If Mershon is teaching it, DO NOT TAKE IT. I think she is a nice little old lady who is sometimes funny! However, taking her class this semester was like being in that scene from Zootopia where the sloths run the DMV.

Professor Mershon has an organized syllabus, which is great. That's just about where the good qualities of the class end. She is definitely scatterbrained, and everything in the class moves SO SLOW. Lecture is just a recap of the readings and moves very slowly. The average UVA professor would cover one Mershon-lecture's worth of content in 15 minutes. Even though she always finishes lecturing early, she takes a lot of student questions/comments to stall instead of ending class early.

Assignments are simple, but she takes about a month to grade one discussion post. The worst part is the lack of feedback. There is no rhyme or rhythm in this world that could tell you how she grades, and then she leaves comments like "Fine essay" or "Slightly low B+". The exams are terrible. They just test you on memorization (i.e., you need to remember the author, country, and general finding of several readings so you can use at least 4 in the exam), and you use that information in response to some horribly written questions.

The content of the class is neither enjoyable nor informative. I thought this class was structured on finding some very basic facts, like "Black women are mistreated in the U.S. legal system" or "Some people do not feel represented by their government representatives." Most people come to these conclusions in middle school or earlier. I learned maybe two things this semester from this class.

TL;DR - DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. You will be miserable.