CLASSIC 20
Discovering Romans
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Knowledge of Latin not required. Study of Roman life and culture from time of city's legendary foundations to end of classical antiquity. Readings focus on selections from works of ancient authors in translation. Lectures illustrated with images of art, architecture, and material culture. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - Prof Vasquez is super sweet and helpful! This was an easy GE and our grades consisted of mostly discussion participation, three 2-page papers, and a final (optional for my quarter). Honestly you can get by without doing the readings because she goes over the same thing in lecture and her slides are very clear and give you enough information. I opted out of the final exam so I didn't have an exam testing my knowledge of the content (I heard the final was kinda rough though). The three papers aren't too difficult and mostly train you to think analytically and apply the content you learn. The lectures can get boring sometimes if you're not interested in Romans though, but overall this is a great class that I'd recommend!
Fall 2020 - Prof Vasquez is super sweet and helpful! This was an easy GE and our grades consisted of mostly discussion participation, three 2-page papers, and a final (optional for my quarter). Honestly you can get by without doing the readings because she goes over the same thing in lecture and her slides are very clear and give you enough information. I opted out of the final exam so I didn't have an exam testing my knowledge of the content (I heard the final was kinda rough though). The three papers aren't too difficult and mostly train you to think analytically and apply the content you learn. The lectures can get boring sometimes if you're not interested in Romans though, but overall this is a great class that I'd recommend!
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2023 - I have extremely mixed feelings about this class. A lot of the reviews here are positive, but I just can't find myself holding that perspective no matter how hard I try. As a classics major, I have taken a decent amount of both classics lower and upper divs, and when I say this was my least favorite one of all of them, I mean it. As far as the actual information in the class, I think it was really interesting, but that's also coming from someone choosing to study this. The way the content was presented was a bit weird because you learn it chronologically and then 3/4 of the way through, its just cultural stuff until you pick back up a few hundred years later at the fall of Rome. Professor Vazquez did a decent job bringing attention to a lot of the social issues both in the field of classics and in the material we have available to us today, but I feel like she always failed to say anything meaningful about it. She would discuss how slavery was bad and point out how scholars in classics attempt to excuse it, which I strongly commend her for, but the impact of slavery on Roman culture was glossed over. As far as the mode of assessment, this class isn't necessarily difficult (mean grade for my quarter was an A- and median was an A), but the amount of work is kind of a lot for a class that counts as a GE and is meant to be a basic introductory course for the major. If I actually did all of the work assigned and took notes on the readings, I would be spending more time on this class than multivariable calculus. That said, you can definitely get away with skimming the readings or not even doing them as long as you actually go to lecture. There were 3 essays, and I felt like we received very little support from both Professor Vazquez and the TAs. Sure, there were office hours, but I did not find them helpful at all. The last half of the class is very fast-paced because right after the midterm there are two essays and then the final. The exams themselves were very easy, so I have no complaints, but I think that three essays (two were 3-4 pages and one was 2-3), a 50 minute midterm, and a 2 hour final was overkill and unnecessary. The TAs took very long to grade, so I went into summer break not knowing what my grade would be. The discussion sections were completely useless and were somehow mandatory with no credit for actually showing up, meaning that no one showed up and no one wanted to participate. Maybe I just had a bad experience with my TA and my specific section, but Professor Vazquez does not structure the course in a way that facilitates engagement in section. Professor Vazquez also does not have the best organizational skills and tends to dump a very large amount of information on her slides, which she usually has to rush to get through. She goes on tangents a lot, which makes the aforementioned problem worse and has admitted that the department will not allow her to teach classics 30 for this exact reason. She is very nice as a person, easy to approach, and her lectures are engaging and interesting, but I really disliked the way she structured the class. If you're looking for an easy GE, I'm not sure if this is the one, but if you have to take this class, it's really not terrible, and I mostly enjoyed it aside from discussion sections.
