PLPT 3020

Course content, readings, and lectures were super interesting (if you like political philosophy and theory), and Bird is a great lecturer who provides his own opinions as well as giving a full picture. The readings are difficult, but Bird explains them well. There's very few grades in the class (a midterm, final, and paper weighted 50%) which made it really hard to gage where I was at (ended with a B+ after thinking I was in solid A- territory) --- definitely my biggest complaint. His tests are tricky, but he curves them fairly so it's nothing to worry about. He and his TA grade essays kind of harshly so make sure to go to office hours and get some advice

Bird is an excellent professor, but the content is super dry and boring. You don't need to take Medival to take this class, but do not take this class to full fill the PLPT requirement for Politics majors. There is an extraordinary amount of reading, much of which you don't need to do. There are two essays where you can pick from a wide range of topics, but the topics are so dry that it is a lot of work to get to page requirements without repeating yourself. Grading is heavily dependent on the TA, but the final is extremely hard. If you aren't interested in reading Hobbes, Locke, Marx and so on, I don't recommend you take this class.

I loved this class!! Dr. Bird is an engaging lecturer and is so passionate about political theory. I always really enjoyed lectures and that is where I learned the most during the class (the readings are a lot and most of the time not entirely necessary to do well in the class). The grading is fair (two papers, one final). The prompts for the papers are available beforehand so be sure to look over those and start thinking about them during lectures. I learned a lot and thought this class gave a really good foundation for the major political theorists. Plus Dr. Bird is British, so that's always fun.

Class on political theory from the modern era (so like the 1600s-1800s). The readings were difficult: they were often quite lengthy, but doable. However, the real challenge came from how dense and complicated they were: the authors wrote in a style that can be difficult to understand for modern readers (they are often wordy and use terms that may be unfamiliar). The lectures were great at unpacking the key themes and ideas in terms that are much easier to digest. If you are unable to complete the readings (or have no desire to do them), GOING TO THE LECTURES IS A MUST. There are only three grades: two papers and the final (multiple-choice and take-home) which were awful if you really understand the material and themes covered in the lectures. If you aren't into philosophy or are not willing to attend all the lectures and/or discussions, then I would not recommend taking this class.

I found the lectures to be very interesting and informative, and overall I really enjoyed the class and wish I had been able to take it in person. Where this class gets difficult is the readings, as they can be quite challenging reads with a lot to unpack and decipher since most are written in old english. The exams were challenging as they were multiple choice, but a "select all of the following that apply" type of exam, but the exams were definitely doable if you complete the readings. Bird outlines the information from the reading he wants you to focus on, and this was helpful when it came to preparing for the exam. The paper (5-10 pages) was worth 40% of your grade, but looking to the TA for what they were looking for was the most important to getting a good grade. Overall I really enjoyed the class but would only recommend to people who are genuinely interested and enjoy learning about political theory as the material can be quite dense

Great class! Took it kind of last minute as a swap, and loved Prof. Bird. Despite it being online, he did a great job about engaging us as much as possible, and lectures really helped understand the readings. Only issue is that most of the grades come later on in the semester, so can be hard to gauge how you are doing.

Professor Bird is an amazing lecturer and I really wish I could've had the opportunity to take this class in person. That being said, I really struggled with the readings. Unless you are REALLY good at reading and understanding old English, do not take this class. It is not the professor's fault it is just the territory when you sign up for the class. The amount of reading for this class should warrant a skimming-type approach, but skimming philosophical texts is not winning strategy, especially when you struggle to understand the reading sentence by sentence. I actually enjoyed the discussion sections when I was prepared to talk and Amanuel was a great TA. Don't take this class to satisfy the PLPT requirement for the PoliSci major. #tCF2020