Chechecheche

This was really helpful, thanks! I feel less like I should just give up.

Yeah, it's the history department... The vagueness was an attempt to remain somewhat anonymous.

I just finished my first quarter in a top-ten humanities phd program and received my first grade for the introductory theory class. I got a B+. The prof sent us feedback with the grades, which I really appreciated. Then I realized that he bumped me down because he thought I didn't take his class seriously. I may have cracked a couple jokes about how abstruse some of the texts were, but I did contribute to discussion every day, turned in all the assignments, and tried my damnedest to figure out what the point of each set of readings was. I'll admit I expected an A- due to the fact that I didn't get everything, but I didn't expect such a low score. Grades normally wouldn't concern me too much, but the fact that I need a 3.7 to maintain my funding for the next few years is freaking me out. My advisor seems really pleased with my work in the class I took with him, and I did really well in the other class too. What do I do about this theory class? I'm not particularly interested in working with critical theory (Foucault, Derrida, and a bunch of other dead men who normally don't make many appearances in my field). Should I still be reading this grade and this prof's low opinion of me as a sign that I'm blowing it in this program? I have to take another class with the guy third quarter, and now he thinks I'm garbage. I sent him an email apologizing for the remarks and asking how I might improve in the future. Is there anything else I can/should do?