Professor
Vinay Lal
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - God... Please do trust the 1.6 easiness score of this class! This quarter has already been hard, and this class made my day even harder. Our TA is a nice guy and he does have some cool opinion, but he really scored us to harsh. I follow every instruction he gave me based on the first paper but still got a B for my second paper. If you need a pretty good GPA, please do not attend this class!
Spring 2020 - God... Please do trust the 1.6 easiness score of this class! This quarter has already been hard, and this class made my day even harder. Our TA is a nice guy and he does have some cool opinion, but he really scored us to harsh. I follow every instruction he gave me based on the first paper but still got a B for my second paper. If you need a pretty good GPA, please do not attend this class!
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - I took a fiat lux seminar with Lal, "Essaying America." Seminars are suppose to be based in student discussion but this professor talked for about 80% of the time. He even went over the class time limits with his long rants. His rants were often political, and he would raise his voice which was very uncomfortable for such intimate settings. I was hoping to get more back and forth discussion between students, but majority was the professor questioning student’s comments, sometimes in an interrogative manner. I think he is trying to be socratic in this, but it comes off as arrogant because he obviously holds his opinions as superior to those of the students. I wouldn't take any class that involves discussions with him as the overseer. Also, beware of disagreeing with him politically, when I mentioned gun rights as being written by the “forefathers” as a mode to defend against tyrannical governments, he almost blew a gasket.
Winter 2019 - I took a fiat lux seminar with Lal, "Essaying America." Seminars are suppose to be based in student discussion but this professor talked for about 80% of the time. He even went over the class time limits with his long rants. His rants were often political, and he would raise his voice which was very uncomfortable for such intimate settings. I was hoping to get more back and forth discussion between students, but majority was the professor questioning student’s comments, sometimes in an interrogative manner. I think he is trying to be socratic in this, but it comes off as arrogant because he obviously holds his opinions as superior to those of the students. I wouldn't take any class that involves discussions with him as the overseer. Also, beware of disagreeing with him politically, when I mentioned gun rights as being written by the “forefathers” as a mode to defend against tyrannical governments, he almost blew a gasket.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2023 - This was the first fiat lux I’ve taken at UCLA. It was actually really fun, but the classes were too short. We had so much to discuss and yet because this was a one unit course, we only met once a week for 50 minutes. Nonetheless, Lal often stayed after class and continued discussing if students were interested. Each week, we covered 1-2 very short essays by people like Emerson, Twain, James Baldwin, and MLK. The essays we read were short yet rich and very well chosen. Each week, we would come to class having written one question related to the essay, and this would guide the discussion. Because everyone came prepared with a question, there were never really any moments of silence. Everyone participated and was engaged. Lal provided meaningful context for all the essays and because most of the students were first years, he gave everyone an opportunity to speak and engage in dialogue. The conversations were organic and Lal often offered interesting perspectives and critiques, in addition to answering student questions. For anyone interested in exploring a select topic in history or literature, I would definitely recommend this class. The only requirement was coming to class having read the essay and prepared a question. As long as you do the short readings and participate, I think you’ll find that this class is quite enjoyable and chill. Would definitely recommend, especially to first years.
Fall 2023 - This was the first fiat lux I’ve taken at UCLA. It was actually really fun, but the classes were too short. We had so much to discuss and yet because this was a one unit course, we only met once a week for 50 minutes. Nonetheless, Lal often stayed after class and continued discussing if students were interested. Each week, we covered 1-2 very short essays by people like Emerson, Twain, James Baldwin, and MLK. The essays we read were short yet rich and very well chosen. Each week, we would come to class having written one question related to the essay, and this would guide the discussion. Because everyone came prepared with a question, there were never really any moments of silence. Everyone participated and was engaged. Lal provided meaningful context for all the essays and because most of the students were first years, he gave everyone an opportunity to speak and engage in dialogue. The conversations were organic and Lal often offered interesting perspectives and critiques, in addition to answering student questions. For anyone interested in exploring a select topic in history or literature, I would definitely recommend this class. The only requirement was coming to class having read the essay and prepared a question. As long as you do the short readings and participate, I think you’ll find that this class is quite enjoyable and chill. Would definitely recommend, especially to first years.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2021 - Professor Lal has so much to teach you. I genuinely feel like I learned so much over the past 10 weeks. I love that he approaches history through a non-Western lens, and being that I did my schooling in the U.S., I was surprised to see how much I had failed to learn about the rest of the world and its history. There is a reasonable amount of essay-writing and I felt that my TA (Chul) graded fairly. If you start the essays on time you really should not have any issues whatsoever. That being said, there is a LOT of reading, so you need to make sure you are willing to do that because those readings are necessary for the essays. Most of the readings are interesting.
Spring 2021 - Professor Lal has so much to teach you. I genuinely feel like I learned so much over the past 10 weeks. I love that he approaches history through a non-Western lens, and being that I did my schooling in the U.S., I was surprised to see how much I had failed to learn about the rest of the world and its history. There is a reasonable amount of essay-writing and I felt that my TA (Chul) graded fairly. If you start the essays on time you really should not have any issues whatsoever. That being said, there is a LOT of reading, so you need to make sure you are willing to do that because those readings are necessary for the essays. Most of the readings are interesting.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - Loved this class. The readings were interesting and lecture helped to break down the historical back story. If you have a good TA and can keep up with the readings you will be fine in this class. Go to every lecture as Prof Lal points will help you construct your papers. Although he goes off topic sometimes about his personal experiences I believe this is his way of giving real life examples of how history has affected us in the modern era. The final and mid terms are all essays. It's not hard to prepare for as the TA usually gives you the general topics of the multiple essay questions Prof Lal will give.
Winter 2019 - Loved this class. The readings were interesting and lecture helped to break down the historical back story. If you have a good TA and can keep up with the readings you will be fine in this class. Go to every lecture as Prof Lal points will help you construct your papers. Although he goes off topic sometimes about his personal experiences I believe this is his way of giving real life examples of how history has affected us in the modern era. The final and mid terms are all essays. It's not hard to prepare for as the TA usually gives you the general topics of the multiple essay questions Prof Lal will give.
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