Kimuli Kasara

I absolutely loved Professor Kasara's Introduction to Comparative Politics Class. I have absolutely no idea why all of the other reviews were so negative toward her teaching of this class. She is extremely informed about the topic, her lectures are engaging and interesting, and I left the class with a much stronger understanding of the subject. She has very informative slides and posts them after every class, so you never have to worry about missing any core information. The workload was very manageable and exactly what I would expect for an Intro Poli-Sci class. The tests were not any more challenging than the class would merit. The TAs gave very informative feedback on tests and were more than happy to talk through any questions you had about the class. The tests all cover material that was extensively covered in the lecture. There is only one paper and it is over a very basic, core principle of the class. Professor Kasara was very generous with grades and even changed her entire grading scale when my class was doing worse than her previous classes had done in order to help improve our grades. I would highly highly recommend this class for everyone who is interested in the field of Political Science. I cannot wait to take more classes with Professor Kasara in the future.

Although Prof. Kasara is not a natural lecturer, I learned more in her class than I have in any other class at columbia. The course was incredibly challenging, but the readings and lectures were always interesting. Although at times throughout the course I felt very confused and overwhelmed, by the end of the semester I realized that I had begun to truly understand some of the most difficult and challenging political issues plaguing Africa. Prof. Kasara challenges you to think about complex and difficult issues. If you work your butt off you will get a lot out of the class.

She is simply a HORRIBLE lecturer. Horrible-- the worst I've ever had (by FAR). She closes her eyes the entire time that she speaks which is weird enough, but she also tends to stutter or have nervous speech habits that make it really horribly annoying and painful to listen to her. It takes her years to finally spit out what she wants to say, but then when she finally gets going she speaks a thousand words a second and there is absolutely no way to take everything down. She has no idea how to use powerpoint effectively-- some of her slides are literally covered in size 9 text and others have a completely unexplained photo on them. She posts her lectures but unless you go and fruitlessly try to record what she says they're of little use. It's REALLY annoying having to take notes to her speak because first she can't form a single word for 5 min and then suddenly a hundred come out and you have no idea what to write down. She also really uselessly tries to get the class to participate and seems to be personally offended when nobody's done the readings yet or doesn't feel like raising your hand... That being said the class isn't terribly hard and if you do the readings and go to your section, like somebody else said it's an easy A-. The exams are REALLY long-- the midterm was so long that most people didn't finish and the final was only shorter because we all complained, but even…

This was Professor Kasara's first semester at Columbia and first time teaching a lecture class ever. I think the anxiety and nerves clearly showed as a result. She was well prepared for lectures and had printouts of the lecture slides (ugh powerpoints) for each class. At the beginning of the semester she did little but read the slides verbatim (with her eyes closed- nerves?, so she had them memorized I guess) but as time went on she was a bit better on her feet (but still kept her eyes closed...). I think she can only get better.

The class was more about individual guidance on our respective topics. I received some helpful guidance on the direction of my paper and how to approach the structure of a large paper.

Literally the worst class I have ever taken in all my years at Columbia. Avoid this class like the mf PLAGUE. She always arrives late to class but then holds the class over, gives exams that are SO DIFFICULT (which she then comments on how it wasn't her intention to make it that difficult), and messed up the curving in our class. By the time she fixed the curves, most people's grades moved to a whole letter grade. TERRIBLE TERRIBLE DO NOT TAKE

This class was not easy, but it was not impossible either. Kimuli is really fair. If you do the work honestly and try to give her what she wants you should do well. Its kind of hard to figure out what she wants on the response papers, so go talk to her about it before you hand yours in. Also, form a group in class to study together, it will be really helpful for the midterm and final.

heavy reading every week, 2 short papers (max three pages), LONG midterm and LONG final

The workload was weird- typical amount of poli sci reading each week but with a "suggested reading" section that was enormous for each class. It sucked because the final exam (worth 50% of your grade clearly wanted you to reference the suggested readings, but they had never been required so...). I'll back up- the grade break down: 15% participation in weekly discussion sections, 5% map quiz, 15%x 2=30% response papers (weak guidelines but harsh grading), and a 50% final exam give over 24 HOURS DURING THE WEEKEND BEFORE FINALS. what a BAD idea. not only was it impossible questions like "whats the future of africa etc" but 3 of them, 1000 words each in 24 hours. I might not recommend the class solely because of the brutal final- but hopefully she'll rethink it before doing it again.

Honors seminar for thesis — methods for research and how to produce a quality thesis, R workshop.