Stefan Pedatella

Absolute embarrassment to Columbia and nightmarish professor on so many levels. He is patronizing, unknowledgeable yet assumes he is about everything, and disrespectful. Stefan singles out and picks fights with students sharing different opinions, antagonizing them and proceeding to take it all personally somehow. He will lecture at you for three hours and beg for participation through a lens smaller somehow than him. Stefan's "teaching style" is barking at you and then sitting in awkward silence inflicted by his horrible takes on things. In your responses on exams and papers, he requires an unequivocal regurgitation of these aforementioned takes which are always deeply-rooted in either perversion, incest, (and) or misogyny. He makes sweeping generalizations about large demographics of people that are solely based on his sheltered personal experiences and probably wishes he was in the mafia so at least his life would be worth something, other than wasting away in arguably the most useless figment of academia to exist. Don't bother with this one, I'd rather read War and Peace three times in a row inside a dumpster in NYC humidity. I can assure you these past reviews were written by him, don't trust them. The only redeeming trait how is absolutely hilarious he is...not intentionally, in a more how-is-this-happening in the 21st century type of way. So save yourself the trouble, h…

This class is exactly what a first-year seminar should be: engaging, supportive, and fun. I never missed a class because Pedatella made me want to go to class and discuss the readings. He knows all of the texts really well and teaches them in such a thought-provoking way that you'd much rather read the Odyssey with him than on your own. He's not an easy grader, but he wants to collaborate with you on your ideas and he's open to criticism and discussion during one-on-one meetings. He's a little overdramatic and may think he's a rockstar, but he's really worth your time and you'll definitely never be bored.

Do not take this class if you like to challenge professor's opinions. Do not take this class if you consider yourself a feminist either. Last year, I was verbally assaulted by Professor Pedatella after making a point about women in the bible. It started when I made a simple point in class that there are far less women with names in Genesis than there are men, a true statement, especially in the ancestries. Professor Pedatella responded by telling me I should not claim that the Bible "does not do justice to women." When I challenged him on that point, he screamed at me in front of the seminar of Barnard first-years, to the point of actual verbal assault, claiming, among other things, that I was mathematically incorrect to say that there were fewer women's names then men's names in Genesis. After class, he asked me to talk to him in his office, where he continued to argue with me without actually ever allowing me to finish a full sentence, and when I started to cry, he told me that I was being inappropriate, and there is "no place for emotion in an intellectual discussion." Both in class and out, he abused his power as a professor to make me feel small, weak, "emotional" and stupid. And he never apologized to me. After talking to administrators and making the difficult decision to stay in the class, Professor Pedatella continued to be unaccommodating to me (he didn't let me go t…

I LOVE Pedatella!!! He is so passionate and makes the readings 1000 times more interesting. Naturally, some of the books are pretty dry, but he made me look forward to actually reading.

Professor Pedatella may be one of the best teachers I have ever had. He is obviously an incredibly smart and thoughtful man who is very dedicated to his field. On top of that, he is great at making everyone feel included and worthy of discussing their opinions, no matter what the subject matter. Everyone in my class actively participated, and that's what made the class so exciting and invigorating. Professor Pedatella is also one of the few professors I've had who are willing to take your opinions on board. There were a number of times when students would bring up something about a piece he had never thought about, and he really took those comments on board.

Maybe it's because I'm close to graduating, but I'm starting to get sentimental about college these days. Thinking about the best classes I've taken, thinking about the classes that really meant something to me, well, Pedatella's was one of them. Critical Writing is a required class for Barnard English majors, and honestly I wasn't expecting much from the class; but Pedatella's section was a revelation. The sheer amount of his enthusiasm, passion, and genius made me feel like there was no more important thing in the world than what we were doing when talking about literary theory around the conference table. He always had these incredible readings of the texts (no one should graduate from Barnard without having taken a class on Pride and Prejudice with him), yet somehow class always felt like this collective effort that we were all a part of. It's weird to me to see some reviews below that talk about how he's resistant to alternative readings of texts; I can't think of another professor I've had who is MORE open to students' differing perspectives. Huge added benefit: he's just a really nice human being. It's been rare for me to come across a professor who seems genuinely interested in getting to know you. Even though it's been a while since I took his class, whenever I bump into him on campus he always takes the time to ask me about my "career" (which is hilarious to me, sinc…

This was one of the best classes I've taken so far. The syllabus is amazing. There's A LOT (too much) of reading for the class, but it's all really fundamental (Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Marx, and a lot more). The works we read always seemed to be useful for all of my other classes. After this class you just won't ever look at theory/ aesthetics the same way again. The syllabus is challenging, but Stefan was a great guide. He was always patient in going over tough points (and incredibly generous when it came to office hours). His enthusiasm for the material was infectious: by the end of the semester I could barely believe I had done all the reading (well almost all of the reading). After this class you'll really feelmuch better prepared for your other English classes. The syllabus and the professor are great!

I am generally wary of reviews that gush excessively, but there is no way to overestimate my respect for this man. Stefan is the kind of professor you dreamed about when you decided to come to Columbia. He illuminates every book, providing valuable insights into everything from Herodotus to Augustine to Woolf. Stefan will have a brilliant idea, lead you right up to it, and when you say it for him he makes you feel like it was your idea all along. If you disagree with his reading, he will always entertain an alternative view so long as it is intelligent and well- considered. As for the difficulty of Stefan's section, this is Lit Hum so it isn't exactly a walk in the park. He expects you to come to class every day having read the material thoroughly, but with literature this incredible and a professor this invested, it's hard not to do the reading. His essay assignments tend to be on the difficult side but always interesting. He grades fairly on the essays and will always provide ample comments to explain the grade--Stefan does not hand out As, but he doesn't want to fail anyone either. To wit, he deliberately makes his midterm easy to compensate for the relative difficulty essays.

This class was the best sort of class I can imagine - not too much work and mind-blowingly interesting. I'm not an English or Film major, I just took the class based on the material and the professor's reputation. I'm so glad I did. For a long time I had been looking for an excuse to watch The Godfathers and The Sopranos and this class gave me the perfect opportunity. How can you beat a class where your homework consists largely of watching hours and hours of HBO? Also, Pedatella is totally a phenomenal instructor. Very cool, down to earth, knows everything about the subject and is really passionate about it. And he brought us all cannolis the last day of class (I mean, how cool is that).

Professor Pedatellla was very passionate about the texts and the class itself, but very opinionated and narcissistic when others challenged his ideas or seemed to not enjoy/agree with them. Frequently, students were talked over in his class or not allowed to formulate an argument in the class if he did not agree with it personally. This resulted in a somewhat uncomfortable environment in class when it came time to discuss texts with the students. The texts and lecture were okay, just very dry.