Current instructor

Joshua Calhoun

/5Adjusted rating
/5RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.15/5 from 74 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

ENG181 · course not matched
Quality 4/5Difficulty 4/5
Professor Calhoun is passionate for his work and it shows. His class is work-heavy, but he's fairly kind on grading and his assignments enhance your learning experience. He was prone to slightly passive aggressive comments, though, and at times felt elitist.
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ENGL 177
Quality 2/5Difficulty 2/5
The lectures in this class don't feel like they have a lot of value, but are mandatory. Also, the grading system is very unclear, and the only way to get an A is to get an "exceptional" on your assignments, but the grading is way too subjective and unclear. I'm sure Prof. Calhoun is a great professor, but I think this course could be run better.
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ENGL 177
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
Prof. Calhoun is very nice and inspirational. But this class is SO MUCH work for a 100-level literature breadth class. Assignments are deliberately designed to eat up your time. You also have to go to libraries/museums quite a lot simply for participation.
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ENGL 177
Quality 2/5Difficulty 1/5
Very, very easy if you're looking to get an AB, but it's frustrating because you never get any feedback on your assignments on canvas. He doesn't give us a reason why we're docked points and that we're supposed to “find out for oursel… Read full reviewShow less
Very, very easy if you're looking to get an AB, but it's frustrating because you never get any feedback on your assignments on canvas. He doesn't give us a reason why we're docked points and that we're supposed to “find out for ourselves.” I will say that he's actually a super nice and chill professor but his teaching style just seems unorthodox.
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ENGL 177
Quality 1/5Difficulty 3/5
Professor Calhoun gives captivating lectures and is good at getting to the point of each lecture. The issue is that he assigns a crazy amount of mandatory note-taking that will have you spending more hours writing quotes and summaries than actually doing work for your major-specific classes.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Joshua Calhoun

ENGL 177 studies the intersection of literature and popular culture across various forms and media.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Joshua Calhoun is described as caring and nice, though his teaching style is viewed as unorthodox and his lectures as either captivating or random. Reviewers consistently criticize the course's subjective grading, lack of feedback, and excessive workload, including mandatory note-taking and library visits.

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2026

ENGL 699 is a directed study course for junior or senior English students.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sample

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sample

ENVIRST 699 is a directed study course allowing students to conduct independent work in environmental studies under instructor supervision.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sample

Recorded teaching history

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Fall 2026ENGL 177Literature and Popular Culture
Fall 2026ENGL 681Senior Honors Thesis in the Major
Fall 2026ENGL 699Directed Study
Fall 2026ENGL 799Independent Reading
Fall 2026ENGL 990Dissertation Research in English
Fall 2026ENVIRST 699Directed Study

Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.

Instructor identity & provenance
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