MDST 4108

I enjoyed the class and the professor. He's open minded and likes discussion. Participation is key. Do some of the readings/skim and you'll be able to jump into conversation. Topics are actually interesting (drugs and violence).

Course structure:
4 short 3 page papers (it can be annoying but some of them are interesting) - they have prompts to guide you which is refreshing cause you don't have to make your own argument
1 long 17-20 page research paper (always expected in advanced classes)

Grading:
Always late when handing back assignments. But he's willing to go over them if you ask
Fair grader. Show you put some work and you'll be solid. Do the readings for the papers.

Oof. This class unfortunately turned out to be a pretty big letdown. The topic, "Media, Drugs, Violence and Latin America" is amazing, and a handful of the readings/films that we watched were worthwhile and cool. Other readings were dense theories, which would have been fine and expected in a high level course, but for the fact that they were never fully explained. Professor Amaya also seemed pretty absent, both physically (he had to cancel a couple of classes and ended multiple classes early), and figuratively. I felt that he came unprepared to a variety of classes. The class is discussion based, and as he told us multiple times throughout the semester, we, the students, are supposed to lead this discussion, choosing to talk about what we think is relevant. While I appreciate him giving students responsibility and the choice to talk about what interests us, his almost complete lack of guidance made discussion hard, and few were actually interesting. He's clearly knowledgeable on the subject; I wish he'd started the class discussion with some of his own insights, or at least guided us along.
This is addition to the fact that he's incredibly difficult to reach, and awful about returning assignments. It's the end of the semester and I have absolutely no idea what grade I'll end up with in the class. I'm taking a break from writing a ridiculous 20 page paper that I am incredibly confused and frustrated about to write this CourseForum review. I've tried to meet with him and ask his opinion on certain subjects and have gotten absolutely no response. Nothing. In the end, this class is a big bummer....