Without Shopping Week, choosing classes has become an endless process of My.Harvard searches for Gen Ed and concentration requirements, applications, Q guides, syllabi—and all the while searching for a class that won’t add to the stress of your week. We propose a new course search criterion: professor name. You may not be aware of these ten outstanding faculty members, most of whom teach smaller and specific classes, but they come highly recommended by students.
Virginie Greene
Professor Virginie Greene elicits “the magic of literature in ways I’ve never experienced before,” praised her student Carli Cooperstein ’24. “Professor Greene sets the warmest atmosphere in every class. I took her course on Proust last spring and could feel her genuine care for each of her students grow with every session. I feel fortunate to have gotten to know her through the course.”
The professor of French in the Department of Romance Languages and Literature will be teaching the spring course, “Teaching Languages, Cultures and Literatures,” built toward bringing together graduate students of different professions in the discussion of linguistics.
Philip Fisher
Professor Philip Fisher leads the freshmen seminar, “Complexity in Works of Art: Ulysses and Hamlet,” which Emma Hughes ’25 called “one of the highlights of my first semester on campus.”
“His love for the literature we discussed was infectious, and he cultivated a cozy and supportive atmosphere within our seminar each class,” Hughes shared. “But what I miss most about being in a class with Professor Fisher is bearing witness to his genius—he knew our texts cover to cover and his insight was inspiring, though sometimes demoralizing because I know that I’ll never understand James Joyce in the way he does.”
Professor Fisher also teaches the English class, “The Classic Phase of the Novel,” and has written books on cultural theory and narrative theory in English novels, including The Vehement Passions and Making and Effacing Art.
Shifali Singh
Dr. Shifali Singh “is probably one of the most incredible people I have ever met,” said former student Lulu Patterson ’24. The Director of Digital Cognitive Research & Neuropsychologist and President of the American Psychological Association’s Division 12 works as a clinical neuropsychologist and a professor in Harvard’s psychology department teaching the course, “Technology and Mental Health,” this semester.
“She is a kind, thoughtful, and phenomenal teacher who takes the time to care for her students not only in their schoolwork, but also outside the classroom,” Patterson shared. “If you are looking to be astounded by what you learn, and see how it changes the way you look at your everyday life, take Shifali’s courses. Dr. Singh is the type of teacher who commits to keeping students engaged by talking through the tangents that most spark their interest with her vast wealth of knowledge… By taking her class, you will gain an extraordinary mentor, who will not only illustrate what it means to be a remarkable educator, but also an exceptionally good human being.”
Nick White
“Welcome! Tomorrow we will meet for the first time in person (!!!) to gab about the ‘imagined real world’ that is our fiction. I promise you much energy, much laughter, some woe, a touch of rue, and many blessings with respect to the ‘willed word,’” exclaimed Nick White, instructor of the course, “‘Telling and Retelling’: Reshaping and Remixing Myths and Fairy Tales,” in an email to students at the start of the school year.
White is a visiting associate professor from Ohio State University and although he has only been here a few weeks, he is already planning a horror movie screening to promote community between his classes of creative writers.
Mariano Siskind
“Professor Siskind’s passion for Latin America, literature, and Jorge Luis Borges is felt every second of his two hour lecture in ‘The Borges Machine,’” expressed Alejandro Escobar ’25. Professor Siskind teaches the freshman seminar, “Borges, García Márquez, Bolaño and Other Classics of Modern Latin,” and “The Borges Machine” in the Romance Language and Literature department.
Siskind is an Argentinian writer from Buenos Aires, the same city as Jorge Borges, a writer who is the focus of much of his class content. “Without ever having stepped foot in Buenos Aires, I’m transported there for a bit, and guided by Professor Siskind, get to know the city that Borges inhabited and transformed,” said Escobar. “Getting to understand this enigmatic author and his unique writing style through a renowned scholar is incredibly special and has been a highlight of my sophomore year.”
Julie Buckler
Professor Julie Buckler in the Slavic Language and Literature Department teaches the course, “Reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace,” constructed around understanding the significance of the Neopolen wars in Russian history through literature.
Susanna Freudenheim ’25 said that Professor Buckler’s course, “Russia in the Golden Age,” was her favorite last year. “It was utterly gripping. She just had so much fascinating knowledge to share with us and facilitated a great balance of discussion and lecture at the same time. She made me really want to speak, because she was so encouraging and focused on each of us. She read our essays and discussion posts closely and responded to them!”
Dave Charbonneau
Professor Dave Charbonneau of the Astronomy Department has taught “Topics in Modern Astrophysics” and “Astronomy 1,” and works at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, where he researches the characteristics of planets.
“His session of Astronomy 1 was one of my favorite Harvard courses,” Ryan Golemme ’23 commented. “Even though the course was in the Astronomy department which usually requires physics prerequisites, he did a great job of teaching it to a more general audience. It almost felt like a secret kind of Gen Ed in the best way possible. He brought in so many great demonstrations to help us understand complicated physics and apply them to progressively larger scales through the universe.”
EJ Dionne
Acclaimed Washington Post writer and political commentator Ej Dionne serves as a visiting professor at Harvard and a full time professor for government at Georgetown. He “was hands down one of the most genuine, enthusiastic, and kind hearted professors I’ve had at Harvard,” said Marbella Marlo ’24. “He hosted lunches twice a week and would invite his students to have conversations with him, welcoming students from all walks of life, and treating them with the highest regard and interest in their lives.”
Reina Pimentel ’25 (reina_pimentel@college.harvard.edu) writes for the Independent.