Karen Benezra

Even split with grading: 20% participation/essay 1/essay 2/essay 3/final paper. Assignments ranged from 2-3 pages, 3-4 pages, 4-5 pages, and finally 6-8 pages. So all in all the writing is not very long, but the depth of analysis and understanding expected is extremely high. It's very obvious if you don't participate, even though at times she makes it impossible to do so.

This was a horrendous course -- avoid Benezra like the plague. I signed up for two of Benzra's class in one semester in what might have been one of the greatest academic mistakes of my career. She assumes immediately that everyone in the class is an expert on Marxist theory and the political history of Latin America, which makes her lectures impossible to follow and her long, vague explanations incomprehensible. Class was a mix of people not having done/completely not understanding what was sometimes long, dense philosophical readings in Spanish and her failing entirely at explaining them or getting lost on some tangential theory of hers that wasn't related to the readings whatsoever. She was by no means any more helpful in her office hours. She graded quite harshly, and in an attempt to improve, you would go speak to her and talk about your future paper and try and get a handle on what she wanted. Even when walking away with a bulletpoint list of a step-by-step of what she wanted, she still wasn't satisfied with the final product and grades stayed rather static the entire semester. After spending years in the department and having a pretty good run, I was extremely disappointed with my encounter with Benezra -- LAIC could do so much better. Whatever you do, don't take her classes. There are much better professors in the department that are actually worth your time.

Agreeing with the two reviews below mine for sure. All in all I had a pleasant experience with Karen, enough so to stay in her section for two semesters. She has the following way of dissecting texts: she offers up an idea which initially sounds extremely confusing, yet intriguing enough to keep you listening, then builds on the idea throughout class, molding it in different ways according to other thoughts the class pitches in, until finally it starts to emerge with clarity and you find yourself with a solid grasp on the text. You aren't quite sure how you got there, but you're there. There are definitely times when the class never quite reaches this moment of clarity. but luckily there was almost always some brave soul who would flat out ask "what exactly does this mean?" in which case Karen would eagerly try again and take another approach to explaining. That being said. there was never any question left unfulfilled. If you are into getting your facts hard and fast, this isn't the section to take. Personally, I found myself getting a lot out of the process approach we took-- tossing ideas around and around until we finally come to something gold. It encourages deeper thinking, which yes, is draining and annoying at times, but worth it in the long run, in my opinion. Something to note about Karen is that she feeds off the vibe of the class. I feel like our first semester cla…

Very manageable. Reading is often < 50 pages per class, very rarely does it exceed that amount. First semester had two 5-6 page essays (40%) and 2 page response papers (20%). Prompts are given. Final and midterm were 10% each. Participation was 20%. Second semester had one 2 page response (15%), a 4 page critical summary (15%) and a 6 page essay (30%). Prompts are given. Final and midterm were 10% each. Participation was 20%. For essays, she values style, clarity and organization. If they are well-planned and well-written, you will likely do well. Midterm and essay consisted of five IDs, and two very short essays (200 words each). She is somewhat strict about word count and length, so be concise. Each was only 10% of the grade and noncumulative, so no need to worry. She gave the prompts for the essays in advance, and would select among those prompts for the exam. Like the review below, I recommend her section.

Like the review below, I had a good time in Karen’s CC section, so I will refrain from repeating it. I agree with most everything they said: she had a sort of humor that some people did not appreciate, or were less obvious in their appreciation of it. That being said, she was very careful to illuminate all the points of the reading that she thought were important, or that others thought were important. She did, however, seem to be a little too eager to solicit class participation. She would often stop what she was saying as someone raised their hand, and I would rather she finish what she had to say, then call on the person, so that they could form a discussion. That’s not to say we didn’t have discussions, but I felt that most of the comments from the students were often very, very discursive (one brought up his aunt’s experience in Macedonia under Tito, and another brought up a comment Karen made **literally** a month earlier), yet she often entertained these sorts of comments by replying to them. But, all in all, she is a good CC professor who will only improve as she teaches the course. She is more than fair when it comes to grading, and often praised the class for our successes on the exams and essays. She isn’t some amazing professor, definitely not gold-nugget material, though she is a solid professor and if you have her, I would not change. One thing to note is that Ka…

Comparatively light. 2 reading responses. 2 essays, 5-6 pages each. 1 midterm, 1 final. She gives you questions ahead of time so you can prepare, and picks two of the questions for the exams. I would recommend her section.

Overall, I had a decent experience in Professor Benezra's CC section. Karen Benezra is a very sharp, kind woman who is receptive to our ideas regarding the texts, even to the tangential ideas we sometimes asked about in class. She does tend to speak very quickly, but has improved on this a bit (I know because I was also in her section first semester). I acknowledge that the vast majority of the class moved out of her section after first semester, but this was due to a combination of her being a new professor, her exposition of the texts was very scholarly (sometimes not the best approach for an undergraduate, intro class), and the kind of students who simply wanted an easy ride through CC. The class typically opens with a question about how we found the reading, a short presentation from one of the students, and then a lecture style introduction of the text, with a few stopping points for discussion here and there. I think this is one of the few qualms I had with the class - sometimes the lecture style makes it difficult to interject with a comment, if you're one of the more quiet types, such as myself - but I realize that it's her first time teaching an undergraduate, seminar style class, so I expect that she will become one of the better CC profs in the future. She's very practical, so we usually get out of class 15-20 minutes early if she feels we've covered the material th…