Professor
Katherine Burke
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - Dr. Burke is an extremely thorough professor, perhaps a little to the detriment of actually engaging her students with the material. I enrolled in her class as someone already extremely interested in religious studies, archaeology, the history of the middle east, and with a strong tolerance for dense readings and writing critique. I still had a hard time with some of the readings she handed out, and I found her critique of the papers so heavy-handed it was baffling to me. I was really, really interested and excited by her lectures but her grading quickly beat that out of me. I spent more time combing every single reading to ensure I didn't accidentally miss a reference somewhere (and therefore get demoted points) than I did actually engaging with any of the course material or synthesizing information. Initially, I read each paper thoroughly and thought about how I could integrate them together, but after being marked down for not including small things, like single-sentence lines in certain papers, I quickly changed strategies to just CTRL+Fing through the readings for shared vocabulary and then forcing myself to talk about whatever words I could find in every single paper. I don't think her course is HARD, it's just that she cares so much about the small details that it sucks the joy out of learning about the subject matter. Her slides are so thoughtful and she covers the material with what is clearly a lifetime of love and dedication. I came away from the class with a fascination about so many things I had never considered before going into it. Yet, the grading stressed me out so much that I found myself dreading coming into class and losing sleep over the next reading assignments. I understand it's on me as a student for caring so much about my grades, but for those of us here on merit scholarships and planning on pursuing graduate school, such exacting grading is the fastest way to sour the learning experience.
Winter 2024 - Dr. Burke is an extremely thorough professor, perhaps a little to the detriment of actually engaging her students with the material. I enrolled in her class as someone already extremely interested in religious studies, archaeology, the history of the middle east, and with a strong tolerance for dense readings and writing critique. I still had a hard time with some of the readings she handed out, and I found her critique of the papers so heavy-handed it was baffling to me. I was really, really interested and excited by her lectures but her grading quickly beat that out of me. I spent more time combing every single reading to ensure I didn't accidentally miss a reference somewhere (and therefore get demoted points) than I did actually engaging with any of the course material or synthesizing information. Initially, I read each paper thoroughly and thought about how I could integrate them together, but after being marked down for not including small things, like single-sentence lines in certain papers, I quickly changed strategies to just CTRL+Fing through the readings for shared vocabulary and then forcing myself to talk about whatever words I could find in every single paper. I don't think her course is HARD, it's just that she cares so much about the small details that it sucks the joy out of learning about the subject matter. Her slides are so thoughtful and she covers the material with what is clearly a lifetime of love and dedication. I came away from the class with a fascination about so many things I had never considered before going into it. Yet, the grading stressed me out so much that I found myself dreading coming into class and losing sleep over the next reading assignments. I understand it's on me as a student for caring so much about my grades, but for those of us here on merit scholarships and planning on pursuing graduate school, such exacting grading is the fastest way to sour the learning experience.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - So far, this is one of my favourite classes that I've taken. The class is interesting if you like archaeology and history. There are a lot of readings but you can skim through it and the lecture goes over the important things. The midterm is a short essay and short answer questions, so if you don't like writing, maybe the class is not for you. There is also a final research paper (8 pages) and she helps you through it. I think this is one of those classes that prepare you for grad school. I have taken all the classes that Professor Burke teaches at this school and if she opens a new class, I would be first in line.
Spring 2020 - So far, this is one of my favourite classes that I've taken. The class is interesting if you like archaeology and history. There are a lot of readings but you can skim through it and the lecture goes over the important things. The midterm is a short essay and short answer questions, so if you don't like writing, maybe the class is not for you. There is also a final research paper (8 pages) and she helps you through it. I think this is one of those classes that prepare you for grad school. I have taken all the classes that Professor Burke teaches at this school and if she opens a new class, I would be first in line.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - From a student that has taken multiple Islamic themed courses, this class was abysmal. In fact, I dreaded attending and doing any work for this professor...here's my list babes: Pros: -Love Islamic Art and Architecture: this class addressed ceramics, coins, architecture, historic events, and your basic archaeology studies. -Slides were clear, interesting, engaging, and informative Cons: -Assignments were easy in theory, HOWEVER, the professor lacked the ability to be organized and CLEAR in her directions. Therefore, ALL assignments felt like rollercoaster of uncertainty (I had to increase my anxiety meds for this piece). -Nitpicks on the most irrelevant items. -Again her clarity was the worst when it came to assignments. No exaggeration (I have screenshots), we would receive at LEAST one/two announcements a week regarding the clarification of her instructions to either her Vocabulary lists (5), Mini Essays (3), and Final Paper. -If I received the amount of clarifications on my instructions...the problem is me. I would fix that. Let's do better, yeah? Lastly, would I recommend this professor? No. Save yourself the frustration and anxiety medication. I had to be practically sedated to make it through the last three weeks of this class.
Winter 2024 - From a student that has taken multiple Islamic themed courses, this class was abysmal. In fact, I dreaded attending and doing any work for this professor...here's my list babes: Pros: -Love Islamic Art and Architecture: this class addressed ceramics, coins, architecture, historic events, and your basic archaeology studies. -Slides were clear, interesting, engaging, and informative Cons: -Assignments were easy in theory, HOWEVER, the professor lacked the ability to be organized and CLEAR in her directions. Therefore, ALL assignments felt like rollercoaster of uncertainty (I had to increase my anxiety meds for this piece). -Nitpicks on the most irrelevant items. -Again her clarity was the worst when it came to assignments. No exaggeration (I have screenshots), we would receive at LEAST one/two announcements a week regarding the clarification of her instructions to either her Vocabulary lists (5), Mini Essays (3), and Final Paper. -If I received the amount of clarifications on my instructions...the problem is me. I would fix that. Let's do better, yeah? Lastly, would I recommend this professor? No. Save yourself the frustration and anxiety medication. I had to be practically sedated to make it through the last three weeks of this class.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2024 - This class was incredibly dull, and the professor was not engaging at all. Lectures slide all around history and are not organized chronologically. She grades extremely harshly and often arbitrarily. Make sure you read the assignment details at least THREE TIMES, or else you will miss tiny details and lose points. I would not retake this class or professor and don't recommend it unless you're super passionate about medieval egypt and archaeology. The only reason I attended lectures is because she does random attendance checks.
Spring 2024 - This class was incredibly dull, and the professor was not engaging at all. Lectures slide all around history and are not organized chronologically. She grades extremely harshly and often arbitrarily. Make sure you read the assignment details at least THREE TIMES, or else you will miss tiny details and lose points. I would not retake this class or professor and don't recommend it unless you're super passionate about medieval egypt and archaeology. The only reason I attended lectures is because she does random attendance checks.
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