Jenny Davidson

She's funny, smart, knows her stuff. Most classes are usually insightful. She always has high spirits and encourages participation in lecture. No laptops, no leaving to use the bathroom (seriously).

Take a seminar with Prof. Davidson! I really, really enjoyed this class -- Davidson is awesome and the syllabus was fun. Davidson is funny, kind, really understanding, etc., plus really smart and obviously knows her shit. She's kind of quirky in a fun way, very down to earth. I really liked the way she ran seminars -- she had the perfect blend of her own voice plus class discussion. One of my least favorite things about seminars is that sometimes they can become entirely student-run and you don't hear the professor's voice at all, which sucks because a lot of times you take a seminar with a really great/well-known/smart/etc. prof and then they don't say anything during class. The good news is this doesn't happen in this seminar! She doesn't really ever lecture, she will contextualize the text in the first 15 minutes or so of class if we're on a new text but she's really good at guiding discussion, asking good questions, and then sort of providing her own thoughts/in-class feedback throughout the discussion. Not sure I'm describing this properly but I think what I want to say is basically that she's good at being part of the discussion, instead of simply observing and calling on people and letting things sort of run their own course. The syllabus was really enjoyable. It's an 18th century class, and I didn't know what to expect since European is pretty wide-spanning, but I real…

Fabulous class, taught by a professor who genuinely loves her material and wants her students to appreciate it as much as she does. Even if you think Pamela, for all its literary significance, is not something you should actually bother to read, and you suspect you're not up to puzzling out Tristram Shandy, or whatever, just take the class. She didn't force us to slog through every last page of Pamela, and I found it surprisingly rewarding to examine it as a text as opposed to talking about it in the abstract as I have in other English classes. You don't have to read all of Tristram Shandy either, though hopefully you will want to, and she walked the class through some of the more abstruse passages. She takes the time to give us a full sense of historical context for these works, making the class very accessible. If you're already well-versed in European history, you'll just have to sit tight for a little while she explains who Bonnie Prince Charlie is, etc., but don't get too full of yourself, since you almost certainly won't understand every reference in the books on this syllabus, and you'll appreciate her explanations when you find yourself lost. She does a lot of interactive close reading in her lectures, and I would have preferred less of it, but I'm just one of those people who gets burnt out on close reading quickly and prefers overall critical reflection on a work. Th…

This was a mind-altering reading experience, and really, an incredible course. It seemed to draw amazing students to it, and discussions were lively. Professor Davidson knows so very, very much. I feel like I've read the best novel ever written in English. It surprised me that I was seldom bored during the 1,500 pages of this enormous book. My brain feels oddly... complete. I highly recommend the class; I haven't received any marks yet, so I can't speak to how it's graded... papers receive comments, but no check-plus or -minus or anything. Whatever grade I end up with, it was worth it. I don't say that very often.

Professor Davidson's strongest attribute is that she is a passionate, extremely knowledgeable scholar. Her lectures are fascinating by tying in historical developments with the reading material, along with anecdotes about 18th century life and literature. She focuses a lot on dissecting the nuances of sentences to figure out how they operate to produce a particular effect in the reader, which will hone your reading skills by the end of the semester. She's also really nice and cool, though pretty disorganized (she loses things and her comments were a bit last-minute). The only drawback to her style is she wanted to create class discussion during every class, which was predictably difficult in a 60-person lecture. The same people ended up speaking every class, and there were often lots of awkward pauses and gaps. But overall it was a good semester and I'd recommend her to any English major -- you'll learn a lot and form a good relationship.

Can I *BE* this lady when I grow up? Jenny Davidson will rock your world. She has an unbridled passion for the subject, and every lecture is engaging even if you weren't particularly engaged by the subject matter. She's funny, down to earth, and the coolest woman alive. She's also extraordinarily understanding, sweet, and flexible. Just email her, and I highly encourage you to stop by and just talk to her. Her teaching style is fluid and expressive, and she's incredibly intelligent. She is also just majorly cool, and writes book reviews for the Villiage Voice! Her lectures include a lot of quotations that she reads so even if you haven't read the material you won't be lost. The subject matter wasn't to my taste so I skipped a lot of the reading, but I sure did feel guilty about it since Davidson clearly loved it so much and wanted the class to as well.

While Prof. Davidson may be full of knowledge and conviction, and on top of it all an up and coming novelist, she doesn’t have much of a concept of class discussion. You’ll be doing postings to Courseworks every week about a completely random topic from the reading, and they’ll never be mentioned in class – wtf, just write a few questions that would impress a high school teacher trying to lecture about the Odyssey and you’ll be fine. But alas, you are not exonerated from the semester-long recount of everything she learned in her 10 years at Harvard and Yale. I think she’s a really smart person, and if that’s you’re style of learning, more power to you. I couldn’t take Prof. Davidson second semester because of a conflict, and my LitHum2 teacher was infinitely worse. After a while, she’ll run out of info to gun at you, and will put the pressure on the class to talk. Hopefully, a few people will have a bit of a crossfire, and that’ll be the class, but it’ll feel extremely weird if nobody in the room can find anything to talk about. One note: all you need for the bible discussions are a pillow and a blanket.

A lot about the breadth of academic writing styles and how to go about a long-form piece.

Somewhat heavy reading; you'll be asked to finish a novel in a week sometimes. 4 assignments that are graded based on check/check+/check-. 1 final paper (8-10)

We had a text a week generally speaking, or sometimes two weeks depending how long it was. Reading was manageable but by no means light. Four assignments throughout the semester, with guided topics for the first three, plus a final writing assignment. I think the first three were like 3-5 pages, and then the last one slightly longer, maybe 5-7 or 6-8. No grades on any of the assignments, just comments, which is sort of nerve-wracking but grading was pretty fair/standard for an English class. Pretty low stress class, I think really because Prof. Davidson is such a cool person.