us for one semester, I would really have liked to have had him all year (but then again, I like my new prof too, so I guess I'm lucky). Anyway, he's brilliant, came to class well prepared, pretty fair on the marking, he actually had good dress sense (unlike 80% of my other profs) , and more important than anything, made us love obscure Greek and Latin writing. Not everyone can do that.

I disagree with the previous review of Helgeson, but perhaps because I was one of the favorites. I enjoy music theory, I have a background in this subject, and the first few weeks of the class were frustrating for me because they were rehashing material I'd already known. Helgeson leapt ahead after that, but really stuck to some basic ideas that should have cemented after awhile. I thought he did well, but I do agree that knowing some theory before going in is clutch.

James Helgeson is the ABSOLUTE BEST Prof I've had at Columbia. He's a Renaissance scholar and he you can tell just how much he loves his work when he talks about music and poetry. He is gentle and soft- spoken in class: a relief after so many type A New Yorkers. If you have no head for theory, you might find him challenging: he likes to talk about subjects like Philosophy of Mind and Hermaneutics. His French is beautiful fluent Parisian French- don't think he will compromise by talking to his students like children as some language teachers do. Oh, yeah- he's a fabulous dresser and apparently works informally as a consultant for GQ magazine!

I found it very difficulut to understand Professor Helgeson. His accent is a little over the top and he doesn't articulate very well. Helgeson is not a dynamic lecturer, but he does have a great interest in the material as well as a strong command of it. He is pretty easy-going and flexible with deadlines, always willing to change things around to convenience everyone. And apparently never doing the reading or paying attention doesn't matter; I got an A.

Prof Hegleson is awesome. Although sometimes there isn't so much class participation, he can talk for hours on any book or poem. He's a captivating talker and knows more about the books than anyone I've met at Columbia. He ties in Lit Hum books and Music Hum references. It really was a great class. He's a fair grader and always willing to help. Every time I came to class, Prof Hegleson showed me more about the literature than I could have ever gleaned on my own. Great class. I definitely recommend it.

lots of daily assignments that are HARD, but are kicking my French into shape.

Being in Prof. Helgeson's class was awesome. Discussions were friendly and productive. He oozes hip. I would say the most important thing was that he really taught us to flinch at cliches. Like when we tried to be like "this metaphor stands for this thing, and that's the meaning of that" in this class, he would just have this impassive look like "you barbarian." I think it was like a reflex. I think it made us be a lot more truthful in our discussions. We learned about hermeneutics, which is a thing Prof. Helgeson likes a lot. We learned the words outis and metis. It was good. Some classes were more rewarding than others, just sit tight. The wow- exciting factor was kind of dependent on participation (on everyone's having stayed up the night before to do the papers). no pressure though. It really sucks that you have to know french to take his other classes, so take this one.

This guy is NOT GOOD. This was his first time teaching Music Humanities and though he knows a lot of music theory and is a very talented piano player, he knows NOTHING about TEACHING music/music theory/music history. The class became meaningless because he would spend an ENTIRE class period replaying a 14 minute song over and over again trying to get us to hear the chord inversions and identify tonality even though he never taught us any of that. His class was theory-intensive and not interesting by any stretch of the imagination. To top it off, he is always late and in my opinion he plays favorites. I really recommend finding a different section if you can, unless you LOVE theory and don't want to learn anything about music in a social context.