Louisa Burnham

I totally understand why introductory History courses could be difficult to design, because It has to cover a ton of materials, let students know about basics in this large timeframe, and build for them some basic skills for being a Historian. Professor Burnham definitely put an effort into making this course work by using a variety of resources, interesting books, and quite engaging activities (e.g. primary source commenting) that helped achieve some of these goals in an interesting manner. And apart from that she is just a really nice professor that accommodates student needs, grades fairly (at times rather easily), is an inspiring historian, and is very enthousiastic about the material. That being said, I feel that her teaching methods would work more perfectly with experienced History students in more specific topics or senior seminars. She really wants us to know some newer historiographical perspectives and ideas, which could sometimes drive the lectures a bit off-topic. This is fine for me and I enjoyed it because I previously knew the material to an extent that I basically did not need to read the textbook (which btw is expensive and online features are required) in the entire semester; but a friend of mine that had little prior knowledge in premodern Europe struggled quite a bit, especially when there are chronology quizzes where you have to memorize key dates and people (again, some of these dates are definitely ones that a history student should know, but it is a challenge to those without a lot of prior knowledge). So in general, I enjoyed the course while learning little, and my friend relied on my constant tutoring to make this course work.

I totally understand why introductory History courses could be difficult to design, because It has to cover a ton of materials, let students know about basics in this large timeframe, and build for them some basic skills for being a Historian. Professor Burnham definitely put an effort into making this course work by using a variety …Read more

While Professor Burnham is extremely knowledgable about the material, she sometimes struggles to present the material in a coherent manner. She often goes on tangents and goes into extreme depth on one specific topic, leaving use to figure out the basics ourself.

I enjoyed this history class with Professor Burnham. She was clearly very enthusiastic about class material and engaging as a lecturer. Class did move quickly, but that was to be expected given this history course covered a very long time frame. Textbook readings were helpful, though she covered most of the important parts in class. Exams were fairly graded and quite doable if you put in the work of being engaged in class, taking good notes, reading, studying effectively. Overall, I enjoyed this class and would recommend to someone who likes history.

I enjoyed this history class with Professor Burnham. She was clearly very enthusiastic about class material and engaging as a lecturer. Class did move quickly, but that was to be expected given this history course covered a very long time frame. Textbook readings were helpful, though she covered most of the important parts in class. …Read more