Absolutely despised this class, but I think it is because I am not much of a politics person and got really bored of lectures + reading to the point where I just stopped doing the readings. I'm sure a lot of my peers enjoyed this class, and to me it wasn't too difficult of a class, but DO NOT take this class if you are not passionate or remotely interested about anything related to the namesake. It will become a LOT of work and mild suffering if you hate it and only took this class for the credit - I don't think it's worth the extra GE + writing II credit.

The DJS cluster is phenomenal, and I would highly highly recommend it to anyone interested in the humanities or social issues. It does NOT require any knowledge/interest in data science or statistics. Every single lecture I'm left in awe of the discussions and examples in class. For example, felt like I learned more about the horrors of slavery in 1 lecture than in my entire 12 years of school.

Workload-wise it was my easiest class by far; there is no homework or tests aside from a short discussion post each week and 3-4 writing assignments each quarter.

Prof Bhaumik also is an incredible instructor! Her enthusiasm and immense knowledge of the topic definitely comes across in class, and I appreciate that she is very passionate about her research interests and the class content. Dr. Bhaumik listens to student ideas and truly seems to value student feedback and insight. Sometimes, she does make complex and high-level points with a lot of rhetorical jargon, but these instances are rare.