ARTH 2961

This was originally a class I took to fulfill an architectural history course requirement, but ended up enjoying a lot more than I expected! The professor is a little intimidating, but very passionate about the subject and always open to answer questions over office hours or email, sometimes even altering lectures to account for questions she receives outside of class. Lectures are pretty fast paced with a lot of information packed into every lecture making note taking a little difficult, and a good portion of your grade comes from participation either by asking or answering questions in class, as well as attendance. The coursework is easy with minimal reading, six response essays spread across the semester, a mid-term essay, and final essay based on the response essays. Overall, an easy and interesting course!

As someone who only really took this class to fill the historical perspectives requirement I can assure you that this is a very worthy class to take. I read the reviews here beforehand expecting the class to be harder than it actually was. I think the professor changed the curriculum as you no longer have to memorize anything, nor do you take any quizzes or tests. There really isn't too much work, and everything you do have to do is all writing based where you have access to all of the readings she provides.

The professor is very passionate about the subject matter and is willing to talk to you outside of class about anything that you are learning. She is also very helpful too. I do think she grades somewhat harshly, but she does give out extra credit to somewhat make up for it. Essentially, if you do the work and engage in class you’ll do just fine.

In terms of the actual content of the class I was surprised that it was a more architecture based class as opposed to like paintings and the like, but after going through the class and learning more about Islam it definitely makes sense, just a heads up! It is super cool to see what kind of architecture is in the Islamic world, as well as its reaches outside too!

This class was super easy, but the lectures can be soooo boring it's hard to motivate yourself to do the work. But the readings were really short and easy, and the grading is made up of 4 short quizzes, a midterm, and final (essays)

This was a very interesting class. Because the topic is quite broad, the instructor (Amanda Phillips) does her best to present a survey of all the art that the Islamic world has to offer. The readings are quite doable, but can get technical at times. For the tests, be prepared to memorize odd and long names- I had no previous exposure to Arabic, so the names presented a bit of a challenge. Otherwise, you learn a lot in this course and walk away with a deeper understanding of the Islamic world.