Tatiana Smoliarova

Professor Smoliarova's Lit Hum class is one of the most enjoyable classes I have taken during my time at Columbia. She has no arrogance about her even though she is obviously brilliant. She requests the class call her by her first name, something not often done by professors. She strikes a beautiful balance in the classroom of leading the discussion while engaging the class and having us chime in with what we think. She will keep conversation going but always wants to hear what we think. I would take pretty much any class she is teaching because she is not just a teacher in the classroom but genuinely cares about her students and their concerns. If something is going on in your life she understands you and will work with you one on one to catch up with the material--without you even asking but with her approaching you. She's an incredible teacher and an even better person.

I was SO excited to have Tatiana after reading all the CULPA reviews about her and realizing I got lucky with my LitHum professor. I thought class was going to be exciting and discussions would be great and on top of that, it wouldn't be hard to get a good grade. This thinking was a bit premature--because I was very very wrong about how classes would be. The same two or three people would talk each class (and they often grew annoying) and no one new ever volunteered. She's extremely passive and doesn't really call on people to do anything except when it comes to reading passages from the texts. Thus, as you can imagine, she's awful at facilitating discussion. She asked vague questions that didn't really lead to any substantial discussion and I feel that I ultimately got very little out of the class. She often spent at least half of the two-hour class lecturing on the background and the historical context of each text (which is valuable but when you only get two classes maybe to discuss a text it's really not a focal point whatsoever). It's true that the class is easier than other LitHum classes (possibly--I wasn't ever in a different LitHum class so I have no basis for comparison), but I think this was incredibly detrimental to the class. After students realized that you basically didn't have to do any of the reading and could skim Sparknotes for an hour a week and still proba…

I am sure there are other people out there who think that their LitHum teacher is better but Tatiana is the ONE AND ONLY best LitHum teacher you can wish for. For some lucky reason I ended up in her class and it was a blast. As long as you do some of the reading (which she doesn't have much control over since it is dictated by the core) and show up to class you WILL get an A (or even A+) in her class. If you are lucky enough to have her then keep her and if you are looking to switch into her class, DO IT. She is cute, intellectual, witty, kind, and an absolute genius. You come to realize how fucking smart she is but you never feel intimidated or looked down on. Have fun!

She is an amazing teacher! She is the sweetest, most caring teacher you will ever find at any university. Using funny personal stories about her son into Greek Literature, she captured the attention and love of the whole class. She was so dedicated that even after being 9 months pregnant, she came to wish us good luck for the final exam! The essay topics are very general and easy. Also, class discussions are very interesting and the two hours pass by very soon. If your in her class, celebrate! 2-3 4-5 page essay. Very very fair grader! easy midterm and year wide final, both fairly graded.

Tatiana is by far the best professor I've had this year. As has already been said, she comes off a little shy at the beginning of the school year, but she slowly breaks out of her shell and turns this class into one you will remember forever (no joke). She is the cutest, nicest, and smartest professor you may have at your time here at Columbia. She speaks like 5 languages and always provides insightful and meaningful context to the novels that we read. However, she is not one of those brooding intellectuals who holds their knowledge over your head and makes you feel bad about yourself, but rather she encourages class discussion and is always willing to listen to your dialogue (unless it's just plain stupid). You cannot ask for a better professor to get you acquainted to Columbia. Her great stories about her son and Soviet Russia will bring you back to class every single meeting. Put quite simply: My class and I have the deepest affection for this professor and would take her over again in a second.

Tatiana is a really wonderful professor. She was a little shy at first, but when she was comfortable with the class she was funny, insightful, and very engaged with the students. Although the historical background and general review of the works could become a little lengthy (probably used somewhat to avoid the awkwardness of lack of student preparation), they were pertinent and helped to contextualize the works. Despite the pace of the syllabus Tatiana somehow managed a good amount of in depth analysis of pretty much all the works. Her little insights to the works and to the syllabus as a whole were golden, promoted some interesting class discussion, and motivated me to actually read the texts, and to read them with more acrity.

Tatiana is absolutly amazing! She is cute, hysterical, very devoted, and extremely insighful. she tells amazing stories about her soviet childhood, is very humble and is always trying to learn new words from students, and has very interesting ideas when it comes to the work. If you have the chance, take her one hundred percent!

Tatiana is really nice and makes it a great class. She goes on tangents and tells stories all the time, which makes the class pretty enjoyable. She knows her material well, and comes very prepared to each class. Sometimes she asks questions that people don't know, as Lit Hum requires an enormous amount of reading in a short period of time, so small details are usually not remembered. Unfortunately, Tatiana thinks we may remember it. However, she doesn't actually hurt you for not knowing - the midterm and quizzes are relatively easy and require a knowledge of important part of the book/play. The papers are not too bad - many options for topics are given, and she is willing to meet with each student to help him/her out. She is also very understanding about deadlines.

Tatiana is wonderful. Her nervousness and accent were a little worrying at first, but both were soon overcome. Her passion for the classics (as well as her ability to read the texts in the original greek) allowed her to be a phenominal lecturer. At 9 AM, this is truly a feat. There isn't as much class discussion in this class as there could be, but this might have been more because of the 9 am time slot than anything else. Tatiana grades fairly and is always willing to meet outside of class to discuss papers, class, or just to chat. I am planning on taking more literature classes with her, and I would strongly recommend Tatiana to anyone looking for one of the better Lit Hum teachers.

Tatiana is wonderful! Her teaching style leaves a bit to wish for, in that there is relatively little class discussion. However, this is made up for by her obvious passion for classics, and her occasional tangents are generally interesting. She's fun during class, she's understanding with deadlines and is a fair grader.