One of the best classes I have taken at UCLA. The subject matter is endlessly fascinating and Professor Young curates a fantastic approach to studying it. The class examines the concepts of "Africa" and the "Middle East" what those terms mean, and how do we come to understand these two regions. I learned so much history that I never knew about and would think about some of these topics for hours. The reading materials and lectures were both so good. In terms of workload, it's not that much other than reading, although I hated doing discussion posts because they were just busy work. However it's worth it to have Professor Young, he made this course special. He designed the course, he's the perfect person to teach it, and you also happen to be in the presence of a genius, just one of the smartest people I've ever met, and he's super nonchalant about it too. But the genius is there, one can't help but notice it, and he is also has a very good sense of humor, his small talk at the beginning of lecture can be really funny and he has good stories. If you take this class the one thing I say to you is engage, engage as much as you can with him. You don't have to, if that's not your thing — most people in my class didn't and still did very well, but I truly think it's to anyone's benefit to have the pleasure of learning with Professor Young and getting to know him in office hours. I am certainly setting high expectations for him, but truly I just loved my experience in this class and I cannot recommend it enough.