I am selling every book needed for this class at a reasonable price, I bought all for around 300$ and I’m willing to sell them for way under that. Contact ********** if interested. I received an (A-). Lectures are important but they’re on BruinCast, and discussions were very much more helpful. An easy A if you read the texts and Panagia is very engaging and helps dissect these texts! Would recommend and would take again!

Great professor. Challenging but rewarding class.

Selling ALL reading materials. Message me at ********** for more info!

The material is somewhat difficult, but not because it simply is difficult but just because being new to theory is difficult. I personally left the class with a new perspective. I enjoyed all the assignments. I never went to lecture, when I did, they never helped me understand the material. I would take this class again definitely. One of my favorites so far.

Panagia lectures like a jazz artist makes music. He does not follow slides in a monotone, rather he speaks off the top of his mind with a few key words he has written on an iPad. Definitely a master of his craft.

There are weekly readings and annotation assignments that are doable as long as youre consistent, even when the readings get lengthy and more complex. I believe there are two big papers that are easy to do well in as long as you attend discussion and learn what your T.A is looking for.

This class was pretty interesting! It gave a good intro to the basic philosophers, especially since I am someone who didn't have any background in political theory. Honestly you don't need to go to lecture, since he kind of goes off on tangents and isn't the most organized. He doesn't have slides, so he just lectures based off pages on that week's readings. I definitely recommend going to discussion (it's also required for your grade). I had Vanessa as a TA and she was amazing. She graded very fairly and explained and summarized the thinkers' ideas very clearly. She was also super helpful in office hours if you needed clarifying or help on your paper. Grading consisted of participation in discussion, which also included one page of notes and one page of annotations of that week's reading, which was not hard at all to do. Then there were 3 "PS TEN TALKS", which are just papers (you could choose to do a podcast instead of a paper as well). The prompts were interesting to write about and he puts them on the syllabus at the beginning of the quarter, so you have a lot of time to think about what you would write. For each paper, you also had to watch a movie and relate a scene to one of the philospher's we read. This might sound tedious but I actually enjoyed the movies we had to watch (The Matrix, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and Trading Places).

From all of the concentrations in the Political Science department, Political Theory is the one that comes the easiest to me. That said, there will be some bias or a differing of experiences from my part.

Panagia is chill, sometimes sarcastic in class (but with good intentions) and at times engaging. If you do not like Political Theory, the class will be boring.

Panagia for one counts lecture attendance as a grade. Go to lecture. Period. If you need the points then go to lecture. Every week (with the exception of two weeks in the quarter due to a holiday weekend as well as the first week of lecture) he assigns you a 300-400 word essay answering a prompt on the reading he gives you. He goes into detail about the reading in class. Some weeks his lecture really focuses on the prompt topic; other times it does not, so make sure to do the readings or research them. All essays are Pass/No Pass, and the more essays you pass, the higher your grade. If you pass all of them (as well as attend all the lectures and discussions) you are guaranteed an A+.

I ended up with an A+ with little effort from my part (I didn't do all of the readings, I went to lecture, took notes, took notes during discussion and relied on summaries of the texts online), and I primarily give credit to my previous exposure taking philosophy courses that helped me condense my thoughts and avoid adding fluff in my essays.

If you need help with your essays, go to your TA. They will be extremely helpful in guiding you. My TA, Kye, was awesome in discussion, and from talking to some classmates in there, they said that Kye was really helpful during office hours.

If Political Theory is easy for you, then this class will be a breeze. If not, then the extra help from the TAs or the professor will do you well.

I was able to learn very much about philosophy, improve my ability to read antiquated works, and discover the origins of many political ideas by taking this course. However, attendance was taken far too seriously.

This was the first class that I took at UCLA an I straight up loved it. Panagia made the material (which I previously thought would be boring) very intriguing and accessible. Lectures were helpful, but honestly where I got most of my fodder for essays was in my discussions with him during office hours. I went to office hours almost every week, and because of that, the essays were exponentially easier for me. The readers were sometimes dry, but Panagia made sure to make them at least a little more clear.

I passed all 8 essays and got an A in the class.

I really enjoyed having Professor Panagia. He always came to lecture with a great sense of humor and was overall enjoyable to listen to (and had great outfits). The readings were extensive but going to discussion definitely helped and your grade was based on 8 essays (300-500 words) and participation in discussion. It was overall a relatively easy class but if you failed anymore than 2 of the essays your grade would seriously suffer. I recommend going to office hours in order to gauge what your TA is looking for in the essays. Personally, I passed all 8 essays and did not find it difficult to write on the prompts given, but I also went to office hours almost every week.

This class was very manageable. I received an A, but I went to every office hour my TA had, The grade consists of 8 essays and thats it, and the TAs grade it with a rubric from Panagia, so go to office hours and they will help you. I didn't go to lecture, I just read the 5 pages of the book that mattered (out of the 60 that were assigned) and then went to office hours and I passed the writing assignments. Good way to start off Poli. Sci.

Final grade: A