Spring 2023 - I have extremely mixed feelings about this class. A lot of the reviews here are positive, but I just can't find myself holding that perspective no matter how hard I try. As a classics major, I have taken a decent amount of both classics lower and upper divs, and when I say this was my least favorite one of all of them, I mean it. As far as the actual information in the class, I think it was really interesting, but that's also coming from someone choosing to study this. The way the content was presented was a bit weird because you learn it chronologically and then 3/4 of the way through, its just cultural stuff until you pick back up a few hundred years later at the fall of Rome. Professor Vazquez did a decent job bringing attention to a lot of the social issues both in the field of classics and in the material we have available to us today, but I feel like she always failed to say anything meaningful about it. She would discuss how slavery was bad and point out how scholars in classics attempt to excuse it, which I strongly commend her for, but the impact of slavery on Roman culture was glossed over. As far as the mode of assessment, this class isn't necessarily difficult (mean grade for my quarter was an A- and median was an A), but the amount of work is kind of a lot for a class that counts as a GE and is meant to be a basic introductory course for the major. If I actually did all of the work assigned and took notes on the readings, I would be spending more time on this class than multivariable calculus. That said, you can definitely get away with skimming the readings or not even doing them as long as you actually go to lecture. There were 3 essays, and I felt like we received very little support from both Professor Vazquez and the TAs. Sure, there were office hours, but I did not find them helpful at all. The last half of the class is very fast-paced because right after the midterm there are two essays and then the final. The exams themselves were very easy, so I have no complaints, but I think that three essays (two were 3-4 pages and one was 2-3), a 50 minute midterm, and a 2 hour final was overkill and unnecessary. The TAs took very long to grade, so I went into summer break not knowing what my grade would be. The discussion sections were completely useless and were somehow mandatory with no credit for actually showing up, meaning that no one showed up and no one wanted to participate. Maybe I just had a bad experience with my TA and my specific section, but Professor Vazquez does not structure the course in a way that facilitates engagement in section. Professor Vazquez also does not have the best organizational skills and tends to dump a very large amount of information on her slides, which she usually has to rush to get through. She goes on tangents a lot, which makes the aforementioned problem worse and has admitted that the department will not allow her to teach classics 30 for this exact reason. She is very nice as a person, easy to approach, and her lectures are engaging and interesting, but I really disliked the way she structured the class. If you're looking for an easy GE, I'm not sure if this is the one, but if you have to take this class, it's really not terrible, and I mostly enjoyed it aside from discussion sections.
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Most Helpful Review
Walser is really interesting- he definately knows his stuff and he makes lectures enjoyable. After his class, I plan to minor in Classics. His reader is great bc everything is in there so you do not have to take notes in class if you just listen. I wouldn't call his class easy- if you do all the readings (do not wait until the end bc it will be impossible) on time and come prepared to discussions. If you fall behind, it is really hard to catch up. The quizs were kind of hard bc you have to memorize so many terms and only like 4 are on there. There are no surprises in his class, you know exactly what to expect on his tests. He does expect a lot on essays. I definately recommend this class, especially the honors section. I was not going to take it bc I was a freshman and I had not taken a history class in 2 yrs but it was worth it bc Walser leads it and you have a great discussion w/people who actually did the readings. You do not do any additional reading and you only have to do one essay that is 10 pages that is due at the end of the quater. I got an A in this class but I did all the work so I wouldn't say it was easy but it is not hard.
Walser is really interesting- he definately knows his stuff and he makes lectures enjoyable. After his class, I plan to minor in Classics. His reader is great bc everything is in there so you do not have to take notes in class if you just listen. I wouldn't call his class easy- if you do all the readings (do not wait until the end bc it will be impossible) on time and come prepared to discussions. If you fall behind, it is really hard to catch up. The quizs were kind of hard bc you have to memorize so many terms and only like 4 are on there. There are no surprises in his class, you know exactly what to expect on his tests. He does expect a lot on essays. I definately recommend this class, especially the honors section. I was not going to take it bc I was a freshman and I had not taken a history class in 2 yrs but it was worth it bc Walser leads it and you have a great discussion w/people who actually did the readings. You do not do any additional reading and you only have to do one essay that is 10 pages that is due at the end of the quater. I got an A in this class but I did all the work so I wouldn't say it was easy but it is not hard.
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