Dorothy R. Tsuruta

I have known Dr. Tsuruta for the past 4 years as she has been professor in the following course which I enrolled: Black Studies 210, Introduction to Black Literature: Role of literature in the formulation, maintenance, and articulation of a cultural ethos. Historical route from caricature to hero through literature. As her student, I have had an opportunity to observe the professor's participation and interaction in class and to evaluate the professor's knowledge of the subject matter. I would rate the professor's overall performance in these subjects as above average. This is evidenced by my grade A.

The professor who is known as teacher. Dr. Tsuruta is probably the most versatile and supportive teacher I have had in more than 20 years of studying at the university level. She is very open, well informed, and ecourages students to be their best. Her every thought appears to be how will this help my students. She makes every effort to try to ensure her students have the most current knowledge about the topic. She looks forward to advising students and trying to ensure their success in the academic arena. I most highly reccommend this teacher to fellow students

As an African American, my heritage through literature has been overlooked by the educational systems in this country, until I was given options to take classes where I was able to relate to the material. Dr. Tsuruta encouraged my learning about my culture past and present through reading slave narratives, poetry, short stories from African and African American authors. She opened up a world of literature to not only African Americans, but many students regardless of race. She has a style of teaching that inspired me to want to teach as well.

This professor is genuinely interested in students and works hard to help students learn to appreciate literature and love of writing. She is strict, and often students in upper level courses--but who still cannot write a college level essay--get angry at her for insisting they attend a writing workshop she conducts. And very often students who are not students of color have a mean racism they bring to class. She tries to work with them, but often they can't take being corrected by a woman of color. I was in her BLS 411 class and the few students who wrote online ugly things about her were in that class and sat in the back of the room making racist comments about the course readings and the professors.

This course about the 17, 18, and 19 centuries has a lot of heavy reading and almot like studying history through literature. I like the teacher who really tried to reach through our resisitence to writing and rewriting papers over and over again until we got them at college level. Some students thought the course put too much emphasis on writing but for me it was helpful as I was also taking 214 and I got a better grade in that class i think because I was also stuying writing in a literature class. So I am writing to say thanks to her.

Dr Tsuruta is warm but insistent on making us learn to speak and write at the level of a college student. She also pushes us to read logically and to have evidence in the text for any assumptions we make about the material. Some students see this as her trying to give us her opinons but what she is really trying to do is get us to back up our take on the readings with evidence from the material. At first I found this frustrating but then I came to see that it made sense. She says reading and weighing evidence is acutally good practive for when called to jury duty.

This professor is genuinely interested in students and works hard to help students learn to appreciate literature and love of writing. She is strict, and often students in upper level courses--but who still cannot write a college level essay--get angry at her for insisting they attend a writing workshop she conducts. And very often students who are not students of color have a mean racism they bring to class. She tries to work with them, but often they can't take being corrected by a woman of color. I was in her BLS 411 class and the few students who wrote online ugly things about her were in that class and sat in the back of the room making racist comments about the course readings and the professors.

Professor Tsuruta in well versed in her subject matter, but it is her opinion that matters and your response to a literary work is always wrong. She encourages no diverse thought; it is her way or the highway. She was always late for the start of the one hour class- no reason was ever offered. She never gained the respect of the students perhaps due to the almost weekly change of the syllabus and to the confusion over assignments. She assigned class times for review of the final paper and did not show up in her office or the classroom.I felt like I was back in high school. Was hoping to gain knowledge of some different authors. Reader contained only very short stories. Got tired of listening to her drone on about her opinions of the authors and works. We never touched on any real literature in depth. She is essentially secure in her job and very lazy.

her classes are the easiest classes to take. although i am writing a review for only this class. all you have to do is do the work. EASY A!!!!!!

Tsuruta is an all right teacher. She's one of the only profesors I've had that missed more days of class than I did. Her lectures are interesting and never that long. But she loves to listen to herself and is often scatter brained and repetitive. She is prone to telling the same story numerous time, but when she's on she is humorous, passionate and informitive. Homework is easy, and I spent an hour or two studying for her final and that was all that was needed. She does have memorization quizzes, and that may be easy for you or not. Overall, I was glad I took this course and had Dr. Tsuruta as my instructor.

