HIST 2011

I really enjoyed learning this material. However, the class was really disorganized for me and stressed me out more than other classes. The information was really only covered in lecture and the lectures bounced around a bit to different topics so it was hard to put the picture together of what we were actually learning. The professor is super nice and the T.A. too. But this class had the most reading of any class I have ever taken at UVA and they were certainly very tough graders with limited to no feedback available or offered. I felt like I had to chase down the information because it was not clearly communicated just what they were teaching us and what they were looking for. It was almost like, "fill in the gap" with what you think is important from the material and hope that's what they wanted. I don't recommend this class unless you want to literally be reading 100+ pages every other day and be wondering what it is you are actually suppose to take away.

This class is very interesting, especially being a pre-law history major as it goes a bit into political theory as well as covering very interesting examples including the Rwandan Genocide, Holocaust, Chilean/Argentinian dictatorships, and more. However, my interest in the course concepts is where my enjoyment stopped. The grading in this course was harsh and unfair (which may have just been subject to the TA) and my grades were predatorily given. Not to say I am perfect, but I am a strong history major excelling in my other course work. This course was unorganized. For example, there were supposed to be 4 quizzes that were each weighted 5%, totaling to 20%. However, the teaching team could not figure out how to get 2/4 of the quizzes on Canvas, resulting in 2 quizzes each weighting 10%. Multiple people were dragged down by this intense weighting for a 5 question quiz. Grading on the midterm and final were harsh - I have taken 7 other history classes and know what is going on and was marked down for arbitrary things, such as not including what else was talked about in connection to the topic for the IDs even if it had no relevance to a term. Your grade is composed of the quizzes, midterm, final, and a writing reflection. For the reflection, you read a book and respond to it, connecting to other course concepts. I received a 90 and when I asked for feedback, I was told the grading team just did not like like my writing style - a subjective and angering response to hear. I would recommend this course to those only if they have a strong background in the political theory necessary to understand the history of human rights and with ample experience in taking blue book exams with IDs and essays in 50min periods.

The content is interesting, but it can be a bit hard to keep up with because most of the relevant info from lectures isn't on the slides she gives. Instead, she speaks about it, which is fine, but getting it all down is difficult. However, her lectures are very in-depth and she defines concepts and connections between lectures well. There's just a lot of reading in the class. For the non-history lovers who just need the credit, this is a good choice.