While Professor Kelley assigns a lot of reading and gives dense lectures, there are no tests, so memorization of material isn't necessary. I would recommend taking notes only on what is interesting or seems important, as this will help when writing the mid-term and final papers. The group project (your group is your entire discussion section) was a quite a mess, but everything worked out well in the end.

Professor Kelley is a great lecturer. He is witty and makes the content relevant. If U.S. history is at all interesting to you, this class is an easy A. I am a psychology major, so humanities may be more my thing, but regardless this class seemed pretty easy. The only grades are 2 papers worth 35% and participation in discussion (30%). Granted, I did learn that each TA runs their section differently. My TA was very flexible and graded us all rather fairly/lightly, with no outside assignments. However, I heard other TAs required long reflection assignments. Regardless, the content was easily digestible, and the paper prompts were interesting (albeit a bit complex). Overall, I would definitely deem this an easy GE if you are someone who can tolerate U.S. history and stay up to date on lecture material.

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The group project is a joke, but the Midterm and Final essays require some real reading and critical thought. Professor Kelley is a star professor. He's extremely clear in lecture and thinks outside of the box. I'm sad I only found him my last quarter, I would have liked to take more classes with him.

This is the second class I've taken with Prof. Kelley. His lectures are always super interesting, but honestly, you don't need to watch them to succeed in the class. Discussions are mandatory as is participation in section. Marina was my TA and I thought she was great. We had a small debate in section where we each had to speak at least twice. The final project was a policy proposal paper with a group in our section. My group happened to be awesome, but I know the experience varies with who you got matched with. The three books we needed were provided in PDF form. One of them you had to read for the debate, but the other two were not necessarily that important to keep up with. Overall, a super easy and informative class!

really enjoyed this class as a stem major who hates writing essays lmao. lectures were super engaging so i never got bored (although they were recorded and I watched them on 1.5xspeed). assignments were pretty fair and (weekly discussions and 2 essays). great/easy ge to take during a quarter in which you have other hard classes.

Robin Kelly is a great professor. His lectures were concise and force you to think critically about the last 40 years in a way that I had never been offered before at a school. Recent history is a difficult thing to teach, but through a genuine understanding of neoliberalism, especially is a year such as 2020, it feels easier to understand why the US is the way it is. If you are an ardent supporter in the free market (ie. an economics major), I urge you to take this class. Have your beliefs challenged — think critically. Come to your own conclusions.

I loved this class! Would Recommend!

I found that Professor Kelley and my TA, Sunny Chen (who I loved, shout out to them!!) were incredible and always brought the subject matter back to people and how individual lives are effected by neoliberal policy. I wasn't overly interested in the subject matter of the class, as I took it as a GE, yet I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it!

This class is an easy A as there are no tests. The grade is based on participation in discussion, submission of a weekly one page discussion post on the reading, and a final group project.

The more you put into the class the more you will get out of it. I took this during a quarter when I had four classes and I think I would've gotten more from it if I only had three classes and had time to do all the readings rather than just skimming them. If you can't put much time into the class you can undoubtably still get an A as long as you submit your work.

My one gripe with this class was the final project which was an open ended group project with your entire discussion section. I found that this lacked a lot of direction and took quite a bit of time to coordinate as it was a large group. With this said, I still preferred the project over taking a final exam.

Coming from someone who has zero interest in politics and history, I still find this class insightful and helpful. Our grade is 40% final project, 40% discussion post, and 20% participation in discussion. The assigned readings might take some time, but you need to read or skim through them to write your discussion post. The final project was fun because my discussion session was cooperative and each of us did a small part of the project. Participation in lectures is not mandatory but is required in discussions. One thing I hope I have done is raise my hand more in the discussion session.

Took this class during COVID. Honestly this class is very eye-opening to me in my opinion. This class is about neoliberalism and many of the weekly readings (which can be pretty heavy not going to lie) will take on perspectives and experiences from populations and communities who were (and continue to be) affected by neoliberal policies. With that said, do consider that this class may alter how you view governments, class structure, economics, and global affairs because of the readings that talk about global trade, poverty, employment, racism, indigenous communities, working/low-income classes, debt, etc. All in all, you may alter your views and opinions on capitalism, socialism, or even communism during or after this class. (I am not going to bring up political lefts and rights cause no I will not bring up politics in this review)
The lectures are pre-recorded and asynchronous so you can watch lectures any time you want. The lectures can range from 40 minutes long to almost 2 hours, and Professor Kelley adds on additional information in lecture that happen in real-time (few examples: COVID-19 and healthcare, as well as the largest working class protest among farmers in India that happened in late 2020), meaning that Prof. Kelley does not recycle information every quarter he teaches this class, and that he is attentive and cares about the struggles that happen in the world and teaches/notifies us in lecture.
I never attended Prof. Kelley's office hours, however he was very understanding to the conditions we were in (obviously because of COVID) and altered the class a bit as the quarter went on. He even gave us an extension and reduced the readings in week 6/7 because of the presidential election.
The content/information of the class can go back to the Magna Carta and all the way to present day (more like 2008). From week 5/6 to week 10, the readings will focus more on readings from 1970s-present day tbh.
25% Essay 1
25% Essay 2
25% Group Project (your group is your discussion section that you are enrolled in)
25% Participation, usually in your discussion section. How your participation is graded is based on your TA, for example, attendance and/or weekly paragraphs about the readings.
Advice: for essays, while you are allowed to use readings AND lectures for your essays as evidence/support, TAs are more interested in seeing how you mainly use the readings to shape your argument. Doing all of the readings every week is not necessary, but you should read at least 70% of the readings by the end of the class for the essays.
I took this class as a GE, and I would say that this was a manageable GE, just do not do ALL of the readings and lecture the day before your discussion because that is just overload on you.
Again, this class focuses on the humanities/morals in economics, money, and institutions. I think this is a very important class to take if you want to understand how (historically) marginalized people have been disciplined by institutions guided by business and money and why we continue to see how working and low-income communities, as well as different communities of color are affected by these same institutions today.
I hope you enjoy this class! Good luck :)