PLAP 3350

Say what you want about the course material itself, but Professor Kirkland really does come across as a bit of an asshole. He started the course with an announcement about how he doesn't really care that much because "he has tenure". The TA I had, Lauren, was just straight up not good. Very self-righteous about the takes she had so participating in discussion was a bit of a minefield. Also, Professor Kirkland just straight up has some terrible takes for a person with a doctorate in this stuff. He makes such a large point about how corruption and bribery aren't happening in Congress and that they don't matter! He's also just extremely dismissive of the voting patterns of republicans and their policies. It's also ridiculous that his basic whole premise of the course is that US politics became polarized because of "Newt Gingrich and the 1994 midterms". Everything reeks of confirmation bias. I think when Fox News rails against out of touch elitist professors, this is exactly the type of person they're going for.

I enjoyed this course and found it to be relatively interesting. The material really doesn't focus on Congressional history or laws but emphasizes issues such as polarization and lobbying. There's a decent amount of reading, but you could probably get away with skimming it for the exams. You also have 5 two-page papers that you have the entire semester to complete where you read a social science article and respond to it (do not leave these until the last minute). The reaction papers are worth 50% of your grade and are credit/no credit. Discussion section is worth 20% and the midterm and final exams are worth 15% each. Both the midterm and final follow the same format: Professor Kirkland released four possible prompts a week before the exam and picked one on the day that the exam was released. We had 24 hours to write each exam, with the midterm being 5-6 pages and the final being 7-8. Both exams were slightly stressful because Professor Kirkland said that his expectation was that students write out all four exams in advance and just submit the appropriate one on the day of the exam, essentially meaning that he was going to grade as if we had a week rather than 24 hours to write. I thought that this was extremely unreasonable given that most people had four other exams to study for and this would mean writing 24-28 pages in a week, but the TAs seemed to understand that most people were going to write the entire paper in a day. I did very detailed outlines but didn't write any of the papers out in advance and got a 98 on the midterm and an A on the final, so it is definitely doable to do well even if you write in the 24 hour time frame. You can make short references to a few course readings and do well. Other the the exam format, I thought Professor Kirkland seemed nice and was a good lecturer. Lauren is definitely the strictest TA, but I think she did a very good job at preparing her students for the exams.

This class was fairly easy. For a politics class, this has a pretty low amount of readings (generally less than 100 pages per week). Only two exams, and both are take-home. I don't think doing the readings is that necessary tbh, and you can probably get away with skimming the readings while writing the exams. There are five 2-page reaction papers, and if you do them throughout the semester, it'll be super easy. If you do them all the last day of class, then you're probably in for a rough time. I'm not a politics major so I did not find this course that interesting, but it was pretty low stress (you really only have to do work during the exams). The exams were somewhat annoying though because my TA required a minimum of 7-8 pages, and you have to write that in a 24-hour period while also dealing with all your other classes that day. However, Kirkland does give the prompts a week beforehand, so you can outline them if you'd like, but I just did the entire thing the day of the exam because outlining each possible topic felt like too much work. Still got an A in the class without too much effort. I had Lauren as my TA and she was super great. Everyone thinks she's the harshest TA but I don't think that's true at all. She's super nice and very accommodating, and as a student who did not pay attention in lecture or even take notes after the first week of the semester, I found that she did a great job of basically teaching me everything relevant during discussion sections.

Instructors: Kirkland is a really nice prof. Lauren Van De Hey is infamously a bad and stressful TA. I had Galen/Nicola in different classes and they are both chill and nice.
Work: Midterm and final are both take home and over 24 hours. prompts provided before, collaboration is encouraged, and then the essay is randomly selected. Half of the grade is writing five two-page reaction papers that are due on the morning of the final. The reaction papers are roughly a day's worth of work each.
What to do: This class is easy and useful. The major concepts were campaigns, lawmaking, and lobbying. Go to class and take notes during the discussion but you don't have to read consistently to get an A.

This class was super interesting and definitely nerdy for those who enjoy politics or government in general! The course walks through many different parts and pieces to how Congress works, from spacial theory to election financing and everything in between. Professor Kirkland is pretty funny and engaging (as others have said) and definitely makes an effort to show that he cares about his students and their success, which is really nice and makes you feel appreciated in class. He always starts class off asking if people have questions about the class or anything outside of it, which is super refreshing to not immediately dive into deep material right at class time. He does a good job at explaining difficult concepts in ways that make them easier to understand, which I appreciated as someone not majoring in a political field.
In terms of the class structure, it is based off of two take-home exams (each worth 15%), discussion section performance/attendance (worth 20%), and five 2-page papers (each worth 10%, and graded pass/fail). All five papers are assigned at the beginning of the semester and are due at the end, and are based on reviewing empirical political science articles. For the exams, he gives four prompts a week before the exam (so that they can be outlined/written ahead of time) and picks one the day of the exam to write. This was my only main gripe with the class - no student really has the time to write four 6-page essays ahead of time, just to throw three of them away. In a class that he said was meant to be low-stress, this definitely increased stress because you were essentially writing a 6-page paper in 24 hours.
Overall, though, take this class if you are interested in politics and how Congress works! However, if you are simply looking for an easy class, this is not the one for you - there is a lot of stuff that he covers that is pretty difficult to understand without taking a decent amount of time outside of class. It definitely helped me to understand more about politics beyond what I read in the news/see on TV and that it's so much more difficult than what you see. I think Kirkland will take these suggestions (laid out in course evals) to heart and work to improve them in the future. #tCFspring2022

I would recommend this class for people who are politically minded or are planning to major in the politics field, as it is dense with different theories and information that only political junkies will appreciate! It was truly insightful to learn the logistics and processes behind legislation, and Professor Kirkland was lowkey and easy going! The grade was primarily discussion attendance, five response papers (all due at the end of the semester, so submit when you want), a midterm, and a final! He gives you the prompts a week in advance, so you have awhile to prepare and outline. For an upper level politics class, I enjoyed my time with Jacob as my TA, and because attendance wasn't mandatory, it made it easier and more flexible for me to manage. There are assigned readings each week, but you don't necessarily have to read all of them word for word to do well. #tCFspring2022

Prof. Kirkland is a pretty funny and engaging guy. His approach to the class is very social science-based, which means he has you read lots of journal articles about data on congressional voting and elections. It's not a ton of history. I took it online during COVID, and Prof. Kirkland was very lenient on grading (basically all completion so I got an A+) and very understanding of the difficulties that faced us. But be prepared, it might not be so easy during normal times. I didn't come out having learned a ton of new information, but the lectures were interesting enough, I learned some about the theories and data collection of social scientists, and got a good grade, so I was happy. Kirkland is really tolerant of all opinions and holds both conservative and liberal students accountable for their claims, which was very refreshing during the 2020 election season.
#tCF2020