Professor
Eric Avila
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Most Helpful Review
Summer 2021 - Professor Avila is a very passionate professor. He did a great job keep people engaged with his lectures and was interactive and opened to questions during his class. (Please keep in mind I did his class on zoom.) But I did find a lot of fault in the way that he conducted his midterms, on his syllabus he had part 2 of the midterms listed as “Short Answer” only to know a few days before that it was in fact a 2+ page double spaced essay. He also had the ridiculous request to cite our sources using MLA format yet the exam was closed notes. The summer class went by quick, and it's easy to get behind on the readings. I would suggest buying the $20 textbook ahead of time to avoid that. But yeah, as a person he's great, as a teacher I did find some faults.
Summer 2021 - Professor Avila is a very passionate professor. He did a great job keep people engaged with his lectures and was interactive and opened to questions during his class. (Please keep in mind I did his class on zoom.) But I did find a lot of fault in the way that he conducted his midterms, on his syllabus he had part 2 of the midterms listed as “Short Answer” only to know a few days before that it was in fact a 2+ page double spaced essay. He also had the ridiculous request to cite our sources using MLA format yet the exam was closed notes. The summer class went by quick, and it's easy to get behind on the readings. I would suggest buying the $20 textbook ahead of time to avoid that. But yeah, as a person he's great, as a teacher I did find some faults.
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Most Helpful Review
What can I say, this guy is a waste of time. His lectures are weird, to say the least, and does his best to show how smart he is--at least he thinks he is--and dumb the class is. He wears these weird outfits that look as if they belonged to John Travolta in the 70s, he spends time talking about how gay is the new black, and answer questions as if he is God's gift to Chicano Studies. Its people like you, Eric, that give the dept a bad name. His lectures are nothing more than a soapbox. This class is a real waste of time. The TA's also left much to be desired. My TA, who was Avila's 'teacher's pet' spent more time following Avila around like a lil lap dog than teaching us. Moreover, in lecture, he tried to act like he was Avila--real good training he is getting. This class sucked.
What can I say, this guy is a waste of time. His lectures are weird, to say the least, and does his best to show how smart he is--at least he thinks he is--and dumb the class is. He wears these weird outfits that look as if they belonged to John Travolta in the 70s, he spends time talking about how gay is the new black, and answer questions as if he is God's gift to Chicano Studies. Its people like you, Eric, that give the dept a bad name. His lectures are nothing more than a soapbox. This class is a real waste of time. The TA's also left much to be desired. My TA, who was Avila's 'teacher's pet' spent more time following Avila around like a lil lap dog than teaching us. Moreover, in lecture, he tried to act like he was Avila--real good training he is getting. This class sucked.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2024 - Professor Avila rarely lectured during Fall Quarter, but when he did I did enjoy his lectures. He focuses on architecture and history during the 60s. His lectures are very information heavy which can make the class a little boring and heavy, but in general what he covers is very interesting history. Onto the class in general, I recommend this cluster for those who are interested in history, politics, and culture but also can deal with some more dense long readings. While the readings are helpful to understand lectures better, the reading isn't too important until the midterm when they expect you to cite some readings in the timed essay. When it came to the workload I would say it was pretty light, the first two weeks you are assigned reading forms to encourage doing the weekly readings and can be finished in 15 minutes. After this you have only two assignment, a political science paper explaining the choices you made in making a 15 second campaign ad from any president between 1955-1975. The final assignment is a literature paper on a one of two books due in December. The class is not recorded but lecture slides are posted on BruinLearn. The only serious downside to this cluster would be grading, grading is completely up to your TA. Some TA's may grader stricter than others. In general your TA will make this class pleasant or difficult depending on their grading. I will highly recommend this cluster but do recommend you take into consideration the long readings and TA grading.
Fall 2024 - Professor Avila rarely lectured during Fall Quarter, but when he did I did enjoy his lectures. He focuses on architecture and history during the 60s. His lectures are very information heavy which can make the class a little boring and heavy, but in general what he covers is very interesting history. Onto the class in general, I recommend this cluster for those who are interested in history, politics, and culture but also can deal with some more dense long readings. While the readings are helpful to understand lectures better, the reading isn't too important until the midterm when they expect you to cite some readings in the timed essay. When it came to the workload I would say it was pretty light, the first two weeks you are assigned reading forms to encourage doing the weekly readings and can be finished in 15 minutes. After this you have only two assignment, a political science paper explaining the choices you made in making a 15 second campaign ad from any president between 1955-1975. The final assignment is a literature paper on a one of two books due in December. The class is not recorded but lecture slides are posted on BruinLearn. The only serious downside to this cluster would be grading, grading is completely up to your TA. Some TA's may grader stricter than others. In general your TA will make this class pleasant or difficult depending on their grading. I will highly recommend this cluster but do recommend you take into consideration the long readings and TA grading.
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