Robert Harrist

This professor clearly picks favorites. If you are white and a man then you will thrive. As for everyone else, Professor Harrist will forget your name, question your speaking/writing capabilities, and dismiss your ideas. All in all, it was infuriating to be in his class. He is also very interested in going off on his own tangents about pieces of art that are his personal favorites. Sometimes this can be interesting, but usually you will get bored out of your mind after hearing him blab for hours about the same painting/statue/building.

The style of this course is quite descriptive, by which I mean you're not expected to make profound interpretations of the arts; what you need to is to describe what you see. And that's how Professor Harrist teaches. By the end of the course you'll probably be able to tell others about facts on some specific artworks, but that's kinda the expectation of the course. In this sense the style is quite like Arthum. However, the grading is much harder. Potentially you could get ~2/3 lower letter grade. If you are interested in Chinese art and are thinking about taking this course as a global core, I would discourage you if you care about grading at all. Just go read the text book and go to the MET yourself. And about the comments of him being racist, etc. He sure is a bit pretentious in lectures but that shouldn't be any issue for learning. After class I actually find him an approachable person.

A previous review proclaims, "STAY AWAY FROM THIS MAN!...intolerable!" I do not see why--that review is utterly inaccurate. Robert Harrist is the kindest man this side of Hoboken, New Jersey, and his knowledge of art history is simple, deep, and true. I guess his impeccable style might make you feel inferior, but if you counter his Versace with a little Giorgio of your own, you can't go wrong.

AWFULLLLLLL. He only teaches summer in Paris art and music hum as he is emeritus now. My worst professor in Columbia so far. STAY AWAY. I am too upset to elaborate.

Professor Harrist is an old fashioned professor. He expects you to come to class and takes attendance because he wants to learn the names of all his students. If you have no interest in Art History or China, this class will bore you. If you can pretend to be interested for 2 hours a week, you will learn a lot from a professor who obviously knows what he is talking about. Yes, he is a tough grader and yes he expects you to memorize a huge amount of dates and Chinese names. You will be much better off if you are familiar with Chinese language. I found the readings were very unnecessary and stopped doing most of them after the first month. On the comments that he is a jerk: he's pretty arrogant and an elitist and don't ask him for anything additional. Answer his questions correctly and show interest in the topics and he will take notice.

Not bad. Some papers, a year-end presentation. Don't forget your cuff links.

I disagree with the negative comments below about professor Harrist. Firstly, he is a very passionate art historian and he knows well what he talks about. I don't like any of the core classes but I can say that I really learn a lot from him after this course. Secondly, it is right that he grades work heavily on grammar and writing skills. This bothers me a lot and it's difficult for an international student like me to catch up. So what? Hard work pays off. He does appreciate your improvement and he tries to urge students to improve. That's the point. I have met easy instructors before, I'd rather stay in a class that has a lot to learn with a tough grading professor than in one that's way too boring with nothing left in my brain after the final but I still manage to get good grade. And what else can you ask for? He's an art expert, and he's stubborn about his art concepts. But he puts that aside and just grades papers on the writing skills that he has continuously given instructions in class. I think at the end of the day you'll get what you work for. I got him for art hum in the summer so maybe it's different(?) but overall, if you like a challenging class with a passionate professor who cares about what to teach his students, he's the right guy! If you don't want to risk your gpa even just a little, don't get his classes. Summer Work Load: Class participation 30%; 2 papers 1…

He's a jerk and a racist. Listen to previous reviews.

Professor Harrist is the absolute WORST professor I have encountered during my time at Columbia. I have had an incredibly positive experience with every other core class I have taken, but my Art Humanities experience has proven unproductive and superficial. Professor Harrist does not grade work based on the validity art historical concepts, rather he chooses to focus on the grammar and syntactical structure of the work. While this, in theory, is productive, he does not offer constructive criticism to improve your writing, rather just tears apart your work and expects you to accommodate to his stylistic preferences. When it comes to exams, he apparently prefers quantity over quality writing, which contradicts his obsession with concision in essay writing. I do not mind receiving a bad grade in a class if it means I am actually learning from the mistakes, but that is not the case in this class. If possible, avoid this professor at all costs.

If you are looking at this to fulfill your core, consider your options carefully before you take this class. You may regret it, or maybe not. The drawback: The previous reviewer had it right. Harrist is great for lectures but absolutely awful for anything (and that means ANYTHING!) else. The course demands a huge amount in terms of sheer amount of memorizing. While this isn't the drawback per se, you should be forewarned that there's we cover quite a big chunk of art and then he asks for dates, period, name of work, name of artist and context in his exams. The issue is this: that besides his beautifully presented albeit slightly pretentious lectures plus the necessary office hours, do not expect any other kind of help from Harrist. He is the only Columbia professor I have met who genuinely races out of the door when lectures are over, leaving the TA's to collect his things, pretty much to avoid student questions (if you try to intercept him as he's just about to slip by, he has an undisguised look of impatience). From talking to other students, he doesn't seem to schedule extra office hours even prior to papers and exams, gives no extensions and does not overlook typos or spelling errors. Your only chance is to try to catch him at office hours, but he switches these all of a sudden often only emailing the day of. On the one hand, we need to take into account that from he is ce…