PLIR 3310

As much as it pains me to say this, because I really liked Professor Smith, I did not enjoy this class all that much. As the semester progressed, I just became less and less sure of what I was supposed to be learning and taking away from class. I would attend most lectures (which were via Zoom), but would quickly become lost and just stop taking notes. Eventually I would get distracted and start messing around on my phone or computer. While you could say that's on me, I know I'm not alone in feeling this way because I watched the participant count steadily decline throughout the semester, to the point where less than 2/3 of the class was ever attending on any given day. (Although tbf, lectures were recorded, but I know lots of people were just skipping.) Essentially, the lectures were just not engaging, and that made it difficult to follow along with the material. That being said, I liked everything else about Professor Smith, he seemed very nice, smart, etc., but I just could not focus in his class. As for the workload of the course, I found it fairly manageable. The midterm and final were fairly straightforward assignments: pick from a selection of prompts and respond to them by referencing class readings. Granted, I did not do said readings, but it was not hard to see which ones would be necessary for the essays and go back to them. The book/film review assignment was very interesting to me, mostly because I really enjoyed my movies and found them fun to write about. That being said, I was a little uncertain what they were looking for in your analysis, and it was hard to incorporate plot summary without going over the page limit, but it wasn't that bad. Lastly, there was an assignment to follow one ongoing international issue for the whole semester, which... I did not do. Long story short, I just read a few articles relating to my issue at the end of the semester and did just fine with it. Essentially, this class has very interesting material and a nice professor, but it is just hard to focus and really grasp what you are supposed to learn. Overall, I'd say I'm neutral in terms of recommending taking it to someone else.

#tCFspring2021

Wow. Thought it would be an easy A, but I got an A- for wayyyy to much work. Would never take a class from prof smith again. The class and prof are incredibly disorganized. He would constantly jump around subjects during lectures and did not use any power points or any helpful materials to guide the lectures. If you were looking for a specific topic or answer you had to jump around five different lectures to get a clear answer. He would say really important things in the middle of sentences (surrounded by 10 minutes of useless information about his personal life and opinions) without any warning so you had to pay attention constantly. My ta was Nicola, I recommended him highly. Whatever you do, do not choose tolu. Tolu was my TA for a different class, I don't recommend her. Tolu and Lauren were also not liked in this class from what I've heard from other people. Overall the subject of this class was very unfocused and boring, I would not take international relations again as a politics major. overall I don't think I learned anything - everything was very surface-level and a lot of common sense rather than a deep dive into the subject or insightful knowledge. Got an A-/B+ on the first paper which I thought was a little undeserved based on the comments my TA left. The final was take home and too hard. The second paper was easy, don't know what I got on it but it did not help me apparently. WAYYYY too much reading that has nothing to do with helping us learn the main topic besides providing a little anecdote that prof talked about for 2 minutes.

This class seems very intimidating at first, but trust me, it's not. Professor Smith is clearly a wealth of knowledge as noted by other commenters, and for that reason alone I would recommend this class. He is very knowledgeable about the realm of ethics, and that being said I think this class should be a political thought/theory class, not an international relations class. Know that this class talks about the background of ethics and ethical thinkers/theories, more so than actual human rights issues around the world. Lecture can be hard to follow at times as Professor Smith's thoughts can be rather scattered, but he provides an outline with each lecture to help you with note taking. This class has 2 essays and a final. There is a lot of reading assigned, but you DO NOT need to read all of it. If you have a good TA they will tell you what to read, and offer weekly questions that act as a guide so you know the main points you need to find. I had Nicola and he was amazing. The essays are graded fairly, and the final exam is tricky, but Smith gives you studying material. Also, you are allowed to prepare for 1/3 of the final before hand. Overall I would recommend this course, if you can get a good TA.

Avoid this class at all costs if you respect yourself. Smith is bland in lecture and often goes on dumb tangents during lectures. If he ever says a contentious argument beware he may use "I went to Harvard" as an excuse to not explain the argument and flex on you. As a politics major worst class I've ever taken in the department, shouldn't even be a PLIR but a PLPT/

Michael Smith is probably one of the most learned people at UVA. This class is very interesting, as you learn about the foundation of ethics and how others have historically approached the vague and confusing topic. It can also be difficult, as there is a lot of information to be learned and a lot of reading to be done in this class. Lectures can be super entertaining because Smith is so smart and pulls relevant quotes out of thin air. This class is definitely a good one to take if you are Foreign Affairs/Government.

