MESA 2300

This is the easiest class I have ever taken at UVA and probably in my life. With that being said it is extremely boring. It's a lot of writing but if you can just skim the few readings that you have to write about and spew a bunch of anti-western influence nonsense about how history is skewed because its been written by westerners then you will get an A and satisfy both nonwestern and SWR. This class is a hidden gem because SIS says it only satisfies non-western but he will sign everyone's SWR form at the end.

I took this class for my non-western and second writing requirement and got an A-. But I will warn you this class is extremely BORING. I literally fell asleep every class...Professor Cohen also reads off of the slides word by word and he dims the light so it's pretty darn difficult to stay awake in my opinion. The workload is pretty light there are response papers (1-2 pages) for the readings and 2 research papers, one midterm and no final. I mostly just skimmed through the readings and did fine on all my papers. Overall, a pretty easy class considering you can knock out two area requirements.

So, Professor Cohen is like the kindly old, wise grandpa you wish you had in your life. However, that being said, he is a pretty dull lecturer. I went to every class but one and can honestly say I maybe picked up on 5% of the information he spoke about because I was so bored. He reads paragraphs verbatim for his lectures and they all go online so class is pointless, but participation is 40% of the grade. The other grades in the class consist of 6 short reading responses, 2 research papers, and a midterm. I got an A in this course and did minimal work for it, but I will not lie: it was really truly boring.

Professor Cohen is a great kind, lectures can be fairly dry because he will mainly just read his powerpoints word for word. However he makes them available on Collab and thats all the information you need for the midterm and final. Four papers are required throughout the semester on the reading and if you pick a certain chapter or topic are easy to do without having done all the reading. Interesting subject matter but fairly scattered in terms of regions and time period.

Professor Cohen, although really nice and friendly, tends to be pretty boring during class. He reads off his slideshows for the entire class which gets old after the first couple weeks. There is quite a bit of reading, but he tends to pick modern writing, so a lot of it is interesting if you like the subject. There are four essays, 1,000 words each, all based on the readings throughout the semester, so make sure you read at least some of the readings. It also counts for your second writing requirement, so it's definitely worth it. There is a mid-term and a final but people tend to do well on them, as they are mostly based on the slideshows he posts on the collab. Overall, the class is pretty boring and reading intensive but is pretty easy.