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 a lot, 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 take 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. Undoubtedly, I feel the cluster captured the complexity of using data to understand social issues and fight for justice; I absolutely love this cluster course, it has completely changed my perspective on so many things around our daily lives that I take for granted.

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.

Professor Presner is truly a PHENOMENAL instructor. He not only has an enthusiasm for the subject he's teaching, but he also does an amazing job of presenting it in a digestible, easy to understand format. I especially like how Prof Presner uses questions to prompt further discussion on topics, rather than just speaking without interacting with students at all. After every class, I was consistently left thinking about some call to action made by the Prof or further topic of discussion. He is also happy to clarify assignments and answer questions that may arise.