I loved this class! Elizabeth Barnes is an excellent professor and one of the smartest ones I've had at UVA. Her lectures were very interesting, and she was incredibly understanding and kind about lectures and grading when classes moved online due to covid. The only assignments you have for this class are two 10-page papers (each 40%, participation 20%), which sounds long but the topics are interesting/you have choices for what you write about, so the length comes naturally (I was actually over the word limit and I definitely am not a passionate writer). Other than that it's just one reading per week, which are reasonable and sometimes hard to follow, but as far as philosophy classes go, not that bad. Stephen (TA) was also very understanding and generous with grading and participation. I ended up with an A in the class and found it one of my most interesting philosophy classes.

Definitely a course you ought to take before you graduate. There's a low volume of reading weekly (less than 20 pages per WEEK) and Professor Barnes does an excellent job communicating the topics of the course. There are only two papers, 2500 words each, and she is very accessible if you have questions. Take advantage!

Great professor, very nice and understanding. She's very laidback and lectures like she's talking to a colleague. She enjoys interacting in the classroom and her online lectures were all YouTube videos which were the highlight of my quarantine coursework. I enjoyed hearing her perspective on the material. A lot of it was set up like a vlog that I would watch on my own time if available. That's how interesting it was (to me at least). There's two papers that she grades and that's it. Could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your grasp of philosophy papers. I'd call myself a pretty good writer that put basic level of effort into them and I did well. I'd recommend the class to my friends that aren't as literary too.

Professor Barnes is an amazing professor. I'm a STEM major and this class was still extremely interesting and engaging. The papers were difficult to wrap my head around but there are only two of them and the TA or professor Barnes are always there to help. Professor Barnes made this class a lot more approachable than I was anticipating.