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).

I liked this class and would recommend it! Panagia had funny commentary and is an engaging professor. He can ramble a bit and has a lack of slides while also keeping the lights in the lecture hall dim that make staying awake difficult, but sit in the front and have some caffeine before hand and there shouldn't be an issue. Theory definitely isn't for everyone and wasn't for me, especially when they are all from old dead white men, but Panagia is probably the best professor for this course. Really fun final assignments too that involve watching movies and relating them to political theory!

This class could have been very interesting but the professor made it super, super confusing and complicated. To start with, his style of lecturing was very hard to follow and take notes to. He had no clear idea of where he was going when teaching so he would just start talking and ramble on. He would go on tangents, jump between ideas, and just make no sense at all. It made learning very difficult. It was like solving a puzzle every time he started talking. The papers he assigned actually weren't too bad. They weren't too long and usually based on a movie you have to watch. They were graded kind of harshly but you can definitely pull them off pretty well (even if you aren't a poli sci major). They were the least bad part of the class. The reading that he assigned was first, way too long and second, pretty confusing. It's normally okay to assign confusing readings if the professor explains it well, which he did not. So, take this class if you feel that you can make out the content without additional help from the professor because he just made everything more confusing than necessary. TA's weren't helpful either.

This class was definitely an easy, relaxed GE. You got 10% of your grade given to you just for showing up to discussion, and then you had 3 papers the whole quarter, 30% of your grade each. My TA, Naomi Ellis, was great and met for office hours before the papers were due and was very helpful with answering questions related to the paper. Basically, show up once a week, have 3 nights you stay up writing the whole quarter, and you'll be fine.

I didn't really like this class but maybe that's because I find political theory really boring. Lots of discussions of Plato, Aristotle, etc. and we had three "TEN-Talks" that were each worth 20% of our grade, and my TA usually gave me high B's/low A's on them. You could choose to do an essay or a podcast, but sometimes the concepts were difficult and the podcasts always took me so long to complete. Besides that, I don't think there was any other work besides a discussion post each week. No tests.

As a freshman in college it took me a bit to realize that professors just lecture. Your grades are actually in the hands of your TA. So ideally, you want to get the easiest grading TA possible which is hard because they change so frequently each quarter and is really just luck of the draw. Sure, you can participate in lectures and stay after class to chat with him/her, but the reality is that the TA's read your assignments and essays, they take attendance for mandatory discussion groups, they manage office hours, and they manage your grades. Some of my friends got really easy TAs that graded them high A's throughout everything. And then there was me, who never missed a discussion group, participated minimum twice per every discussion group, went to 1 on 1 office hours AND group office hours and scraped by with B's on my assignments. My TA was tough. The class has no exams or quizzes. Your entire grade depends on homework assignments (which is a guaranteed 100% and graded on completion) and three Ten-Talks - the professor gives you three topics throughout the quarter and you write about it, make a podcast about it, or a video. I want to say this class is hard, but its not. If you get the wrong TA, the class is hard for no reason.

Professor Panagia is the BEST LECTURER EVER!!! I left his class mesmerized and amazed, he is very engaging and explains everything very well. The readings are dense and difficult but he explains everything wonderfully in class. I left his class hungry for more and always loved the way he describes the political theory in our readings. As for the grading, it comes from an annotated reading page and one page of notes per week, so you don't really need to complete read everything, especially the more challenging weeks (like Augustine and Hobbes). Participation is just speaking up during the discussions, my TA was Nicholas Muench and he was amazing, highly recommend him. The majority of your grade is three essays worth 20% of your final grade each. Here, it is helpful to do the readings so that you can directly quote the texts - definitely communicate with your TAs about the essays and see what they expect. Nick was also really helpful in explaining the material. There was one week where I had a family emergency and simply asked for a 3-day extension on the second essay, and it was granted no questions asked. Both the TA and Panagia are highly available for students, would definitely take this class again!

Overall good class. Lectures can be confusing sometimes or feel like he’s talking about nothing for an hour and a half. Weekly readings aren’t too bad and you only need to submit a page of annotations and a page of notes. Your grade basically comes down to 3 essays that are pretty short with creative prompts.