PHIL 3620

This is my favorite class I've ever taken at UVA. Professor Cameron is amazing at facilitating conversations in class and the readings/video assignments are always interesting. This is the kind of class that still gets people showing up at 9:30am even without an attendance requirement. Your grade is made of two 8-10 page papers (one of them can be writing your own creative Sci-Fi story though!) and Prof. Cameron gives thoughtful feedback on them. I learned about so many philosophical concepts while also gaining a greater appreciation for SciFi. I would HIGHLY recommend this class to anyone who is able to fit it in!

This class was fucking awesome.

Professor Ross will assign a short story or film to be read or watched prior to every class, and then lectures are 100% discussion on them. Assignments: 2 term papers, both are capped at about 2000 words. Very straightforward: write about the philosophical ideas or issues presented by one of the things you read or watched. For the 2nd term paper you can opt to write your own science fiction story (up to 3,500 words) that has some kind of philosophical message.

I found it really enjoyable and fun. Professor Ross is passionate about teaching and he is able to mediate the very controversial discussions excellently. If you like science fiction, there is no better class.

Grading is fair. Just be sure to take your discussion in your papers further than whatever was talked about in lecture, and try to come up with your own original takes. You will get prompts that guide you, and it's not something you will ever stress about. Very straightforward.