Professor Julius really tried his best this quarter. I think he was having trouble with classes moving online, especially because his equipment was not working well so lectures were hard to hear. That being said, he was incredibly accommodating to the situation, giving an A- minimum for completing class assignments and making the third/final writing assignment optional (and an automatic A grade for that assignment). AJ is super nice and my TA, John, was also very understanding.

The class grade is made up of three writing assignments. For each one, you'll get three short answer prompts, and you pick two to answer in 1-2 paragraphs. Then you have about three long answer prompts, and you pick one to answer in 5-7 paragraphs. The assignments are based on the readings.

Readings were from Aristotle, Kant, Angela Davis, Frederick Douglass, Karl Marx, and a few others. I found the texts at the beginning of the class (mostly Aristotle and Kant) to be quite dry and a bit confusing as I've never taken a philosophy class before, but the readings got more interesting as the class went on.

Lectures were pretty disorganized and hard to follow, in my opinion. Discussion was optional. I ended up not going to lecture or discussion for the majority of the quarter, and listened to select parts of lectures to help me when the writing assignments came out. I didn't read any of the Kant, but still managed to get an A on both of the first writing assignments.

Overall, I think this class was pretty easy given the grading scheme, but not particularly interesting.

Probably the kindest professor I've had here. 10/10 would recommend!

Because it's COVID, he graded all of our assignments on an A-scale, which wasn't hard at all. However, his lectures were choppy especially over zoom, which made it difficult to learn.

With AJ, it's important to keep in mind that this quarter had circumstances that were out of the ordinary. Although AJ's lectures were extremely roundabout, confusing, and not particularly fun, I think it is extremely fair to say that he absolutely cares for his students. He started off the quarter by saying that if you merely completed the 3 assignments for the quarter, the minimum grade that each student could receive is an A-. As the quarter went along, the readings grew increasingly applicable and fascinating. From learning about Aristotelian ethics to conceptions of freedom from Black authors, AJ did a great job with his selection of readings. In addition, as anti-racism protests expanded, I had emailed him demanding that his allyship become more than performative, and he was willing to listen and ask for how he can best support students. AJ might not be the best communicator of information, but his heart is absolutely in the right place. I have no regrets about taking this class. Even though I had to primarily self-study in order to digest the material, it was extremely manageable.