The comments say that the reading is absurd, and it's TRUE. But you don't have to read them. Just read what you need for writing essays.
The class is two essays and a final. So you need to read for the first essay but after that, just do what you think would be good for the final honestly. I got an A+ on the first essay and then we didn't get any grades back but I got an A+ in the class, so trust me when I say DO NOOOOT REAAAADDDD unnecessarily - choose carefully. Don't read all the authors, just specialize in a few and DO NOT listen to the syllabus. Even Smith put readings that he doesn't address at all.
I found the class interesting as a starting point for the subject, but I didn't enjoy it really. Smith is organized in that he posts outlines for his lectures, but they are purely just his own outlines. Do not equate this to outlines of what you need to know. His lectures didn't help me at all until maybe towards the end, but he's so vague about everything that it doesn't really tell you much about anything. I relied on readings for everything and all of my essays, and his lectures didn't help. It's a pretty skippable class actually. Some classes you just don't learn anything. Don't get me wrong, he's smart - he just can't explain things well.
I thought for the final that I'd need to catch up on readings. That's a lie, no you don't need to. DO NOT buy all of the books on his list, it's a mistake. He doesnt even touch or address some of them and neither did my TA. Marc was a good TA, but he was new to the class so he just said read everything (again, not necessary). So for example, they say to read all of the first book, do not. DO NOT. People just did a lot of extra in the one things in this class because the reading assignments were confusing, so don't do that. Do what is necessary to survive and nothing more.

The amount of readings is absurd, but the quality of readings is incredible. It is one of those classes where when you actually do the work you feel like it was worthwhile. Lectures are slightly scattered, but Smith's intellect and passion for the material is obvious. Definitely worth attending. Also, Smith in general is a super friendly and easy professor to talk to, would definitely recommend going to office hours. The course is incredibly theory based, so if that's not your style you will probably hate it.

This class has an excessive amount of reading that is completely unnecessary. It's absurd. Professor Smith seems like a really nice guy and he is super well versed in the human rights field; however, his lectures are long winded and he often goes on tangents that seem inconsequential. The two papers were relatively easy to get through, but the final was rough. The first section of the final requires you to identify quotes/ phrases and elaborate on them. The task in itself is not hard at all until you look at the ridiculous amount of readings Smith could pull from.

This class is seriously interesting. The first half of the class focuses on the origins of human rights with readings from Thucydides, Kant, and Weber et alia. The first paper focuses on those three authors and isn't too difficult if you do the readings. The second half is centered around modern examples of human rights violations as well as the institutions that are meant to protect them. The second paper is on a book/film analysis that does not require you to draw from the readings and gives you room to be really creative with your interpretations. The final is identification, short answer, and one longer essay that you can prepare in advance. The information in the class is interesting, I can not stress that enough, and if you are interested in international politics, this class is for you. BUT, Professor Smith is pretty boring. His lectures consist of him using fancy sounding words and you can do the readings without attending the lectures and be just fine. My biggest issue with this class is that there is almost no objectivity. There are no rubrics for the papers and you don't get the final exam grade back, only your overall grade. Theo is an awesome TA and knows his stuff, but Smith swamps his TAs in work because there is no way only two of them can really read a paper and grade it given the number of students they have. I got a 90 on both of my papers and they had no comments on them except "good work" which is annoying if you want to know why you got a 90. Tl;dr interesting class, lots of reading, professor is boring, tough to improve writing.

Smith is fantastic. Personally, I enjoyed the first 2/3 of the class the most where the readings were more theory based. Smith's lectures were also much more cohesive and structured during the presentation of this material. Towards the end of the semester, the class got a little chaotic and many students lost patience/got bored (as evident through attendance). The final was hard and worth studying for + revisiting readings from the second half of the course. I am glad I took this class.

Smith is a very bland lecturer, so beware, but you can easily recognize his passion and strong intellect for the subject. As with most politics classes, the interesting stuff comes last, so 2/3rds of the class is theory based, should definitely be a PLPT instead. The material is interesting overall, as we really hash out ethical choices in International Relations. The grade is based off of two 7-8 page papers (one research and the other creative writing), and a significantly difficult final that is based off of the dense readings. Most of the readings in the second half of the course are interesting, but I would only recommend this class if you are VERY interested in philosophy, ethics, moral choice, etc. There are plenty of other cool PLIR classes out there! Smith is brilliant, overall, though and it was an honor to take a class with him! He's written many publications and has met with very famous IR theorists. His political views are strongly idealist and doesn't have any shame displaying that in class, so if that bothers you here is your warning! A decent class overall, but could be made more interesting.

