Joseph Howley

How to use crucial research tools and tricks to expedite the research process

I mean don't write a thesis if you don't want. 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Spring 2021 Course: LATNUN3998_003_2021_1-SUPERVISEDRSRCHINLATINLIT : LATNUN3998_003_2021_1 - SUPERVISED RSRCH IN LATIN LIT Instructor: Katharina Volk

Pretty reasonable - not too many graded assignments but heavy on reading (but that's every Lit Hum). Have to upload a notebook/paragraph on each reading that's ungraded. ~3 papers per semester, 1 of which is creative, midterm, and final.

Honestly the kindest, most engaging, obviously intelligent (his conversational syntax and word choice sounds like it's a speech) and subtly dad-like Professor. You can tell he genuinely cares about what he's teaching and has invested in making sure his students understand. He always contextualizes the pieces for the modern reader and what their implications are. Very very socially conscious, knowledgable about the classics, and overall quirky. Would win pub trivia. Take him!!!

Average. Just the basic Lit Hum reading and then he makes you do a "commonplace book." Basically you just pick an excerpt from the reading before each class and write a paragraph about anything about it which is super easy

TAKE HIM!!! He has a Gold Nugget and for a reason. Amazing Professor, so kind, very interesting. He truly cared about his students and their learning. He is a fair grader in terms of your essays, but for your overall grade, he is very generous. Lord knows I did not deserve the grade I got, but grateful for it. He's so wonderful and really wants you to learn the material. I made the disastrous mistake of switching from his class to another so I could take a course his class conflicted with, but I regret that decision so much. He's also very approachable and understanding and knows how to keep you engaged. TAKE HIM. TAKE HIM. TAKE HIM. I cannot emphasize this enough. Best prof you will ever have.

commonplacebook (short analysis of passage excerpts of your choice for every class), one midterm, one 5-6 page paper, one 7-8 page paper, a final, an optional MET tour, extra credit bacchae play watching

Professor Howley really is the best professor one can ask for. He is a very very very nice person, someone who always genuinely cares about his students. He's a classics professor with a specialisation in Roman literature, so he can actually connect Latin/Greeks words and Roman history with what we are reading. When the class went to the MET together we all saw how obsessed he is with his stuffs. His class is truly engaging, in some magical way everyone actively participates. There's not a sense of dullness in his class at all, never. Professor Howley has a ton of personal charm, it's never boring to talk to him/be in his class. He really knows his stuffs but never appears to be condescending or lecturing. Also, he's very loose with extensions, if you ask, there's no way he won't give you a lot more time to write as long as you tell him what happened. He also is a very fair grader, mostly people get A- on papers and same with midterm, but he ends up giving higher final grades. Not that he's just laid back, but he really knows how to encourage students and make sure they are rigorously trained at the same time. He's strict when he needs to. If you get him as your lit hum professor I'm impressed by how lucky you are. Or if you are taking a classics class, I strongly recommend you take it with him. He's a perfect professor in every sense, whether you are just starting to get into…

Refer to below Be on the lookout for extra credit here and there!

I wholeheartedly I agree with the brilliant reviews given below me for Professor Howley with a number of additional comments. Whether it was using frequently the resources on the Core website or the Batskolnikov comics or the video game Dante, I loved the way he encourages students to think outside of the box when it comes to literature as he often connects the works to other artistic mediums in a very entertaining and interesting manner. Moreover, he does an outstanding job, especially with the Roman-Greek works, in placing his students in the adequate context and thus strengthening the cohesiveness of the Core narrative. For instance, his introduction to Thucydides and Herotodus proved to be essential for understanding the zeitgeist these works represented and made the readings much less fragmented than they seem. I also loved the concise but surprisingly informative account he gave of Roman history just before we tackled the Aeneid. Above all, I would like to echo some of the comments on how easily approachable and relatable Professor Howley is, especially when it comes to small digressions about video games and college life :)