Overall, this class is a great and straightforward Writing II + GE class to take. It was fully asynchronous for this quarter, with there being weekly lectures, readings, one page activity journals (basically writing reflections), and TA videos. It was interesting to look at the ancient world in a different perspective as well. There is only one full paper and the way planning elements of it are due make it not too stressful to complete.
Your grade is made up of the following:
Participation 20% : Watching all the videos, peer reviewing for final paper, two mandatory TA meetings
Activity Journals 20%
Mann Synthesis Assignment: basically a summary/reflection of this paper which you will constantly refer to 10%
Research Paper/Podcast 45%: You can either write a 10-12 page research paper or record a podcast for the final project. 5% Thesis/Annotated Bibliography, 10% Rough Draft, 30% Rough Draft
Final Presentation/Podcast Audio 5%: basically a verbal summary of research paper (5-7 min) or something else if you did podcast.

I took this class as a GE and was surprised to find it satisfied the diversity requirement, writing II requirement, plus the original GE (Historical Analysis). I thought the class sounded interesting and it was. It talked about women in the ancient world and how they rose to power, usually through marrying a powerful man or being a mother of a king. I enjoyed the class and recommend people to take it. It was online and I wrote a 4/5 page paper in the middle of the quarter, and then wrote a 10 page paper for the final, and both required research but were very manageable. Every week I would have to watch the lectures online and read the articles posted for us, and then answer a prompt equal to about a page of writing, sometimes with questions at the end and related analysis. I took this during the TA strike so I'm not sure how the class works normally but I still think the class is worth people's time.

Pretty easy writing 2. I suck at writing but was able to scrape by with an A. Most of your grade relies on your research paper so if you’re good at doing research it isn’t that bad. I did mine on women in Ancient Hawaii because I thought Hawaii was interesting. Really recommend doing your paper on something interesting so it’s more bearable!

This is a much easier writing II class than a lot out there, I'd recommend taking especially if you're interested in the subject as a whole. Depending on your TA, this could be very easy, especially if you ask for feedback on your activity journals. Fs my favorite summer class, would take again :)

Professor Cooney is by far my most favorite professor EVER! She is very entertaining and makes each class a joy to look forward to. She really does not have much of a structure to her class it is very flexible and fluid. She is hilarious and simplifies the information for everyone so that it is easy to remember.
There is only one midterm and final. Her tests are not necessarily hard, but it is a challenge because there is not enough time to write down everything. If you attend lecture you are golden because everything is comprehensible. I did study a lot for her tests but her encouragement helps in pushing oneself to do their best. She is helpful and easy to approach and will answer ANY questions you have. I highly recommend her, even if the class is not in your major just take it for the fun of it!

Ane 15

Sell all books(brand new) for $40. Text **********.

ACTUAL COURSE: ANE 15, Women and Power in the Ancient World

She is one of the best professors I've had at UCLA. Her lectures are so entertaining and more importantly, engaging. Whenever we got to a fact or trend that she found interesting or confusing she'd always open up the class for discussion, which would often take a good 15-20 minutes and sometimes put us off schedule. In that case she just changed the schedule/syllabus instead of trying to cram things in last minute. She really tried to make the class as interesting as possible, and it showed. We compared the systems of several different ancient societies as well as some discussion of the modern world.

There's one midterm, one final, a research paper, and some discussion section points. The midterm and the final are both 2 essays, the prompt of which she sent out about a week in advance. She would give us 3-4 options, but my friend and I correctly guessed which ones she would choose based on what she focused on in lecture. Everything you need for them is in her lectures, powerpoints, and assigned readings. Also, the TA's made it very clear what they were looking for in terms of formatting and structure, so you had some idea of how to approach each prompt. The paper was 10 pages and was very broad, allowing for virtually any topic in relation to women and the ancient world to be discussed. Our TA's kept us on track by having little assignments due every few weeks, like a general summary of your topic, or a bibliography/outline, etc. All of the grading was done by the TAs. It wasn't the easiest thing to write but the TAs are very fair about grading if you understand what they are looking for.

If she ever teaches this class again, I would DEFINITELY recommend it! I was taking Physics 6B and LS4 with it, and the workload was totally manageable. It isn't a free A, but you learn so much about the power systems of the ancient world and it's something you shouldn't avoid just because it challenges you to think.

Actual class taken: Ancient Near East 15

Amazing professor! She made the class really fun and engaging. The workload is very light, and your grade is made up of a midterm, final, and 10 page paper. Professor Cooney makes boring material lively, and I know I am leaving this class with valuable information in my brain!

Excellent, fun, engaging professor! Cooney makes something ancient seem like something that we might all consider cool nowadays. She is a fresh professor whose lectures are entertaining, funny and super informative. I recommend her to anyone who is taking any ancient near east classes for the first time since she is patient and understanding since not all of us grew up taking courses like these since middle school. Grading was fair, the TA's she has are excellent and I found myself showing up 20 minutes early just to find a good seat and feeling like I was about to walk into a movie theater. SUUUUUUPER fun professor !

Professor Cooney was an excellent professor. She is a great lecturer, and also has a very cool, down to earth vibe about her. She does not take herself too seriously and was constantly cracking jokes about Egypt and especially its themes of sexuality. As for difficulty, I can't comment on her grading expectations since all of that was handled by her TA's (who were awesome and incredibly helpful). Her class format was not easy, however. Grades consisted partialy of a midterm and final, both essay format in which two prompts would be selected for in-class responses. The midterm pool of potential essays was 6 which was subsequently narrowed to 5, and the final pool was 4 narrowed to 3. The list of prompts came out 2 weeks in advance which was generous. The process of researching and memorizing up to 5 essays was tedious, but the test day selection process didn't appear to be entirely random, and I would suggest putting more time into the prompts which cover the most significant points of the course material. On top of these exams we also had a 12 page research paper which could be on virtualy any topic regarding the Middle and Old Kingdom of Egypt. Definitely dedicate a sufficient amount of time to this assignment. Many people in the class put it off until the the weekend before its due date (which was Wednesday of finals week), and I'm sure the necessity of finals study combined with the research paper brought them poor grades. A nice boost comes from 10% of your grade being participation and attendance, so definitely show up to compensate for any exam or paper shortcomings. A tip for sucess in this class is to take advantage of the TA's copious office hours. Check in with them frequently, as they will tell you straight up if your paper is up to snuff. I haven't recieved my grade yet, but I am expecting a hard earned A.