Professor
James Massengale
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - The zoom difficulties by the professor's technological impotence were saddening. Not his fault, just circumstance. It was a little too much lecture and not enough discussion, but the lectures were very helpful for mapping and conceptualizing the difficult material. However, the discussion was practically nonexistent here, and when the professor did try to facilitate it, it was a fiasco of silence. Massengale offered his own translations, which was amazing, and the ideas he focused on in Kierkegaard's corpus were remarkably current and beautiful. Just a shame that no one seemed to care. Professor could have encouraged more participation (he should have banned laptop use), and it was tragic when only two people would respond to his brilliantly posed questions. He's an old fella, with a lot of life left in him. His passion for Kierkegaardian existentialism is palpable, he said he met his wife through Kierkegaard's work, and this class is met for someone who cares, not someone who doesn't want to engage, which was the case for 16 out of the 20 in this class. I'm sorry to be so scathing, but it was really tragic to see the only questions from students pertain to their grades and nothing else.
Winter 2022 - The zoom difficulties by the professor's technological impotence were saddening. Not his fault, just circumstance. It was a little too much lecture and not enough discussion, but the lectures were very helpful for mapping and conceptualizing the difficult material. However, the discussion was practically nonexistent here, and when the professor did try to facilitate it, it was a fiasco of silence. Massengale offered his own translations, which was amazing, and the ideas he focused on in Kierkegaard's corpus were remarkably current and beautiful. Just a shame that no one seemed to care. Professor could have encouraged more participation (he should have banned laptop use), and it was tragic when only two people would respond to his brilliantly posed questions. He's an old fella, with a lot of life left in him. His passion for Kierkegaardian existentialism is palpable, he said he met his wife through Kierkegaard's work, and this class is met for someone who cares, not someone who doesn't want to engage, which was the case for 16 out of the 20 in this class. I'm sorry to be so scathing, but it was really tragic to see the only questions from students pertain to their grades and nothing else.
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Most Helpful Review
I agree with the other reveiwers. I really enjoyed Massengale's class. I didn't have much of an interest in Scandinavian Literature before taking it, but I really found it to be interesting. Massengale is very passionate about the subject matter that he teaches and seems to really value student opinions. He is very available in his office hours and actually seems like he really wants to help you in any way possible. His tests are a little obscure and he doesn't really tell you what to expect at first, but once you understand his testing method it is pretty easy to get a good grade on them. I would definately recommend taking his courses.
I agree with the other reveiwers. I really enjoyed Massengale's class. I didn't have much of an interest in Scandinavian Literature before taking it, but I really found it to be interesting. Massengale is very passionate about the subject matter that he teaches and seems to really value student opinions. He is very available in his office hours and actually seems like he really wants to help you in any way possible. His tests are a little obscure and he doesn't really tell you what to expect at first, but once you understand his testing method it is pretty easy to get a good grade on them. I would definately recommend taking his courses.
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