Vivian is my favorite professor yet after 3 years at UCLA. He is so enthusiastic and engaging, and he made the class so inviting. It was at 10 am and I am NOT a morning person, but I still made 95% of the classes simply because I liked them. Do yourself a favor and take this class. One thing is that he doesn't post the slides to try and encourage people to attend, but people will send their notes in the groupme so missing isn't a huge deal. There's a creative project that mostly everyone gets 100% on, so it's a nice grade booster. In general it's just an amazing class and I'm going to try and take every class Vivian teaches.

okay professor vivian was amazing. he is one of the few history prof in UCLA where his class was just so great. AMAZING lecturer, he is funny and he makes things so easy to understand. I really loved this class and really suggest others to take it too. only thing is that he has one midterm, one paper and one final. the mideterm and final were in person and the paper was like a 5 page paper. This was just the only thing I have to say against him in that there was not much you could do for your grade. There is no discussion so your grade is heavily dependent on your exams. Other than that tho, he was just so interesting and i learnt a lot from his class so if you are thinking about his class- i say take it

I absolutely LOVED this class. Vivian is truly one of my favorite professors at UCLA, his lectures are incredibly engaging, well-organized, thought-provoking, and fun! I learned so much from his class, and I enjoyed every minute of it. This class focuses mainly on Herodotus, Homer, and Heliodorus as primary sources, but they are genuinely enjoyable and interesting to read. He does a really good job carefully selecting the readings we need to do, so it never feels like too much, although you really do need to do all of them. The class had an in-person midterm, a paper, and an in-person final, which is definitely a lot and I will say this class is not the easiest A, he is relatively strict on grading and you definitely have to know and include lots of details but it is definitely doable if you take good notes in class and on all the readings. I truly cannot recommend this class enough, Vivian offers such an interesting analysis of these sources that would really be difficult to recreate, if you have any interest at all in Ancient Greece or just ancient ethnography in general this is a must take class!!

I loved this class - this quarter was Race and Ethnicity in Ancient Greece and I highly recommend it. Professor Vivian is a great lecturer - he has great quips and engages with ancient literature with a modern lens. He is friendly to the class and frequently has opportunities for discussion, as well as being open to student questions and just overall very excited about his subject.

His grading is a little on the harsh side, but that being said if you pay attention to his analysis in class and use the historical writing center you will do decently. The paper was the hardest assignment in my opinion, as he was a bit particular about how he would like the structure. I got an A on both midterm and final but an 89 on the paper took me down to an A-.

All in all, I would recommend the class but just know you'll need to do a bit extra if you want to secure the full A and not an A-.

Anthony Vivian is actually one of the best professors I've ever had at UCLA. He's an amazing, engaging lecturer. Even if you like Greece and Rome before taking one of his classes, you'll come out of it better read and more passionate than ever before. Seriously, he has inspired me and so many of my friends, and is on one of the reasons I decided to apply to grad school in History. Take his classes! They are a normal amount of work, nothing crazy, but all the reading is super interesting and if you do them and go to class and pay attention youll get an A... the best kind of class!