Monica Cohen

As a FYS, this class is pretty chill. Professor Cohen is talkative and friendly and accepts all sorts of contributions in class. However, I will say that the content of discussion felt very superficial. I understand this was not a literature class but I wish we had broken down the content a bit more.

This is a requirement for the Barnard Comp Lit major. Professor Cohen cares about literature, specifically Victorian literature, and she cares about her students. She is patient and approachable, and will support you in your work. However, I struggled to enjoy the class. I found it to be too much reading (400-page novels) for not enough close textual analysis in class. I wish there had been more theory and connection between authors, as well as the theme of translation and post-colonial studies which are important in the comp lit field. Instead the comparative nature usually was between different kinds of media, so a film and a book, or a work of art and a book. Cohen knows a lot, but will allow students to sidetrack the class by spending long tangents with their personal opinions or experiences that connect with the class, which made it at best off-topic and at worst a bit boring. I wish the class had been more focused on comparative literature, on specific texts, and more lecture-driven than discussion-based. I just felt like I didn't actually learn a lot and it didn't contribute to my formation as a comp lit major. Still, Cohen will be happy to meet with you if you want to learn more deeply about something from class or need help with your work. And the workload and grading are very fair and not harsh.

This is a new class that Monica Cohen is offering. I took the class because i have taken her Austen, Brontë, Gaskell class before and loved it. Cohen is a great professor, she has deep insight on the books and makes the class accessible to all the students, even those, like myself, who are not english majors. She will meet with you outside of class and is very helpful in office hours. In general she is a wonderful person who cares about her students and about the works she teaches. She listens to what everyone has to say and is sometimes too considerate. She will not cut students off, even if they go on irrelevant tangents. I will say that this class sometimes felt like a book club but I attribute that to the fact that this was the first time she taught it. In her other classes, the discussion was much more elevated, insightful and organized. I would recommend taking this class if you want to read historical novels and have an insightful discussion about them. But this was not a challenging class in any way. Here is the list of novels: Jane Austen, Persuasion; Charlotte Brontë, Shirley; Charles Dickens, Tale of Two Cities; George Eliot, Scenes of Clerical Life; Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton; Thomas Hardy, Mayor of Casterbridge; Walter Scott, Heart of Midlothian. Overall, I would recommend this class because I think it can only get better over the years. Professor Cohen is a s…

I would absolutely take any lecture course Professor Cohen offers, however, this course was at times disappointing. A lot of any seminar experience depends on the class members, but there is a certain amount of handling that needs to be done from the instructor and in this regard, I often felt that Professor Cohen was TOO nice - wanting to make sure everyone with a hand raised got comments in and never cutting off people who rattle on FOREVER. Also, because she let anyone who wanted to speak do so one after the other, it felt like class discussions had no structure or consistency; lines of thought were rarely followed through. Just a bit more handling could have made this a significantly better course. Professor Cohen is really wonderful one-on-one and I would suggest meeting with her to review paper ideas and just talk about your experiences with the novels.

Monica Cohen is exactly what an English professor should be. Her class was a perfect mixture of lecture and student participation. She asks a lot of questions that lead to productive, and insightful discussion, which is a feat, as any one who has taken an English class will know. I completely disagree with the reviewer below who said that her lectures seem like she is reading from her notes, as well as the reviewer who said that she talks too fast. Her lectures are interesting, to-the-point, extremely erudite, and somewhat complex, but she is always willing to break for questions or to expand on her ideas if the class doesn't quite follow. She is also amazingly sweet, friendly, helpful, and appropriately casual at times. The reading list is incredible and Prof. Cohen is passionate about the books, which is infectious.

I loved Professor Cohen. Other than being the greatest personally, her classes were fun without losing focus on the texts. she's a total english teacher -- lots of discussion of the characters, few "answers" about how to understand texts, enthusiasm for literature in general. she expects a fair amount from her students without being at all unfair, and left a lot up to the students -- no assigned paper topics unless you wanted them; lots of choice on the midterm. she graded the essays fairly harshly but tended to grade better for the semester than the papers, especially, i think, if you talk in class. overall great and inspiring lithum class.

Monica Cohen is a very nice woman. Her lectures often seem like she is reading directly from her notes. Okay, they seem like that most of the time. And the class isn't terribly engaging, but the books (Pere Goriot, Persuasion, Middlemarch, Our Mutual Friend, Eugene Onegin) are fun reading, so if that's what you like the class is still worth it. Also, she asks a lot of questions to which no one or the same few people answer, and when they do, it's nothing insightful. But to her credit, she will correct them if they are totally off.

This course was good! Cohen is very nice and leads discussions with kindness and interest. Taking us to Romeo and Juliet on Broadway was SUCH a highlight. The adaptations are fun and interesting, but sometimes the homework is a bit much with full movies and long books. However, you can definitely get away with not doing every reading. The essays were pretty chill and the writing fellow requirement was very valuable. Cohen's essay feedback isn't amazing, you'll end up learning more from the Fellow, and it's not very timely. You will need to lead one class discussion. Come with questions prepared and page numbers/time stamps to go over. The class can get a little boring and the adaptations can get redundant, but overall it's fun and easy. She also requires "physical books" you have to obtain, but I always just used online CLIO copies and it was fine. Don't spend your money.

I took Prof Cohen in spring 2023 for Literature and Horror. I am not a Comp Lit major or minor, I simply love Prof Cohen. This was my 3rd time taking a class with her and I intend to take every class she offers! She is very passionate about her work and always gives attention to the ideas and commentary of her students, even shifting some lectures to focus on ideas brought up in class when she found them interesting. It is very rare to find a professor so open to student's ideas. She would often go home and do her own research on things mentioned in class. She also brought us to a movie in the semester, offering to pay for low income students if they could not afford to go. Her grading is very fair and she is always open and happy/generous during office hours. She allows rewrites, and leaves comments on papers that are incredibly helpful to students. I have never seen anyone get below a B in her classes.

There is a lot of reading given that you have to read 6 or 7 novels throughout the semester. We usually tackle a new one every two weeks. Some of the works are very long (The Heart of Midlothian, Scott) and some are very short (Tale of Two Cities). There is a mid-term essay (5-8pages and a final essay (8-10 pages). She will help you with topics and will go over your introduction and outline with you in office hours if you ask.