course
History of Racializations in the U.S.

This class, Professor Okihiro, and TA Dr. Alvan were so enjoyable. They really want you to develop as critical thinkers and give you specific tools to help you understand, engage with, and unpack the readings in this class and all of your classes in general. I learned so much in this class and it was the first time I was challenged academically in a while. I wish I could have majored in Ethnic Studies. Take this class as early as you can so you don't miss out as I did.

If you are not already convinced by the previous reviews, let this be your last warning: Do not, under any circumstances, even if your life depended on it, ever take a course "taught" by Prof. Bruce. This class consisted of one Reading Rainbow-book report-group presentation after another - absolving Bruce from the responsibility of having to actually give a lecture and teach something. When she did attempt to lecture, it always ended up being about herself. Her writing assignments were always unclear and poorly thought out and her grading was mathematically illogical. Her comments in class were often divisive and she played favorites. She was unorganized and not quite sure what she was doing, evident in the fact that she amended the syllabus at least twice during the semester. Overall, Bruce simply is not qualified to teach at this level. I have never taken a course at Columbia and felt like a professor was anything other than an expert in their particular area of study - until now. This is unfortunate because CSER is a great department with some amazing professors.

If you want a Professor that does not teach and passes off all of her teacher responsabilities to her students, then this is the Professor. The reading requirements are ridiculous for an Intro-class. Each week there are group presentations on assigned group books, so basically this course is a series of book reports with absolutely no feedback from Professor Bruce. Every writing assignment is completely wordy and only a chosen few can figure out the actual question. She creates a competitive environment by posting A papers on courseworks and then has the nerve to tell her students to model their papers after the A papers. She grades strictly on grammer, so if you are not up to par with your Columbia vocabulary, then your grade will suffer. I would not recommend Professor Bruce to anyone. She should not be teaching at Columbia. We pay too much money as students to have Professors like Bruce sit back and collect their paychecks for doing absolutely nothing!

Professor Bruce is the type of professor who: a. is too lazy to teach so makes every class group presentations b. believes her opinions are facts c. contradicts herself all the time d. is EXTREMELY disorganized e. plays favorites f. assigns an impossible amount of reading (a book a week, if not two) While I definitely learned a few things about myself and American society from this class, I have to take it all with a grain of salt because of the issues listed above. This class had great potential, but Bruce really, really killed it. If you don't have to take it for your major, I would stay far away. Unless, of course, you enjoy writing obnoxiously vague essays.

This lady will break your back with the amount of reading she assigns. I must say that a lot of the reading is actually very interesting and that this class has opened my eyes up to the further issues about race, but I suggest that you read the reading list on your own time. You can definitely do without the class! Monday lectures were unbearably boring because she reads straight from the paper in a monotone voice but Wednesday discussions were much easier to deal with. You must have done your reading! or at least part of it because she makes you make up questions every week and discuss the books in detail. The things that were good is that she'll pause to answer any questions one might have and if she does not know the answer to a question, she will make sure she looks it up for the next class. We also watch a few videos which are interesting. I suggest ordering them off of PBS...ones on housing and race. She is an extremely hard grader. She will say grades don't matter but they do in her class. An A paper will become a C paper (or a B, a D) if you hand it in two days late. She is horrible with extensions and extremely uptight about coming to class on time as well. I suggest not taking this class but reading the reading because what we learned about the history of racializations is actually invaluable.