POL SCI 119
Special Studies in Political Theory
Description: Lecture, three or four hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Preparation: one course in Field I. Requisite: course 10. Designed for juniors/seniors. Intensive examination of one or more special problems appropriate to political theory. Sections offered on regular basis, with topics announced in preceding term. May be repeated for credit with topic change. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - Barker is a fantastic educator! The focus for this quarter was Environmental Political Theory, which was really interesting. The grade in the class was measured by three 3-4 page essays as well as discussion posts due each Friday, except on the weeks that papers were due. The prompts for the papers were very straightforward as long as you paid attention during the lectures (which were recorded and uploaded to the class website) where he discusses the assigned readings. All of the readings were posted online for free and were relatively short, very interesting, and (mostly) easy to understand. For the more challenging and/or longer material, Barker did an especially great job of breaking them down and focusing on the most important aspects. He also has a great personality and was very responsive to emails! Additionally, because of the ongoing pandemic, Barker kept an open line of communication for us through a Google Form where he gave us the opportunity to rate various aspects of the course and anonymously submit suggestions/concerns/etc. throughout the quarter if we weren't comfortable emailing him about them. Lastly, he was very understanding about the news of police violence/BLM protests towards the end of the quarter and adjusted the final paper so that it was optional and no-harm, meaning it didn't count against our grade if we chose to submit it and did poorly. Overall, Barker is an amazing professor and I definitely recommend taking a class with him during your time at UCLA!
Spring 2020 - Barker is a fantastic educator! The focus for this quarter was Environmental Political Theory, which was really interesting. The grade in the class was measured by three 3-4 page essays as well as discussion posts due each Friday, except on the weeks that papers were due. The prompts for the papers were very straightforward as long as you paid attention during the lectures (which were recorded and uploaded to the class website) where he discusses the assigned readings. All of the readings were posted online for free and were relatively short, very interesting, and (mostly) easy to understand. For the more challenging and/or longer material, Barker did an especially great job of breaking them down and focusing on the most important aspects. He also has a great personality and was very responsive to emails! Additionally, because of the ongoing pandemic, Barker kept an open line of communication for us through a Google Form where he gave us the opportunity to rate various aspects of the course and anonymously submit suggestions/concerns/etc. throughout the quarter if we weren't comfortable emailing him about them. Lastly, he was very understanding about the news of police violence/BLM protests towards the end of the quarter and adjusted the final paper so that it was optional and no-harm, meaning it didn't count against our grade if we chose to submit it and did poorly. Overall, Barker is an amazing professor and I definitely recommend taking a class with him during your time at UCLA!
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2018 - John Gavin Branstetter is one of the best profs at UCLA. I genuinely enjoyed his lectures and even his office hours and sculpture garden hours are engaging. His essay prompts are very clear; he is straight forward about what he is looking and he is more than happy to help out students who need further assistance with their papers. Take him for theory, he sure makes the subject as interesting as possible
Fall 2018 - John Gavin Branstetter is one of the best profs at UCLA. I genuinely enjoyed his lectures and even his office hours and sculpture garden hours are engaging. His essay prompts are very clear; he is straight forward about what he is looking and he is more than happy to help out students who need further assistance with their papers. Take him for theory, he sure makes the subject as interesting as possible
Most Helpful Review
Summer 2020 - This was a class on Fascism, and this professor was great. He had engaging lectures and understood the density of the material, so he spent a great deal of time going over the readings and going into more depth using his own knowledge base. Assignments included two 3 page reading "memos" both worth 20% of your grade and very fairly graded. Participation was 20% of your grade, and the final was 40%. We were given 5 questions and had to choose 1, and write 5-6 pages on it. Overall I loved this class, the professor and his energy and teaching style, and would gladly take another course with him.
Summer 2020 - This was a class on Fascism, and this professor was great. He had engaging lectures and understood the density of the material, so he spent a great deal of time going over the readings and going into more depth using his own knowledge base. Assignments included two 3 page reading "memos" both worth 20% of your grade and very fairly graded. Participation was 20% of your grade, and the final was 40%. We were given 5 questions and had to choose 1, and write 5-6 pages on it. Overall I loved this class, the professor and his energy and teaching style, and would gladly take another course with him.
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