I took this class a prerequisite for my major and was actually pleasantly surprised. Much of what my learn in this class, as it is Political Theory, is about different theorists and philosophers and how politics has been influenced. The readings each week were about 40 pages long but they weren't too bad so long as you didn't leave them to the last minute. The readings were sometimes difficult to understand (not impossible!) but lectures were often very helpful in clarification and explanations. Professor Panagia clearly knows what he is talking about and provided real world examples to help. He also happened to throw in a few jokes throughout classes which is always good. The lectures were posted on Bruincast so just incase you didn't make it, you could always go through them later. As far as grading, there were 3 essays or Ten-Talks to do, each worth 20% of your grade. 20% of your grade also came from turning in a weekly page of annotations and notes and another 20% came from discussions. I'm not sure how other discussions worked in other classes but for mine I didn't have to participate unless I felt as though I wanted to (although we did have to post on a discussion board and still show up!). These essays are a large portion of your grade so you definitely want to get them done and do so to the best of your ability. If your TA gives office hours, go to them and ask questions! The topics of the assignments can sometimes be a little open ended so make sure you understand what you intend to do. If you have the chance to, get Vanessa as your TA! She was always helpful and clarified the different ideas that we learned about, overall helping with our understanding. She was also willing to help go over our thesis/arguments in office hours and provided great feedback which helped with the essays. Overall, this class is not too bad and I actually found the subject rather interesting so take it if it sounds like something you'd like!

I took this class online due to Covid and it was a pretty interesting class. I didn't go to a lot of the lectures and still managed to do pretty well. I would say the discussions and that talking to your TA is more important. The material is genuinely interesting if you are into theory, philosophy, and politics!

this class was extremely boring, but if you go to lecture and have a good TA it is very manageable. I never did any of the readings and received an A on every paper. The class is basically graded on the three papers and they are very confusing and are given without much direction, so you really have to listen to what your TA wants. There are no finals and no exams

Hands down one of the best professors I've ever had. The coursework was very straight forward, there were only 3 essays (which could be submitted as podcasts or "tedtalks"), and weekly submission of one page of notes from the assigned readings. He provided all the readings, so there wasn't the need to buy anything. The content can get very confusing because you talk about philosophy and theory, but Panagia is such a smart dude and he's such a good lecturer. Overall, really good class even though I got confused at times. Vanessa is also the coolest T.A. so I highly recommend it.

This class was extremely boring, but if you go to lecture and have a good TA it is very manageable. I never did any of the readings and received an A on every paper. The class is basically graded on the three papers and they are very confusing and are given without much direction, so you really have to listen to what your TA wants. There are no finals and no exams, so your performance on these papers really matters.

Panagia is an absolutely amazing professor, I'd very highly recommend him! He's crazy smart and is able to make the very confusing political theory digestible to a new student. At first, this class was very overwhelming, but after time you get the flow of the course and his lecture style. To do well in this class, I'd recommend going to lecture and section and to have someone (a friend or TA) that you can bounce ideas off of. The course content is hard, but if you go to Panagia's lecture and your discussion, you'll do more than fine. Panagia and the TAs are incredibly supportive during COVID/virtual learning. Make an effort and you'll do well in this class. If you can, get Naomi as your TA. She was an absolute gem and I'd recommend her to anyone.

Panagia is a great dude. He’s very knowledgeable about the subject and is honestly a king. His lectures are kinda hard to follow, at least through zoom. I got used to it a couple weeks in, but he does say “um” a lot. Otherwise, they’re really valuable lectures and I recommend attending all of them. The readings are sometimes long and convoluted but can be skimmed, or cleared up easily by looking up summaries or videos. The 3 assignments (essays or podcasts, whichever you choose) were actually really fun, and aren’t hard depending on who your TA is and how much they’re willing to help. Naomi is an AMAZING TA; if you can, you should definitely be in her section. Overall, I LOVED this class and felt like I learned so much! Very relevant. Would absolutely recommend it for a GE & poli sci major req.

Professor Panagia is an amazing professor. I was not expecting to enjoy the content of this class, but he made it fun and interesting. He posted all of the readings on the website so there was no need to buy a textbook. The assignments were adjusted to take the stresses of Covid into consideration, meaning that our 3 essays could take the form of a regular essay, a podcast or a video lecture. My TA (Vanessa) was incredible, very sweet, and was always willing to give me feedback on a draft thesis statement before moving forward with my writing. I was encouraged to write about what interested me rather than sticking directly with the prompt which made the class so much more enjoyable. Would totally take again, a great intro into political theory

This class was a super interesting class. Professor Panagia clearly knows what he is talking about and is excited to discuss it with the class, but sometimes he gets lost on tangents and it becomes hard to follow. In addition, the notes he does show are confusing. He is very helpful if you have questions and uses pop culture analogies to better explain the topics. If you take this class, i definitely recommend going to your discussion sessions and really paying attention because the TAs (I had Vanessa Pooudomsak) are very helpful in clarifying. In addition, the TAs give helpful advice for the three main projects due throughout the quarter. Overall, an interesting class, but make sure to really pay attention and find a good group of students to discuss the readings and projects with.

Professor Panagia always started class with meditation which was initially sort of comedic but slowly became a helpful way to focus. It usually only took about 3-5 minutes of the beginning of class. Professor Panagia would always begin lecture immediately after on readings he assigned for the week. Our class was Tuesday's and Thursday's so he would have us submit a page of notes and annotations by 12pm on Tuesday's. In my section (with TA Rui Zhou, AMAZING btw), we would submit a forum post and reply to count as participation for the class since the professor would lecture the entire class time. Professor Panagia's lectures consisted of him talking based off of annotations/notes he took. It sort of got confusing at times but he said very fascinating, interesting things all the time. There isn't any other homework than the notes and annotations, as well as the forum post, other than readings. There were no tests, instead, podcast or essay option each worth 20%, three total. I did all podcasts and got A- on all of them, 100% on the homework which was the remainder of the grade, leaving me with an A. Professor Panagia recorded all of his lectures (as did Rui) and was always dressed so nice for our class. Best professor I have had yet!