EGMT 1520

This engagement is honestly a hit or miss for people in my experience. Half of the class is spent with Prof Williams lecturing about some aspect of slavery/the documentation of fugitive slaves, and the rest is working on a group assignment that you don't have to put much thought into. However, for a 2 credit engagement, the amount of work we had to do was shocking. There was a journal (research-based assignment) due EVERY class, so you're doing 2 per week. These are not easy and she asks pretty difficult questions based on 30+ page readings and databases you have to explore. It's obvious that she is passionate about her work, and you do get to learn more about the legacy of slavery and importance of learning about it, but this seemed like a 3-4 credit history class. If there had been any others that worked with my schedule I would've taken them. Save yourself the time and effort and try to take a different 1520 egmt if you can.

Take this class if you're looking for an easy engagement. The only assignment is reading a given scholarly article and answering a few short answer questions about it before every class, which is graded for completion. Class is cancelled, let out really early, or delayed A LOT which was really nice. Dr. Williams is definitely passionate about what she teaches, but the content got kinda repetitive at times. If you are looking to learn about the History of Data, like the name of the course implies on SIS, you should know that the entire class just focuses on slavery and whether or not it is ethical to use sources created by slaveowners. Ultimately, I'd take this class again just because it's an easy A, but there are probably more interesting engagements out there.

Going into this class, I was honestly worried as the other reviews made it seem worse than it was. While there is a lot of reading and the journal prompts can become repetitive, especially during busy weeks, it was fairly easy. You can honestly skim a lot of the reading and still grasp the main ideas that you need for the prompts and in-class discussions. Professor Williams often started class late, ended early, or simply canceled, which was really nice.

It is clear that she is extremely knowledgeable in her area, and she loves to talk about her work if you have time to chat with her. The lectures were always straight to the point and quite interesting, in my opinion. The only caveat that I will say is that the class name can be a bit misleading, as the only focus of the class is to analyze databases and draw historical conclusions about the Transatlantic slave trade. She offers many opportunities for extra credit, and if you put the work in, it is an easy A.

For an idea of how the class works, you can visit the website where she posts all materials: dataandhistory.com.

As the last review said, the older reviews make the class sound way worse than it actually was. The journals are incredibly straightforward as long as you put in reasonable effort. There was one group project at the end that was slightly confusing at first, but took very little time at all once we understood the prompt. She also offers extra credit, though I didn't think it was necessary to complete any extra credit assignments.

The lectures were pretty engaging. She's very dedicated to her work and sometimes goes on tangents about experiences related to it, which I found incredibly fascinating. Near the end of the semester she also brought in a couple guest speakers, all of which were very intriguing. In addition, she was pretty lenient with cancelling classes which is always a perk. Definitely glad I took this engagement with her.