Professor
Daniel Lowenstein
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - I have no idea why the rating for Professor Lowenstein is so low. I took the Writings of Abraham Lincoln seminar with him, and it was great. Only about 200 pages of reading the entire quarter, with no other homework other than to come prepared to discuss the reading. Discussions in class were very entertaining, and Professor Lowenstein added his unique insights into the conversation to make them even more informative. I don't have anything negative to say here. If you're looking for a Fiat Lux class that is both fulfilling and low-commitment, this is the one, especially if you're into literary analysis or history.
Winter 2024 - I have no idea why the rating for Professor Lowenstein is so low. I took the Writings of Abraham Lincoln seminar with him, and it was great. Only about 200 pages of reading the entire quarter, with no other homework other than to come prepared to discuss the reading. Discussions in class were very entertaining, and Professor Lowenstein added his unique insights into the conversation to make them even more informative. I don't have anything negative to say here. If you're looking for a Fiat Lux class that is both fulfilling and low-commitment, this is the one, especially if you're into literary analysis or history.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - This class went over at least one different Lincoln writing per week, sometimes including other politicians like Douglas. All you had to do was show up for this class, and of course it helped if you talked, since it is a class discussion. I rarely spoke though (thanks, social anxiety!), but was always attentive and showed up during office hours to catch up on a missed discussion the day prior. I think this class went over important documents that give us more of a perspective on how the political climate was during Lincoln's time, and what his thoughts were on highly debated issues. I think this class was good for learning about American history during Lincoln's life and I recommend it to whoever enjoys history or likes Lincoln.
Winter 2024 - This class went over at least one different Lincoln writing per week, sometimes including other politicians like Douglas. All you had to do was show up for this class, and of course it helped if you talked, since it is a class discussion. I rarely spoke though (thanks, social anxiety!), but was always attentive and showed up during office hours to catch up on a missed discussion the day prior. I think this class went over important documents that give us more of a perspective on how the political climate was during Lincoln's time, and what his thoughts were on highly debated issues. I think this class was good for learning about American history during Lincoln's life and I recommend it to whoever enjoys history or likes Lincoln.
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Most Helpful Review
Excellent Professor! RE: HNRS 158 This is my second class with Professor Lowenstein and I must say that I am incredibly impressed, yet again! (Previous class with him was HNRS 173). However, I warn you now though, you reap what you sow, so in other words, there is a STRONG emphasis on class participation or else the class will not be meaningful (or at least, from your perspective). In light of this, it’s not your typical class, if you just sit-back, remain quiet or wait to be called on or “raise your hand,” you’ll be sidestepped since the burden is squarely on the student to take the initiative to SPEAK UP. As you can imagine by now, I was active, so I loved this class. Professor Lowenstein fundamentally altered the manner in which I analyze literature in relation to justice, law, language, and society. I consider this class to be the hardest class to get an A+ (or even an A) in terms of writing, participating, and his expectations on students (and I’ve taken some hard classes!). What’s more, Professor Lowenstein utilizes the Socratic method so if you gave a frivolous or smart sounding BS answer, prepare yourself to elaborate deeply on your comments or be caught. If you consider yourself a thinker or someone that relishes a good debate match around such important topics as liberty, justice, law, society, and literature, then you’ll be doing yourself a disservice if you don’t take HNRS 158 with Professor Lowenstein. Every moment of the class is filled with fascinating comments and debates from educated students as we analyze what role individuals, society, justice, religion, law, etcetera play in relation to the great set of literature that Professor Lowenstein selected. It’s because of these aforementioned reasons why our class almost always went over its allocated scheduled time. It’s true that the same 7 students always spoke up while the other 10 commented infrequently, but I disagree with the below commenter because everyone had an equal opportunity to share their thoughts to make the class better. But instead many opt-ed out to merely listen safely rather than enter the debate round. I blame this squarely on the quieter students (that were possibly intimated by the class environment or were shy, or for whatever other reason) so claims that the class was boring is only from your passive perspective; you can’t be passive for any of Lowenstein’s classes. It’s also true that as a student we get stressed out if we do not receive a grade on our paper or know our grade at moment in class. His grading isn’t traditional but he will give plenty of constructive criticisms on your paper like you’ve never encountered before! (All immensely valuable to become a good writer but no actual percentage grade.) As a matter of fact, only reviewing his comments in and of themselves have made me a significantly better writer. However, I disagree again with the commenter below about the severity of the lack of not having a grade on the essay because all you have to do is just ask him your grade. He goes beyond what you can imagine by helping every student in anyway possible and he is incredibly educated (his intelligence is sometimes scary!) but nevertheless, he is very approachable in or outside of class. Ultimately, I highly recommend HNRS 158 or any class by Professor Lowenstein.
