Rosalind Morris

I want to like this course more than I do. I wholeheartedly agree with the previous review in saying that I left every lecture feeling like something important was said but having no idea what it was. I continuously found myself taking notes by simply writing word for word what she said because I didn't understand her enough to reword it. Her lectures, of which she uses no PowerPoints, feels as though she is simply talking at you for an hour and a half, and nearly all of it goes in one ear and out the other. Because of this, the assignments were often just me stringing together random thoughts from lecture and regurgitating them into an essay. Prof. Morris is very intelligent and kind, I simply just don't understand anything she says.

I have had Prof. Morris for two classes thus far, a large lecture class (The Ethnographic Imagination) and a seminary (Ethnography of the Everyday). While this review is informed by the former, it is principally about the latter. Some find Prof. Morris intimidating. If that is case, it is because of her sheer brilliance -- not because she is in any way ever less than engaging, encouraging and constructive. At the risk of being accused of exaggeration, I will say that to spend any time with Prof. Morris is to emerge a better person. This seminar in particular was possibly the best experience I have had in my four years at Columbia. The readings were appropriate and engaging, the workload as interesting as challenging, and the classroom itself was well run, with Prof. Morris ensuring that the discussion stayed intellectually solid and relevant to the materials at hand. While much of the course content may have been of specific interest to Anthropology majors, I would recommend Prof. Morris to anyone who is willing to take the time and effort to get involved in her class. She is rigorous and demanding, but she is also always fair.

Professor Morris frustrates me. She's brilliant and direct with a wonderful sense of humor sometimes, but at other times she can be cold and unapproachable. She's also inconsistent in her policy towards academic bullshit. I didn't mind how much we had to read, I just hated that about half of it was essays in which the anthropological buzzwords and name-checking were more important than the actual argument. If she were just a terrible professor I wouldn't have cared, but she has so many good ideas that I found myself really caring about the class, even when I hated it. I'm not sure whether it's better to avoid the class altogether or put up with the worst of it. It's up to you. Just be prepared for her to surprise you in good ways and bad.

Professor Morris is porbably the best prof i have had in college. she is utterly challenging, and teaches the most difficult theory in a lecturte course. that shows how well she knows her stuff. and she doesnt dumb it down either. she also presents issues that will beome very personal for anyone who takes thi class seriously - issues that have to do with how we live in this world. she asks the hard questions that donb't have answers. she gives you the background to ask. she gives yoiu access to some of the most difficult theorists of the past two centuries. take the class, its a secret beauty of this school.

I took this class because I was (and still am?) considering the Anthro major. I took the course spring 2017. Professor Morris, as many have pointed out, is a very brilliant lecturer, but the material is very difficult to grasp.I left every lecture feeling like something very important was said, but not understanding what it was at all. I am not sure how much I grew as a student. To be fair, I'm sure if I had went to her office hours (I was too intimidated) she would have cleared some things up, but honestly practically every sentence was difficult to comprehend. Its possible the problem had more to do with me as a student than her a teacher, but that's only something I will be able to figure out reflecting back when the painful memory of this class is not as fresh.

The readings are difficult but worthwhile, and the written assignments of fair quantity. Prof. Morris reads all students' works carefully and makes helpful comments.

This woman exemplifies the archetype of the brilliant professor who hasn't got the time of day for her students. It's up to you to decide whether you want to take class with someone whose powers of ideological synthesis and interpretation are truly staggering, or whether you'd rather take a class with a professor who will bother to actually answer even a TENTH of the emails you send her.

Morris definitely knows what she's doing and the course content is rich and interesting, although a bit dense. As for her voice, it is soft and permanently set in high register, but tolerable as long as her mic is working. Although I must say her rhetoric tends to be overblown. And often you sit there wondering if the sentence she started 15 minutes ago is every going to end. Is there some reason that we must use "religiosity" when religion will do just fine, or why one cannot connect two ideas with a simple "is" rather than "that which is to say"? She's brilliant, but to call her articulate and well-spoken, if you ask me, is to be fooled by a bunch of verbal froth and stutter. Overall, the course is worth taking and Morris is an insightful and more than competent professor. Plenty of great material and a few fascinating lectures.

I'm not sure if it's an option to take this class with someone else but if you can you should. Morris is an adept rhetorician, I'll give her that. Please don't be fooled. Intelligence does not make you a good professor unless you can get it to rub off, which she didn't. Everyone was getting B's and C's in the class. I should also mention that Morris does 2 of the worst things a professor can do 1) make you regurgitate whatever lens it is that she's reading onto an ethnography and 2) consistently relate texts to other texts that aren't on the syllabus i.e. we spent two whole weeks talking about Kant and another week talking about Derrida. Neither author was assigned to us. Everyone in my section was either extremely confused or too insecure to admit it. I will say that my TA (Danielle) was the saving grace of this course. I am blown away by her ability to break down difficult texts and to decode Morris's out-of-touch lectures. Thank your local grad student.

It's true: she's brilliant. You'll find yourself in class copying her lectures word for word because she's so eloquent. She makes you think, and despite how dense and analytical everything may seem, she repeats things enough for you to understand the main points. She's got a soft voice so sit near the front, but she supplemented the class often with interesting video and audio. The readings were excellent, but who doesn't love McLuhan? Class discussions ranged from non-existent to excellent, but on the whole, everyone has something to say about media. One of the best classes I've taken. She's incredibly accommodating and helpful outside of class. You will want to do well to impress her. Highly recommended.