Karen Van Dyck

Professor Karen is a warm and welcoming instructor who creates an inclusive atmosphere in class. She clearly cares about her students and puts effort into making the classroom feel like a space for open discussion. However, it's important to note that class participation is a major component of her grading criteria. If you're someone who feels comfortable speaking up during discussions, you may thrive in this class. That said, for students who are more reserved or experience anxiety speaking in class, this course can be especially challenging. Despite putting significant effort into my written work, earning A or A- grades on papers and doing well on the final, I felt that my overall grade was heavily impacted by my lower level of verbal participation. This felt discouraging, as the effort put into written assignments and study materials seemed to be undervalued in comparison to class discussions. The course load is also heavier than some other sections, with a midterm, two papers, impromptus, and a final exam. Overall, Professor Karen is a kind person and a thoughtful teacher, but students who are not confident in frequent in-class participation may find this class more difficult and should be prepared for that aspect of the grading.

Great professor, always approachable and definitely available outsde of class. The reading list was bearable, but having been in a class with a total of 4 students, I HAD to do read everything in order to participate. Since the class is small, all students got a chance to talk, and Karen encouraged us to give any and all input, even if she did/didn't agree. All in all, I learned about Greek American lit and would reccommend the class to anyone who is interested in the subject.

Mostly good stuff. Karen encouraged/required our attendance at Greek events inside and outside of Columbia that always proved interesting. The atmosphere inside class was warm and friendly. Skits and conversation drills were pretty common and painless. The culture discussions were usually interesting, as they were based on a book that Karen herself co-authored. My only gripe is that some grammar rules were a little shaky, and vocabulary was not at all stressed. Overall, a lot of fun.

First, she is a very nice lady and a very good teacher with an impressive background. She is very knowledgeable of the information needed for each text. However, her grading is COMPLETELY, I mean, 100 PERCENT biased. For every assignment (Midterm, papers, final) I felt like my grade was already determined no matter how hard I worked on it. Being a humanities course, I understood that there was going to be some subjectivity. But with her, the grade for each assignment was a direct reflection of the quality of participation you brought to each class. My advice to those who are assigned to her section, participate as much as you can because that will then directly reflect your grade. I had a difficult time participating, but even though my paper's were reviewed by multiple different professionals and I studied with very intelligent people, the grades she gave me showed that she almost didn't care about what I put on paper. For example, for the first writing assignment (that was reviewed by multiple people), she gave me absolutely no feedback and all she put at the end of the paper was my awful grade and "Rewrite this" What was I honestly supposed to do with that? If you're not a big talker, I'd try to get out before you can. It will bring down your GPA. If you love talking and you can bring some relatively good content and THEN can can turn around and write it down for your assig…

Great professor. There is a weekly response due at each class, and it's pretty laid back. You MUST do the reading, especailly if the class is small, because Karen will randomly call on you to ask what you thought of the book/paper, whatever. Overall, good course.

Minimal. Study vocabulary on your own. Homeworks were short and didn't require much besides a dictionary. Tests required little studying.

Probably the easiest LitHum section in the world. Karen is a good teacher, and loves Greek literature, so she's is constantly teaching us about the Greek translation etc. Gave us some sweet hook-ups to Greek events across the city. We rarely had quizzes (and often we could do them together). Our midterm was easy. We only had 2 papers for the semester and that's it in terms of grading. She didn't prepare us that well for the final (bc you didn't have to read the books to get an A in the class) but a little studying helped me through.

Discussions for every text Have to make and present a study sheet for a text once a semester 2 papers 1 impromptu every class 1 midterm 1 final

2 papers (5 pages) Midterm Final Attend outside event (Ex. Greek play or something in NYC) And she also gives impromptu quizzes which she oddly never grades or gives us back (Idk how it fits into her grading percentages, but it probably doesn't matter because she's biased anyways)

Reading (that's semi-optional) 2 papers Attendance of two Greek plays / events in NYC + Columbia Midterm (which was easy) Final