Jeremy Dauber

To be clear, this class was amazing, but it was amazing in spite of Professor Dauber. Eleanor Johnson was the other professor, and she clearly did all the heavy lifting for this course. All the best syllabus picks, all the most interesting lectures, anything that triggered more student engagement -- it was all her. Professor Dauber, on the other hand, clearly *likes* horror lit, but has no idea how to lecture on it. He rambles on and on about the "historical context" of whatever unreasonably lengthy reading he had assigned for that week only to never actually get to the reading itself. Sometimes, he literally is straight up wrong about details of the reading. I think contextualizing the reading is good and important, but there are ways to do it that are respectful of students' work (i.e. actually tying the context into the reading itself) and Professor Johnson did a great job of that, so I honestly don't know why it was so hard for him. He was also quite condescending to students who disagreed with him (even when it was subjective or when they were right). The collective relief and joy when it was a day Professor Johnson lectured was palpable, and I think that says everything.

What to say about Jeremy Dauber? From the moment we started class, I fell in love with Yiddish literature and Dauber's teaching methodology. I never had any exposure to Yiddish literature prior to this class, and I was one of two undergraduates in a graduate level class. I read prior reviews of Jeremy Dauber prior to taking him for this seminar, and while I cannot speak to his other classes, I believe that Dauber is best in a small setting like a seminar. To the class itself, it was EXTREMELY small with 6 total students (4 graduate, 2 undergraduate) and I believe this allowed for all parties to shine. I was able to ask (and highly encouraged) to ask questions and really dig into the material. Furthermore, while I myself felt inadequate to speak on literature devices and very technical aspects of the author and works, I was not made to feel inadequate or that my opinion did not matter. In fact, the graduate students, as well as Dauber, made me feel extremely welcome to voice any questions or opinions that I had in the text, even if it was not necessarily aligned with the majority of the class. Overall, I felt that the earlier reviews do not paint an accurate picture of Jeremy Dauber, the classes he teaches, or his attitude and analysis of the works that are studied. If I was not graduating this year, I would definitely take another class with Jeremy Dauber. If you put the effor…

I was really excited going into this class—I'm a huge fan of graphic novels and think it's important that they be viewed as serious literature. This class left such a bad taste in my mouth, though. This class is not an engaging look at the history of graphic novels or a study of the development of the medium. You are literally just given a list of graphic novels on the syllabus to read and the lectures are a string of random anecdotes about them. There is a lot of breadth, but absolutely no depth. All of the assignments are vague and have nothing to do with the lectures, and are just given for the sake of having assignments. They try to run the lecture like a seminar, and what happens is that the same five people talk the whole class and the other students are given nothing to work with. There is also literally a "race week" and a "gender week" and the way the professors approached these subjects is stale and antiquated. What made the entire experience worse, though, was that the professors were not open at all to criticism. They wanted our feedback the last day, but spent the whole time justifying their decisions instead of considering the fact that their refusing to plan their lectures or write assignments comes off as lazy and disrespectful of our time. They also told us they didn't want to approach the texts from critical perspectives since they wanted to "present a buffet…

I would like to preface the following review by telling you (the reader) that this is the first Culpa review I have ever written - oblige me as a I shower compliments on an individual who doesn't need the adoration but certainly deserves it. Firstly, Jeremy Dauber is brilliant - Harvard grad, Rhodes Scholar, author, etc. And while you may find comparable credentials with a number of tenured Columbia professors in other classes, I don't think their genius is presented as palpably in speech and general discourse as it is with Jeremy Dauber. Dauber knows just about everything there is to know about Jewish humor, and upon responding to any comments you make or questions you ask you will often find yourself blown away that you have a professor that speaks with a stream of consciousness (if you haven't caught on yet, the guy is freakin' awesome). I specifically use the word 'Jewish,' and not "Yiddish," because this class is a Jewish literature/humor class; save about three works (Tevye the Dairyman, The Two Kuni-Lemels and The Little Man), all of the books, stories and excerpts we read related to Jewish humor: for example, Genesis, The Book of Esther/Jonah, Portnoy's Complaint and even episodes of Seinfeld/Curb Your Enthusiasm. If you have even the slightest interest in Judaism, humor or both, I highly recommend you take this class. Jeremy Dauber is incredibly kind, intelligent, wit…

I enjoyed this class and really like Jeremy Dauber. I mean, this class is Humor in Jewish literature (and media)-that means reading Shalom Aleichem, Philip Roth, and watching Seinfeld, Mel Brooks, and Wood Allen! The main downside is that in some sense it can be too easy and cause people to lack motivation. Because people who pass/fail the class get the assignment lengths cut in half, most people (including myself) lacked motivation and often did not come to class. And since all the assignments are papers, you can really come to just a few classes and do fine. Still, I like Dauber-he's really funny, friendly, and smart-and I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys humor. (Which I hope is everyone)

At first, Professor Dauber's Lit Hum class may seem a bit intimidating. He added three books to they syllabus, while taking a few classes off for Jewish holidays, AND assigns 5 short papers instead of the 2-4 longer ones that most classes get. That said, his class is great and no one should hesitate to take it. He never puts anyone on the spot, trying to get them to participate, and somehow always manages to link what we're reading to some pop culture reference. The reading schedule does seem to be a bit fast, though, so it is understandable to not finish every book. Since he assigns his papers in a way taht you can write them on any five books that you'd like, all you really need to do is make sure you read 5 books all the way through. He grades really easily on exams, which I think makes up for his slightly harsher grading on the papers.

Jeremy is a very good proffesor. He is clearly very knowlegable, he is very personable, he loves his subject, and he cares about his students. He also has a sense of humor and keeps the class entertained. THe class is relaxed and fun, and is good for anyone who wants a quick background in major Yiddish works.

Short paper, take-home midterm, final paper. 4-5 short stories or a book for each class (books generally assigned over the weekend). Seems like Johnson did the heavy lifting for building the course structure and grading.

-A one page critical analysis -A two page journal entry -A 5 page close reading -A 15-20 pages research paper You are give no clear directions for these assignments.

Absolutely superb. Phenomenal. A joy. I could go on kvelling forever. Professor Dauber is brilliant--like, really brilliant--and masterful at using the material, which, unsurprisingly, is the most entertaining I've ever encountered, to reveal points well worth making. And even if he weren't as good (and just remarkably pleasant, too) as he is, the course material would make the class more than worthwhile: the Marx Brothers, Larry David/Seinfeld, Sid Caesar, Sholom Aleichem, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks...the list goes on. His lecture on Kafka is especially good; you never knew he was so funny.