Rachel Adams

At first the work seemed to be very different than my peers Literature Humanities class but as the semester went on I realized that I learned so much more and the class started to become something I looked forward too. Professor Adams is an amazing professor who truly cares about her students and makes learning fun. She deserves to have many positive reviews, the older reviews are very outdated.

So sweet and passionate about the literature. Very kind and understanding as well that this is not the only class we have, we are Columbia students with a bunch of other courses and responsibilities. Also incredibly funny and engaging. I really enjoyed her class. Her assignments were not typical humanities assignments, they touched upon outside the box thinking and artistic creativity. Participation is a must! Her grading is strict, but if you follow her feedback there is no reason not to do well.

A really interesting class, somehow sold as a part of the English major, that falls a little flat due to a neurotic lecturer. The proposal of creating my own comic by the end of this class filled me with excitement before it got bogged down by the unnecessary badgering of Professor Adams. Don't get me wrong - she's nice - but I always felt she took too much control over the class discussion, shutting down suggestions (even when she brought in a guest lecturer?) and crammed the syllabus to the brim so I left most days feeling as if we'd only begun to unpack some of the novels. This fact became all the more evident in the presentation assignment where she was sending myself and my partner extremely long nitpicky emails hours before it was due. When we actually did the presenting I sat there wondering why she wasn't just doing it herself - it barely felt like our work, and her grading was based on whether we stuck to the questions or actually engaged with our classmates answers. If you can get over that - this is a super cool class. I was lucky to be amongst a strong group of students, all with their own inspiring stories to tell, so when it came time to present our final comics it was a rewarding moment for all.

Took this class Fall '23. Professor Adams’s teaching style is an acquired taste, but she's incredibly well-read and passionate. She’s friendly and accommodating, and tries her best to make everyone feel comfortable and included. That being said, she can sometimes lose herself a little in the historical context of works or in specific passages, which we would then spend 40-50 minutes analyzing in extreme detail before moving on - and considering that only 1-2 classes are spent on each text (due to the university’s requirements, not her’s) that occasionally resulted in whole parts of the books being neglected. Professor Adams would sometimes pretty bluntly say “no, you’re wrong” or “that’s missing the point” on more than one occasion, which I was a little surprised by, especially considering that it’s such a small class. On the other hand, she was also very receptive to and excited about hearing new viewpoints, and was very liberal with dishing out praise. I’d say our class was pretty evenly split in terms of students who liked her style and those who didn’t, but the consensus was that she’s manageable, forthcoming, and kind if you invest a bit of time and effort. I ended up learning so much and rediscovered a lot of these texts for myself, and I'd generally definitely recommend her section.

DO. NOT. TAKE. THIS. CLASS. I know that this is only the first year that this class has been held, but Professor Adams is truly problematic. She teaches the class in conjunction with a Dean, who is very nice, but they are obviously unorganized. They both come into class and use the first ten minutes to discuss the format of the class for the day. Why they could not have sat down for 10 minutes sometime during the week to figure that out is beyond me. Also, the readings are incredibly long and boring, we barely talk about them at all, and we aren't even tested on them. We also have essentially zero guidelines for grading, and we have to write short papers each week (that are pretty stupid, honestly) that are graded harshly by both professors. Adams is also just mean spirited. I was sick one day and didn't want to attend our volunteer day, and she e-mailed me claiming "I just saw you on broadway with your friends....I am glad that you are feeling better." Even if I was on Broadway, that was rude. I could have been at Duane Reade or something and she could have given me the benefit of the doubt. Regardless, there is no need to defend my whereabouts, because that was truly just one of the most passive aggressive and rude e-mails I have ever gotten. This class sounded amazing, but now I know to read and trust CULPA before taking classes in the future.

If you're reading this, you're probably already convinced of taking whatever Prof. Adams is offering because she offers really good courses and hey, it's an English class. You're probably just double-checking CULPA to make sure it won't be a total disaster. Read further; it will be. I'm speaking on Food Writing, but I think my warning will be universal. Don't let the optimism of the class' fun name tempt you-- this is far from the socioeconomically sensitive, culturally inclusive, tasteful course you might imagine Food Writing to be. The fact that it fulfills the 'American' requirement on the English major list indeed means it shuts out everything about food experience except those of white, rich suburban ladies who like to whisper disdainfully about the Food Network. It's what your cynic friends will think it is when you tell them what you're taking: McDonalds-shaming, fermented food-frotting elitism. The review from 2012 is still completely relevant. She gets her hands on classes that sound and have the potential to be great, and you'll be drawn into taking them. The syllabus and the readings might even sound good. It's friendly for bloggers, only held once a week, and great if you want to do a lot of writing and get a lot of feedback. But get ready for the most toxic seminar environment you can encounter at Columbia. Let me start with an example of how she's responded to st…

This class was a major disappointment. In fact, after 3 semesters at Columbia this fell very far below the baseline of my minimal expectations of a course. On paper it seemed intriguing-a variety of readings and different guest speakers from various departments speaking on the readings (of which they were frequently the authors). This was coupled with trips to the NY Historical Society and Butler to learn how to do research. The problem was Prof. Adams. Her direction was unfocused and muddy and as a result it was very difficult to understand exactly what the assignments were about. She admitted as much, even referring to us (the students) as "guinea pigs" since we were the first class taking the course since its inception. Some of the guest speakers were interesting but for the most part I found them unexciting (to be fair, probably because they were out of the context of their usual metier). Prof. Adams' comments on my papers lacked insight and did little to help me understand what I could have done better. After a semester of pure drudgery, the final assignment was to turn in all of the work we had done over the course of the semester in a "final portfolio" together with a written self-assessment. I was eager to get it back and read Prof. Adams' comments. I was dismayed to find that all she had done was jot some monosyllables in the margins,("yes!", "great"). Beyond that she…

This class had an amazing reading list and I loved almost all the books we read. But other than that, I got almost nothing out of the class. It was taught like an American Studies course, so was full of extra information on the authors and the time period and almost no interesting literary analysis. There were days where she didn't even get around to discussing the actual text itself. Lectures were fairly obvious, especially for a 4000 level lit class.

Assignments are graded at a smaller percentage around 10-20% compared to other classes which I found to be really helpful for my overall grade. It allowed me to grow throughout the class and leverage my strengths and weaknesses throughout different assignments. You will have many opportunities to do better because of how low the stakes are, this does include occasionally having extra smaller assignments. The final is also 10% of the grade. Very fair grader.

They really should do something about old reviews. I was extremely nervous going into her class after reading them but I was delightfully proved wrong. She is fantastic! I don't get the reviews at all. My guess is that maybe she has just started teaching classes. You can honestly avoid. the reviews they're outdated and irrelevant. She is very understanding and some of her assignments can be fun, unique, and interesting. I only have to take this class one semester but I wish I had her for another semester. She has a very engaging approach and pedagogy. The classes are well organized and she offers of plenty of information in her slides. If you have her for LitHum, you've stuck gold. She loves literature and she wants you to understand and interpret the works in an efficient manner.