Excellent Professor! RE: HNRS 158 This is my second class with Professor Lowenstein and I must say that I am incredibly impressed, yet again! (Previous class with him was HNRS 173). However, I warn you now though, you reap what you sow, so in other words, there is a STRONG emphasis on class participation or else the class will not be meaningful (or at least, from your perspective). In light of this, it’s not your typical class, if you just sit-back, remain quiet or wait to be called on or “raise your hand,” you’ll be sidestepped since the burden is squarely on the student to take the initiative to SPEAK UP. As you can imagine by now, I was active, so I loved this class. Professor Lowenstein fundamentally altered the manner in which I analyze literature in relation to justice, law, language, and society. I consider this class to be the hardest class to get an A+ (or even an A) in terms of writing, participating, and his expectations on students (and I’ve taken some hard classes!). What’s more, Professor Lowenstein utilizes the Socratic method so if you gave a frivolous or smart sounding BS answer, prepare yourself to elaborate deeply on your comments or be caught. If you consider yourself a thinker or someone that relishes a good debate match around such important topics as liberty, justice, law, society, and literature, then you’ll be doing yourself a disservice if you don’t take HNRS 158 with Professor Lowenstein. Every moment of the class is filled with fascinating comments and debates from educated students as we analyze what role individuals, society, justice, religion, law, etcetera play in relation to the great set of literature that Professor Lowenstein selected. It’s because of these aforementioned reasons why our class almost always went over its allocated scheduled time. It’s true that the same 7 students always spoke up while the other 10 commented infrequently, but I disagree with the below commenter because everyone had an equal opportunity to share their thoughts to make the class better. But instead many opt-ed out to merely listen safely rather than enter the debate round. I blame this squarely on the quieter students (that were possibly intimated by the class environment or were shy, or for whatever other reason) so claims that the class was boring is only from your passive perspective; you can’t be passive for any of Lowenstein’s classes. It’s also true that as a student we get stressed out if we do not receive a grade on our paper or know our grade at moment in class. His grading isn’t traditional but he will give plenty of constructive criticisms on your paper like you’ve never encountered before! (All immensely valuable to become a good writer but no actual percentage grade.) As a matter of fact, only reviewing his comments in and of themselves have made me a significantly better writer. However, I disagree again with the commenter below about the severity of the lack of not having a grade on the essay because all you have to do is just ask him your grade. He goes beyond what you can imagine by helping every student in anyway possible and he is incredibly educated (his intelligence is sometimes scary!) but nevertheless, he is very approachable in or outside of class. Ultimately, I highly recommend HNRS 158 or any class by Professor Lowenstein.
Most Helpful Review
The class readings were exceptional. My only qualm with the class was that we didn't have the opportunity to discuss the text more amongst ourselves (students). Professor Lowenstein is an exceptionally knowledgeable professor but he would tend to hijack the conversation. I can't complain too much, though, because he certainly took it easy on us... only three 4-5 page papers for the class (no mid-term or final), and he was a fair grader (maybe even too easy, a lot of us procrastinated to the last minute on our first paper and still got good grades).
The class readings were exceptional. My only qualm with the class was that we didn't have the opportunity to discuss the text more amongst ourselves (students). Professor Lowenstein is an exceptionally knowledgeable professor but he would tend to hijack the conversation. I can't complain too much, though, because he certainly took it easy on us... only three 4-5 page papers for the class (no mid-term or final), and he was a fair grader (maybe even too easy, a lot of us procrastinated to the last minute on our first paper and still got good grades).
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