Rebecca Kastleman

It's probably going to piss you off a little bit that your friends in other lithum sections seem to be coasting to As while you've actually gotta do some work. But by no means is it an unreasonable amount of work - show up to class, contribute to discussions, do the reading, show up to office hours, and the rest will take care of itself! 20% in class participation, 20% "sandboxes" (out-of-class discussion posts), 15% paper 1, 20% paper 2, 10% midterm, 15% final.

For this first semester, the workload is manageable. Of course, lit hum requires a lot of reading, but aside from that the work is minimal (two short assignments per week which help us further understand the text). Overall, Professor Kastleman's works with you, not against you.

I learned to approach the topic of pedagogy and the university from a different perspective.

MY GOAT. Favorite professor by a long shot. Class discussions are always so energizing bc she is truly an excellent director and facilitator of conversation. Gets you pretty close with your classmates bc of the amount of interaction you naturally have w each other, creates a great sense of camaraderie and shared approach in the room. Makes you feel stupid in class sometimes but it's just bc she's so smart - and when you do finally start following what she's talking about you basically start seeing the text in 4D. It's genuinely insane how much she's done for my reading comprehension & analysis skills. Chill asf too. Got us all cookies on the last day. Super nice. Top tier prof top tier person

Oh my gosh. Professor Kastleman is an ANGEL. I have never read any type of "elaborate"/ancient literature (ex: Iliad, Genesis, etc.), but her classes are the highlight of my week and extremely interesting. She is so kind-hearted and really takes her students into consideration. She learned everyone's names super quickly, is engaged/interested in everything her students have to say, and just genuinely has such amazing intentions. I absolutely love her and am so grateful to have her for this semester and the following one. Also, the content of the discussions are incredibly interesting, and the way she leads discussions are engaging and intriguing. My classmates and I always spend time before her class talking about how much we appreciate her as a professor and enjoy her class. Truly the most caring and hardworking professor I have ever had. 100/10! You can tell she really takes time hearing, understanding, and caring for her students. Again, an absolute angel. Protect her at all costs.

I learned the realities of a life in academia: job opportunities after the academy, how to write book reviews, journal articles, and what good literary criticism looks like. I also learned how to navigate coursework in a different way than I did in undergrad: there are different sorts of reading for different sorts of jobs. A life in academia will require a lot of reading, and developing new skills in regards to how to manage large reading loads was beneficial.

SO much reading (that's Lit Hum for ya), 11 texts + 1 instructor's choice. She WILL work with you if you have trouble in class, which I whole-heartedly appreciate.

The course itself did not teach me very many things. The processes seemed quite forced; especially discussions about careers etc. The assignments were very helpful but the readings seemed quite random.

Professor Kastleman is a gem! She is so kind and passionate about what she does. She is GREAT at leading a discussion and seems to understand the perfect balance of butting into the conversation herself while also letting us students speak. In terms of grading, she does have high expectations, but it is totally fair. If you truly want to learn, Professor Kastleman is an amazing instructor for Lit Hum.

I learned how to design a syllabus and the different genres of academic writing such as the books review, and how to navigate and find a monograph or article in my field of interests.