I didn't learn a single thing in this class. I never bought any of the books because you really don't need to. ALL theory based and nothing applicable. Avoid if you don't want to die of boredom, waste a 3 credit slot on this class, or simply get a good education worth all the money you're spending. I guess if you like Trump bashing you might like this class.

Smith is awesome and such a character. He is quite blunt which is preferred in politics courses (I like to know the stance my professor takes and it's a positive he comes right out and says it). Although I disagree with him on many topics, he is very accepting of other people's perspectives, will definitely hear you out if you critique or question his own views/what he is teaching, and he is a great lecturer. The material is quite dry in the beginning because it focuses a lot on philosophical and theoretical material but it soon focuses on contemporary issues which is really interesting. He is quite welcoming in office hours and never makes you feel like you can't be honest. Very helpful, great listener, good lecturer (given the material he has to teach).

One thing that is a bit frustrating is that he puts up these outlines on the screen during lecture and you spend so much time trying to write it down and then doesn't follow them... at all. So don't bother with them, just take notes in a basic order and you will be fine. Do the readings, they will definitely help, but there is a lot so don't freak out if you fall behind because I guarantee you that everyone will. Also find a few friends to study with for the final exam because it will help you tremendously considering the course is very heavy and you won't be able to review everything in a week or less. Overall, a very good class and I really enjoyed it.

Never did the reading- but got an A in the class. The lectures would become boring- but the discussions were fun and exciting (because the TAs would break it down for us). Interesting topic matter/ideas, but not always executed the best during lectures (I rarely paid attention)... #tcf2016

Unless you happen to be perfectly in line with Smith's very strong liberal political views, you will likely find this class excruciatingly painful to sit through. He is often condescending to other points of view, and while everyone naturally has political biases, I expect attempted neutrality from a professor of his caliber and education level. The course is also heavily theory-based, even through the last weeks of the semester, which was disappointing to me as I was looking forward to applying the theories to case studies. Unless you are interested in political theory more than international relations, I would avoid the class. Callum was a great TA, though!

If you have a passionate distaste for political theory I would avoid this class at all cost. The first 2/3 of the class is extremely theory-based. The last third or so is more interesting and easier to follow - examples and topics applicable to current events. There is a TON of reading that doesn't seem that important until you're a week away from the final and you realize it is completely based on the reading . . . best advice is to have your TA orchestrate a massive google doc that outlines all the readings (#godblesscallum). The grades for the class are 1 essay based on theoretical readings, 1 creative book/movie report/moral analysis, and the final (ID section and 3 essays). Wouldn't recommend the class but if you have to take it it won't be too bad.

Smith is a nice guy and a gifted lecturer, but the class is often very theory focused instead of being an analysis on human rights violations throughout history. 2 8-page essays, one final (which is decently tough), and a participation grade (earned via attending discussion). Readings are very long/intense at times, but you don't need to do all of it to do well if you take good notes during class. Overall, I would say this course is one of the harder ones in the Politics department at UVa. If you're interested in a PLPT/PLIR hybrid course, definitely take this with Smith.

What can I say -- it was a difficult class but rewarding. Smith is obviously very knowledgeable and passionate about what he teaches, lecture was engaging and not just a summary of the readings. It is definitely from a liberal point of view, and while Smith might at times seem patronizing he always made the superior argument.

Smith is a genius. And as interesting as his lectures may be, the course material is not all that great; it is a PT class disguised as IR. In terms of work, there is a midterm paper, a critical book review, and a final exam, all of which can be done at home. TA: I had Chelsea German and she was the best. Would recommend her for any class.

Professor Smith is an incredibly smart man. However, I found that the course assigned too much reading that was not useful to the class (like hours upon hours of reading that I never used), that was incredibly difficult to understand.

Smith isn't the most exciting lecturer, and he uses a lot of big words that he knows his students won't understand, because he thinks it's funny, and he isn't incredibly open to the ideas of his students, even when he invites them to share their opinions during lecture (In this way, I think he can be a condescending jerk).

All that being said, though, the class was interesting. I think that the information is quite useful in understanding a lot of IR decision-making. I wouldn't recommend the class per say, but I wouldn't not recommend it either.

Good class. Smith is really knowledgable in the subject area. However, he is not very organized which made lectures sometimes hard to follow. Interesting if you are interested in liberal human rights issues.