Professor was unnecessarily critical in grading and unclear about what he expected from essays

Let me add here, though, that Professor Wilkinson was my teacher well before 2000. During my senior year for his class I wrote an essay, "Reflections on the Failure of the Spartacus Slave Revolt,' which I presented at an "Urban Guerilla" conference in Rotterdam, later published in the book, "Urban Guerilla," a selective collation of the Conference Proceedings. I was also Professor Wilkinson's research assistance for a year, when he was working on his "Revolutionary Civil War" ideas. It's not possible to look back on those years without appreciating the opportunity working for Wilkinson provided. Let me express my appreciation for the guidance he provided.

Thank you very much, Professor Wilkinson. The couple couple years during which I was your student and research assistant were years of tumult, to be sure, but year in which student had a chance to learn a lot, and I did, to a great extent because you were my teacher. Please accept his expression of my appreciation.
//Charles J. Reid -- aka C.J. Reid, author of "Poems to Natasha' (2019)

waste of time and energy.

Incompetent enough said.

Professor Wilkinson is super nice, and one of the only Political Science professors that actually seem like they care about their students. I'm pretty sure 90% of the class got an A+.

I came here to give Prof. Wilkinson the credit he deserves. This was my first upper-division class taken at UCLA, and I honestly enjoyed this class a lot. Professor Wilkinson doesn't try to assert his knowledge or dominance in the education system by giving lots of assignments or grading harshly. I realized that he genuinely wants students to succeed and craft their own opinion on the class subject. I'll admit that if you're not into frequent writing, the weekly papers may not be a good fit for you. But in all honesty, I was able to finish each paper within an hour and a half. As long as you use some of his provided readings/sources and think about how you perceive them, you can create a really good argumentative essay on it!

The class consisted of nine papers due each Friday (minimum of 500 words), which is when we would have our discussion. Prof. Wilkinson TAs his own discussions, which he has my utmost respect for since he is there for six hours straight on Fridays. It's also very helpful because he knows his own grading policies, and the confusion of "instructor-TA-student" communication isn't a problem. Discussion this quarter was in-person, but Prof. Wilkinson created an online discussion forum alternative in case you missed them in person. It basically consists of publishing your paper to the module and commenting on three other papers, about four to five sentence long responses. If he offers this for future quarters, I highly advise that you respectfully use this alternative because in-person discussions are really interesting if you go to them, and Prof. Wilkinson puts in the effort to be there for such a long time. He's also a very lenient grader and doesn't nitpick at certain things. Just make sure you put in at least some effort to get a good score.

Prof. Wilkinson offers 10 points extra credit for completing a Harvard edX course on China, which is super easy to do. I honestly skimmed through the course but if you're into that sort of thing it's a good learning opportunity. You can either print out your progress page or write a 1-page paper on what you learned. This quarter he offered four extra credit edX courses, a total of 38 points extra credit. Those who were on top of their work and didn't miss an assignment were able to opt out of the final paper since the extra credit covered the points needed. It really helped.

He offers in-person lectures twice a week, but attendance isn't mandatory. Lectures are really just a gloss over of the PowerPoints he publishes on the course site, so if you don't go it won't hurt you. Most of his context-filled lectures are in his video series. Definitely watch those! You don't really have to watch the entire video, just watch the portion that helps your argument the best.

Prof. Wilkinson is overall a very good instructor and person. He's very responsive to emails, usually around the afternoon/evening. To be fair, he didn't respond to some of my and my classmates' emails (which I think he just didn't see), but if you resend it he'll respond after seeing it in his inbox. He definitely knows his stuff about Chinese relations, being that he's a lot older than most instructors here. I think it's a good thing because we get to hear from his experience dating back to 80 years ago, which I find really interesting. He's a bit hard of hearing, so he'll often ask you to repeat what you said to him in person. Just make sure to speak up and enunciate when talking to him. He also has a very good speaking voice that captures your attention a lot. The best description for it is an old sports commentator voice. But it's helpful cause it keeps you listening and you can understand him cause he isn't mumbling or talking fast. Not to mention Prof. Wilkinson's old sayings and metaphors. Such a fun addition to the class!

Prof. Wilkinson is definitely a more traditional man, so make sure to provide him a paper copy of your assignments even if you do the online forum or turn in your paper online. You can do this during the following discussion week, he doesn't ask questions as long as you reasonably explain yourself. He's also lenient with deadlines, just make sure to explain yourself or notify him that you'll be turning something in a bit later.

Regarding the class, I found it really insightful. I was a bit skeptical at first because it was formatted to be hypothetical material, but you learn a lot about the historical context of U.S.-China relations when you need to form your weekly argumentative essay. This class helped me finalize my concentration in International Relations. A really great upper-division course if you need it for an IR concentration class or an upper POL SCI class! Would definitely recommend it to others and I'd take Prof. Wilkinson again!

Do not underestimate the reading in this class. Usually, you need to read a book a week but just skim through it. Otherwise, amazing class and very interesting!

I rarely leave any reviews for particular classes or professors, but I decided I had to for this class since I wanted to save GPAs for my fellow students at UCLA. To be honest with all of you, I did not go to the lecture since week 2 and spent only like two hours writing weekly 500-word book review essays required for Friday discussion sections. Participation for those sections are required (which count on 10% of your grade, 1% for each week) but you do NOT need to go to any lectures since he is just reading off slides (literally) and I bet you guys can do it on your own. Required textbooks are mostly available online, and they are really interesting if you delve into them. You will learn a lot about China-U.S. relations and all that kinds of stuff. This class has TONS of opportunities for you to earn up to 28 points of extra credits - 28! It's crazy! Final paper with 5000-word limit worths 26 points... LOL. That is why I could get the easiest A+ of my life by only spending very minimum efforts of two hours a week. I highly recommend to take this class not only for poli sci majors but those from other departments if you do not want to go to lectures, are okay with writing bunch of papers (this class is writing-intensive), and can make it to weekly discussion sections.

Professor Wilkinson is one of UCLA's most qualified and educated professors. He is an easy grader and incredibly impartial. The lectures are exactly what the slides read, so if you miss a lecture, you can just download the powerpoint. I will disagree that this class has a light workload. You have to do a fair amount of reading and it took up a good portion of my quarter. Overall the class is a good amount of work that will almost usually result in an easy A.

Professor Wilkinson is a kind, understanding and very flexible professor. His lectures are interesting and multifaceted, presenting you with many perspectives to support a possible prediction on the future of China. His material is clear and is sufficient to understand the different viewpoints. Professor Wilkinson does mandate weekly book reports, but he grades them leniently and gives lots of chances to get extra credit. Getting an A is a breeze and you will most likely enjoy the class.