Professor
William Worger
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Most Helpful Review
This class had some pros and cons, but overall, I enjoyed it and would recommend it to my fellow history students. Professor Worger is hilarious and his lectures are basically a conversation with the class which I find to be more interesting and easy to follow. Unlike many history professors I've had here, Worger doesn't "dump" a large amount of information on you and except you to mindlessly memorize it. His class is centered on main ideas and I feel like I've learned what was important about the apartheid era. Worger's laid back attitude worked great for lecture, but I think the structure of the class was a little too relaxed at times. The readings he assigned were amazing, most were novels plus an easy to read textbook that he wrote. However, half the time, most of the class did not know what we were supposed to be reading when since there's no assigned page numbers on the syllabus. In addition, we didn't have due dates/topics of papers weren't given to us until a couple weeks in advance. The work load wasn't too bad, grades were based on an in-class midterm, two papers and a take-home final. Worger gave a study guide for the midterm in advance and allowed it to be open book, which was really generous of him. One of the papers was about a current event and another more involved class material and was due a couple weeks after the midterm. The take-home final was three two page essays which were not too hard to write. Final verdict: Take the class! It's a fascinating topic and Worger is just the right professor to teach it.
This class had some pros and cons, but overall, I enjoyed it and would recommend it to my fellow history students. Professor Worger is hilarious and his lectures are basically a conversation with the class which I find to be more interesting and easy to follow. Unlike many history professors I've had here, Worger doesn't "dump" a large amount of information on you and except you to mindlessly memorize it. His class is centered on main ideas and I feel like I've learned what was important about the apartheid era. Worger's laid back attitude worked great for lecture, but I think the structure of the class was a little too relaxed at times. The readings he assigned were amazing, most were novels plus an easy to read textbook that he wrote. However, half the time, most of the class did not know what we were supposed to be reading when since there's no assigned page numbers on the syllabus. In addition, we didn't have due dates/topics of papers weren't given to us until a couple weeks in advance. The work load wasn't too bad, grades were based on an in-class midterm, two papers and a take-home final. Worger gave a study guide for the midterm in advance and allowed it to be open book, which was really generous of him. One of the papers was about a current event and another more involved class material and was due a couple weeks after the midterm. The take-home final was three two page essays which were not too hard to write. Final verdict: Take the class! It's a fascinating topic and Worger is just the right professor to teach it.
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Most Helpful Review
Simply put Worger is boring. In addition to this it is evident that he has a strong dislike for undergrad students and is quite partial to graduate students (especially graduate students in the history dept.). Moreover, he is unhelpful, indeed unwilling to engage in outside/office hours time with students. The course basically revolved around a paper that was over 60% of our grade- his directions for the paper were unclear and students had many questions- most of which he answered apathetically and uncaringly if even at all. Indeed, if it was not a student who was helping him with research or actively engaged within the history department, it seemed to be not worth his time. I received a B in the class and after several failed attempts to try to meet with him (he was never available and only offered to leave my paper in his box with no promise to discuss it or the rational behind the grade I received) I gave up trying to understand him, the class, my grade, and the reasons why he did not care about students. At best this class was discouraging both academically and personally.
Simply put Worger is boring. In addition to this it is evident that he has a strong dislike for undergrad students and is quite partial to graduate students (especially graduate students in the history dept.). Moreover, he is unhelpful, indeed unwilling to engage in outside/office hours time with students. The course basically revolved around a paper that was over 60% of our grade- his directions for the paper were unclear and students had many questions- most of which he answered apathetically and uncaringly if even at all. Indeed, if it was not a student who was helping him with research or actively engaged within the history department, it seemed to be not worth his time. I received a B in the class and after several failed attempts to try to meet with him (he was never available and only offered to leave my paper in his box with no promise to discuss it or the rational behind the grade I received) I gave up trying to understand him, the class, my grade, and the reasons why he did not care about students. At best this class was discouraging both academically and personally.
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