Maire Jaanus

Since none of the reviews are recent, I needed to write one. Please do yourself a favor and do not take a class with this professor. Professor Jaanus is older, which is fine, except her worldview is entirely outdated. She would frequently say racist and otherwise bigoted things in class, not even realizing the implications of what she was saying but also not willing to listen to the class' point of view. She constantly mis-gendered and dead-named a gender nonconforming student after being reminded multiple times. Whenever we tried to critically analyze the perspective of the wealthy white male authors we were reading (no female authors in the syllabus -- except one who she ended up cutting!), she would immediately shut us down and change the topic. This class was entirely nonproductive, and I wish I had not taken it. Her class was a poor representation of the English major at Barnard.

Where is this professor's gold nugget? This professor is by far one of the best professors that I have ever had at Barnard or Columbia. She genuinely seems to care about how her students are doing, and she is extremely nice in her office hours. Though she doesn't give much feedback (if any!) on your work [she did in the first semester, but not in the second semester], she will definitely meet with you one on one to go over any questions you might have about your grade. She responds to all of my emails promptly [sometimes, even late at night] and writes back with thoughtful responses all the time. The workload is not bad at all, she structures her class in a way that you don't have to do all the readings on the syllabus (the only ones that you do have to do are the ones she assigns to you every two weeks)! (Although I highly recommend reading most of them, otherwise you could end up screwed at the end of the semester playing catch-up [but this is easily remedied with ebooks]).

Jaanus is a bore and a racist. Her class was absolute torture to try to stay awake during. She also behaved terribly towards the (few) African American students in the class, bullying them about their writing and saying horrible things about them behind their back to their classmates. Trust me -- she loved to talk shit to me in office hours about my peers. I've never been so uncomfortable in my life. I could not recommend any class less.

Professor Jaanus may be a literary scholar in her own right, but she simply cannot teach. There was no clear structure to the class, and it was not clear how work was being graded (or even what exactly was expected for the work). Classes were boring, and the professer's comments did not inspire at all. The worst English class I've ever taken.

Her brillance, combined with her teaching abilities, makes Ms. Jaauus one of the most fascinating and competent teachers at Barnard or Columbia. After witnessing all the over-inflated egos of the mostly insipid crew in E+CL, her accessability is a welcome relief. You actually want to talk to her and I never missed a class because I knew that teachers like her are very rare. The work is hard but I never regretted any of it. Highly recommend this class.

This was the worst class I've taken at Barnard. Some of the books we read I found interesting, but the class "discussions" were virtually never enlightening. While this was supposed to be a small discussion group, Professor Jaanus let everyone who showed up on the first day in, so there were about 27 of us in the class (since there were not enough chairs for everyone around the table about a third had to sit in chairs around the outside and balance notebooks in their laps). The class consisted in listening to Jaanus ramble for two hours. She was very disorganized and never seemed prepared. On any given day the majority of the class would be dozing, doodling, or looking otherwise like they were about to disintegrate into bored heaps. Also, we never got any feedback in the course. While we had to post 8 one page online responses she never told us what she expected from them. I never received a single grade or comment until I saw my final grade online. The guidelines for the final paper were so vague they were almost a joke. She gave us a lot of readings. At the begining I read them all conscientiously, but after a while I realized that it didn't matter if I did or not, since class discussions were non existent, classes were not enlightening, and online postings could be written on virtually anything. I never felt I understood the connection between the readings, or how they conn…

First off, Prof. Jaanus is simply an extremely nice person. The class in general tended to drag when we looked at theory (all Lacan) and the theory-based readings were terrible. When discussion focused on a literary text, however, the class was almost enjoyable (for a thursday 6-8pm class, thats a feat). The course load was extremely light (can easily get away with reading practically nothing), just some response papers at the beginning of the semester and then the thesis on topic of your choosing (20-25 pages) at the end.

Not bad at all, 1 page response papers every 2 weeks 5-6 pg midterm paper on 4-6 authors comparing/contrasting them, your own choice of topic 10-12 pg final paper on 6-8 authors comparing/contrasting them, your own choice of topic

I have to say that this was the most frustrating academic experience I have ever encountered. I vehemently agree with those students who say that although she may be brilliant, she should exercise her intellect and education in an arena other than teaching. She can not complete a linear thought. She goes off on incomprehensible tangents and speaks what can barely be construed as English. Steer clear!!

8 short responses throughout the semester and a final paper and final exam.