I agree that Professor Dienstag is incredibly intelligent and is great for a seminar. It's truly one of those classes at UCLA where you really feel that you get a higher level of education than you'd get somewhere else. He does come off a tad bit unapproachable...but for the most part, he's a great professor. Really great discussions and the readings were interesting and definitely not too overwhelming. The workload was surprisingly manageable for such an intense course.

I agree completely with the review below (I was in the same discussion based class). I found him to be a very smart, interesting man with very definite opinions, but I was a little shocked at how much he seemed to discount what we students thought. I often felt that he did not respect our opinions, and I found him quite unapproachable when I needed help on the paper. But overall he is a good professor and I highly enjoyed his course! Just know that you will be writing a 20 page paper, you will be creating the topic entirely, and he may make you redo it a number of times over before you can start.

Professor Dienstag is a very intelligent person with a lot of valuable insight to offer. My class was small and discussion based so I did not get to witness his ability to lecture and teach very much. However, he gave great insight to the works we were examining. I only wish he was more approachable in his demeanor with students and presenting a more open, comfortable environment when discussing to help students feel more empowered to speak. At times, it did not seem like he respected our ideas. But otherwise, he is an excellent Professor and worth taking particularly if you are interested in theory.