I absolutely enjoyed this class. Dr. Tsuruta has the class studies organized in two parts: African literature and African-American literature. Although I have had many ethnic studies courses, this one was the most enjoyable. Dr. Tsuruta takes the time to get the students involved in stimulating and thought provoking discussions that made the challenge of the reading and writing worth while. Dr. Tsuruta is excellent at discussing issues clearly and has a real talent for bringing out the more esoteric points embeded, sometimes hidden in the works. I believe if one is not prepared for this, she can easily be misunderstood because her observations are always very deep. I really enjoyed the manner in which she re-evaluates the course material with the time available and the size of the class. In this manner it really gave me a since of security that we could really analyze the material a little further when everyone was engaged in the many topics that she facilitated for discussion. Beyond her obvious talent as a teacher, Tsuruta has a dynamic personality bubbling over with spirit and enthusiasm. It was almost intoxicating on some days and at the very least engagingly motivational. So if you want to learn about some very important facets of Black culture in America and throughout the Diaspora while sharpening your speech, language and grammar skills I urge you to sign up for Tsuruta's class. It was the one class this semester I looked forward to. Thank you very much Dr. Tsuruta I appreciate all of the Grooming that you give to your students.

I appreciated the time and energy spent in this class. We had to buy a large and expensive book, but it was well worth it and to date is one of the best anthologies I own. If you are a lover of literature, you will enjoy the insight Tsuruta brings to the course. She can sometimes go off on a tangant or become unclear about an assignment, but all you have to do is ask her to clarify. She teaches alot of grammer/english because most students don't possess what is needed to write a clear & concise paper. If you want to skate by, don't really enjoy literature, or don't like being challenged to think critically and write like a college student don't take her class. If you enjoy lively & insightful discussions and like professors that really want you to learn, sign up!

I would say that Dr.Tsuruta presented herself as a fine professor. The course was challenging and the subject matter interesting. The work she required was thought provoking and if a student applies themselves, they will surely end the class with more knowledge than they started. Apply yourselves and the world will come to you.

I have enjoyed this class very much. We have a big (2000 pg) book that we are reading from that is a good book to own.ITs is true that we haven't followed the syllabus like the gospel. Part of the reason is that many students do not come to class prepared. We have had I think 2 or three papers, and as other students have said, it was hard to know exactly what she wanted. I think, though, if the point is to be analytical, an intelligent analysis will do. We have watched some good films, and I bless her for giving us a final that is not too hard-a short paper. This is a good class to tkae if you need some more work on your essay/critical writing and/or if you havnt read any or much black literature.

I'm sorry, but I just have to go off now, after reading what some other of my fellow "students" wrote...This is an intro class-200 level, but aren't we adults?? I read the other reviews and i wanted to add my 2 cents because I think some students are being big babies. Do your homework!!Do any of you have jobs? You don't just not do your work unless you want to get fired. You also don't show up late unless you want to get fired. I think that all ethnic studies professors, and all professors period need to be serious and not accept any childish excuses from their students. Are we getting our educations so that we can sit at home or so that we can get J O B S where we can make some M O N E Y. And shouldnt we at least attempt to be scholars?? Please,people

Prof. Tsuruta is a passionate lecturer and seems to draw experiences from a amazing background. The main problem I have with her is that she does not make assignments clear enough. For example, she handed out a description of an upcoming essay assignment but then spent the rest of the class practically rewriting her description. At the end, I could've written two different papers from what she wrote down and what she verbalized. This can lead to quite a bit of confusion within the class. As long as you ask a lot of questions, pay very close attention, and take good notes, you should do fine. The literature we read is amazing, the videos we watch are very interesting and Tsuruta's mephorical examples are side splitingly funny. Take the class, just pay attention.

Dr. Tsuruta's policy in regards to tardiness is wholly unexceptable. You are not aloud to even step foot within the classroom if you are more than several minutes late; causing many students, including myself, to miss far too many meetings. It would behoove the good Doctor to be more understanding of students who are coming to campus by public transit, which is far from dependable, or from classes that my let out only a few minutes before her own. In addition she seems more content to show videos during class rather than teach. Videos instruction can be obtained easily in the library, a professors instruction is priceless. Dr. Tsuruta, if nothing, is reactionary, and displays a contempt for other cultures which is offensive to say the least. As when she stated that a Gap commercial was racist because there weren't enough African Americans dancing in it. Another example of this type of behavior was when she supported another student's claim that Greek Ferternities were racist because 2000 years ago the Greeks conquered part of Africa. It is this kind of revisionist history, and tortured logic which turns classrooms into places for professors to force their political agendas on students.

Dr. Tsuruta does not at all seem as though she truly wants her students to learn. I have missed quite a few classes because she will not accept students more than a few minutes late. She teaches more puntuation and grammar than anything else. She was, although, enthusiastic about her lectures. I enjoyed the videos we watched in class. The assignments were not too difficult. But this professor needs to loosen her policy on tardies and stick to the subject she is supposed to be teaching!

Ms. Tsuruta changes her mind quite frequently!!! She never tells the class what exactly she wants as far as essays are concerned. She teaches this class like it is an English class. We the students are there to learn about Black culture, instead we are there learning about puncutation. Something that we learned i junior high school. She isn't very effecient in her teaching. She should take some time out of teaching and ask the class is there anything that they don't understand. Ms. Tsuruta just assumes we know everything and she continues going on and on about English.