Sarah Cole

Prof Cole is nice, pleasant, and well dressed, but I don't think she was particularly excited about this class. We never really got beyond basic analysis, and by that I mean we would often read passages out loud for as long as 10 minutes, only for her to ask us simple questions like what we thought, make a banal statement, and then quickly move on. I was shocked that out of the three days she dedicated to Mrs. Dalloway, she only taught one of them - the other two were doled out to the TAs for their own training. I'm all for the education of graduate students, but Mrs. Dalloway, perhaps Woolf's most acclaimed work, was not the right book to give up to them for experimentation. The course also was structured around quasi-mandatory, downright confusing participation elements like "reading responses," "online posts," and "on groups," and it was never clear whether or not any of it was actually graded. We got comments back on the reading responses from the TA but they weren't attached to any grade. If you want to read all of Woolf's books in one semester, and like to impress people by showing off your knowledge of unfamiliar texts like Jacob's Room (which I realized was not often read for a very good reason), by all means take this class. Just know that it is unlikely you will actually learn anything about Virginia Woolf beyond what you could have otherwise read on sparknotes.

I just finished Literature, Culture, and War in the 20th and 21st centuries with Professor Cole and sadly it was a bit of a mixed bag. The readings were engaging and Professor Cole is clearly a brilliant woman, but the class was far too big (sophomores, wait your turn seriously), and I often felt like students were competing to speak over each other. The reading is pretty heavy, and because the class was overenrolled, we didn’t even get to discuss many of the assigned secondary readings (or even primary texts). Pretty frustrating to be expected to read material that isn’t even covered. Additionally, the final paper assignment was an absolute mess. We were all required to hand in prospectuses for our paper topics, which is great. But when the only comments you receive are “Awesome! This looks good! it makes getting a trashed final paper back even more annoying. If my paper topic wasn’t where it needed to be, why wasn’t this communicated during office hours and on the prospectus? Needless to say, this was an issue several students complained about, and it really does make one wonder if Professor Cole actually read the prospectuses we handed in. Anyways, the material in the course still yields a recommendation of the course, but I have some real doubts about Professor Cole’s ability to manage class discussion/clearly outline expectations, and I have to say that I am walking away…

Sarah Cole is perfect. Someone in an earlier review called her a goddess, and this is completely true. Her lectures were both intellectually stimulating and hilarious every time. She loves Joyce like an old friend and knows an immense amount about his life and contemporaries, as well as other Irish and British literature, which was really helpful to contextualize Joyce's work. We spent the first few weeks reading Dubliners and Portrait, and then spent the rest of the semester on Ulysses. This was the perfect set up, because even considering the book's enormous size, we were able to go at a decent pace and usually had time to thoroughly discuss each section. The class had about 70 people or so, but Professor Cole somehow fit in time and managed discussions fairly often. She would stop at certain points in her lectures and ask for students' opinions—and she was great at cutting off annoying, long-winded people! She is also very accessible and seems to care about what you think. While the discussion sections vary in quality based on which TA you have and who is in your section, Prof. Cole grades the final paper, and her comments were very interesting. Also, can't leave this review without mentioning her wardrobe. I wanted to steal everything she wears (well, most things—some of it is just insane). But she has a new outfit for every class, and they are all fabulous. She may look l…

SC is such a wonderful instructor! I think a lot of first-years will agree that the first few weeks of school are intimidating in a number of ways, but I always felt like Professor Cole made it her priority to make the entire class feel comfortable contributing to class discussion from the very beginning. Dynamic, articulate, brilliant, and fashionable (who doesn't like when a tenured member of the faculty shows up in knee-high boots and tights?!), Professor Cole really challenges you to think about the texts in new, interesting, and diverse ways. She doesn't force-feed you anything, but rather, encourages you to construct your own individual interpretations. Her willingness to grant paper extensions, read and comment on rough drafts, and offer her assistance on endeavors outside of the academic classroom all paint a picture of a professor who truly cares about her students as intellectuals and, more generally, people. Professor Cole will change the way you think, read, and write. What more could one ask for?

At first I loved this class and by the end of the semester had very mixed feelings about this course. Sarah Cole is an EXCELLENT lecturer and knows her stuff. I enjoyed coming to class and learned a lot from her lectures. That said, she wanted the course to be "seminar-style" and this was very difficult considering that she lectured for most of it and didn't really offer many opportunities for students to speak (and definitely favored a few). I also found that while she meant to be encouraging, if students didn't directly make a comment she agreed with she was a little dismissive and moved on. I enjoyed the syllabus of this course and felt that Professor Cole defended and made each work exciting even though I didn't love all of the Modernist texts. Professor Cole clearly has a passion for what she teaches and makes that very clear when she lectures (such a rarity in many professors), but I also found her to be a little disengaged from her students. She had a TA for a class of 15. While the TA was lovely, it was difficult to navigate whom to talk too about the papers, especially since the TA graded everything. Which is fine, but in a small class, I would prefer to work with the professor. Also, the TA and Sarah Cole grade pretty harshly. I worked VERY HARD in this class and my writing did improve significantly, but I felt that at times I was given grades significantly lower tha…

Sarah Cole's waredrobe is amazing. The ideas Sarah Cole teaches in lectures are fairly similar to those found on sparknotes. Sarah Cole's syllabus is interesting: overall excellent authors, but usually their worst work.

I enjoyed this class mainly because I happen to love the works of Virginia Woolf. We read 8 Woolf novels in their entirety, plus Conrad's Heart of Darkness (snore) and some of Woolf's essays. Professor Cole is very nice, but her lectures seemed a little shallow considering her noteworthy scholarship. The lectures might have been better if she had focused more closely on specific passages, rather racing through all of the major themes from each of Woolf's writings. A lot of the time I felt like she was telling us things that aren't exactly difficult to figure out; however, I still learned a lot in the end because of what I put into the class myself. If you do the reading, think, take notes, and let your curiosity lead you into further research, I think that it ends up being a good class if you appreciate Virginia Woolf.

1 in-class presentation; paper prospectus and 10-15 page final paper; heavy but awesome reading

Tough, but totally manageable. A fair amount of reading sometimes (the chapters in Ulysses are long), but if you plan well it's doable. Several (maybe 3?) one-page response papers due in discussion section. Also, 3 wiki page "projects." She has you work in groups to complete wiki pages on Courseworks about a specific theme in Ulysses, and you update them twice (so a total of 3 postings). If your group members are competent, this is fine and actually a good way to organize your thoughts about the novel. One final 10 page paper.

SARAH COLE: A LIT HUM GODDESS Incredibly engaging, encouraging, and intellectual, Sarah really knows her stuff, and most importantly, knows HOW to teach. She spends time both on general themes of the works, but also closely analyzes passages and examines characters in great depth. She guides her students through each text, pointing out important elements and relationships, thus leading the class to their OWN understanding of the book, instead of force feeding them with the traditional views of the text as some professors mistakenly do. Sarah focuses on making the class enjoy the texts as much as she does, and often links contemporary events, novels, ideas, etc. to the lit hum books. Even if you don't enjoy the book, you will love hearing Sarah lecture about it. You will immensely enjoy this class. In addition, Sarah is understanding of what it means to be a college student: stress, stress, and more stress. Extensions are attainable and she does everything she can to make class relaxing to prepare for (besides the insane amount of reading). Although good teaching does not directly result from a good fashion sense, I feel that it's necessary to briefly outline Sarah Cole's everyday attire. She is the queen of high heels; flats are an anomaly. Dresses are essentials, as well a big earrings that scream sassy, independent, woman. She is the epitome of what girls want to look when t…