CLUSTER 48A
Political Violence in Modern World: Causes, Cases, and Consequences
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, two hours. Course 48A is requisite to 48B, which is requisite to 48CW. Limited to first-year freshmen. Exploration of causes, dynamics, and consequences of political violence. Political violence can include anything from extra-legal warfare, ethnic cleansing and genocide, civil war, riots and pogroms, terrorism and state repression, revolution and counter-revolution, and more. Political violence is not modern phenomenon: it has been part of human experience from antiquity to present. Examination, from interdisciplinary perspective, of political violence, in particular, extreme form of political violence, genocide. Readings of theoretical and empirical works from history, comparative literature, sociology, political science, psychology, and more. Employs art, film, literature, diaries, memoirs, and news media to encourage critical thinking about political violence. Letter grading.
Units: 6.0
Units: 6.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - TLDR: One of the best + easiest classes at UCLA. Take Steve Cucharo as TA. Breakdown: 20%: Response Papers 25%: Participation 25%: Final 30%: Social Science Paper The class is new thus workload and grading is light, hardly 2-3h of work per week. Response Papers: simple 400 word papers commenting on specific interesting lines or paragraphs from the readings (stuff you find interesting, confusing, or just disagree with - anything). Super easy to get full (specially with Steve) Participation: show up to discussion, talk for a few minutes and you'll get full on this (at least with Steve Cucharo) Final: Keyword definitions (30pts) and 2 essays (35 pts each). Probably the only challenging bit of the class, but needs max 1 week of work for an A. Social Science Paper: 5pg paper with EXTREMELY CLEAR guidelines on the format, structure, content etc. Easy to get an A on this too. I worked on it for a week and got a 93% Super straight forward class, easy A, AND covers 4 GEs + Writing 2 + Diversity. PS: Steve Cucharo is a fucking godsend. Amazing man, wants you to do well, extremely helpful throughout, and a fucking gem. Text me on **********, giving away notes and study guides, more than enough to get you an A on the class.
Fall 2019 - TLDR: One of the best + easiest classes at UCLA. Take Steve Cucharo as TA. Breakdown: 20%: Response Papers 25%: Participation 25%: Final 30%: Social Science Paper The class is new thus workload and grading is light, hardly 2-3h of work per week. Response Papers: simple 400 word papers commenting on specific interesting lines or paragraphs from the readings (stuff you find interesting, confusing, or just disagree with - anything). Super easy to get full (specially with Steve) Participation: show up to discussion, talk for a few minutes and you'll get full on this (at least with Steve Cucharo) Final: Keyword definitions (30pts) and 2 essays (35 pts each). Probably the only challenging bit of the class, but needs max 1 week of work for an A. Social Science Paper: 5pg paper with EXTREMELY CLEAR guidelines on the format, structure, content etc. Easy to get an A on this too. I worked on it for a week and got a 93% Super straight forward class, easy A, AND covers 4 GEs + Writing 2 + Diversity. PS: Steve Cucharo is a fucking godsend. Amazing man, wants you to do well, extremely helpful throughout, and a fucking gem. Text me on **********, giving away notes and study guides, more than enough to get you an A on the class.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - All the of the professors for this class were great lecturers and are very knowledgeable about the respective subjects that they focused on for the class, but in my opinion Robinson was the best lecturer for this class. I enjoyed his style of lecture more which consisted of a powerpoint with mostly pictures, so you are just focused on paying attention to and writing down what he says rather than trying to frantically copy the slides. This does mean you should attend his lectures, but the reading he assigns essentially give all the information he lectures on. But you should attend lecture because his lectures were incredibly moving, all the lectures have been interesting and worthwhile but his have stood out for me. It's a very fascinating class and it was not very difficult. I didn't keep up with all the readings but I still did well on the final. Also try to get Steve Cucharo as your TA. So far he's the best TA I've ever had and I think he might be the best TA I ever will have. He's very knowledgeable and helpful and you can tell he cares and really wants everyone to succeed.
Fall 2019 - All the of the professors for this class were great lecturers and are very knowledgeable about the respective subjects that they focused on for the class, but in my opinion Robinson was the best lecturer for this class. I enjoyed his style of lecture more which consisted of a powerpoint with mostly pictures, so you are just focused on paying attention to and writing down what he says rather than trying to frantically copy the slides. This does mean you should attend his lectures, but the reading he assigns essentially give all the information he lectures on. But you should attend lecture because his lectures were incredibly moving, all the lectures have been interesting and worthwhile but his have stood out for me. It's a very fascinating class and it was not very difficult. I didn't keep up with all the readings but I still did well on the final. Also try to get Steve Cucharo as your TA. So far he's the best TA I've ever had and I think he might be the best TA I ever will have. He's very knowledgeable and helpful and you can tell he cares and really wants everyone to succeed.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - This cluster is fantastic. All the professors are so passionate about the work they do and it definitely translates to their lectures. The content is very heavy so beware of that - I would not recommend taking this class if you are not in good mental health, because the course content just makes you lose so much faith in humanity and is quite angering at times. But Rothberg is uber-knowledgeable about the Holocaust and is extremely willing to help you understand the historical context and importance of literature of this time period. There is quite a bit of reading that is "required" for discussion sections, and while you do not necessarily need to read all of it, it is good to skim a reading or two so you can speak up a bit in discussion to get your section participation points. There's no midterm, but there is a final, which the professors graciously give an in-depth study guide for, which is all you need. The final is essentially just 6 (?) short answers which are defining and explaining vocabulary and two essays for which you are given the prompts beforehand. Again, very easy. I highly recommend this class and these professors (Rothberg, Luft, McBride, Robinson), if you are okay with being sad twice a week every time you leave lecture.
Fall 2019 - This cluster is fantastic. All the professors are so passionate about the work they do and it definitely translates to their lectures. The content is very heavy so beware of that - I would not recommend taking this class if you are not in good mental health, because the course content just makes you lose so much faith in humanity and is quite angering at times. But Rothberg is uber-knowledgeable about the Holocaust and is extremely willing to help you understand the historical context and importance of literature of this time period. There is quite a bit of reading that is "required" for discussion sections, and while you do not necessarily need to read all of it, it is good to skim a reading or two so you can speak up a bit in discussion to get your section participation points. There's no midterm, but there is a final, which the professors graciously give an in-depth study guide for, which is all you need. The final is essentially just 6 (?) short answers which are defining and explaining vocabulary and two essays for which you are given the prompts beforehand. Again, very easy. I highly recommend this class and these professors (Rothberg, Luft, McBride, Robinson), if you are okay with being sad twice a week every time you leave lecture.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - Professor Sengul's lectures were very dense and hard to understand. I know other students would make comments about her accent and stuttering but imo that's very ableist and it was never a problem for me. However, she assigned very long and convoluted readings, and because her lectures were so hard to understand, they weren't great. I stopped going to her lectures after her third lecture during fall quarter. She's very very knowledgeable and that's evident through her lectures and everything else but she also speaks very fast during lectures and that makes it hard to understand what she is saying or even to grasp what she wants to convey to students. I respect her a lot and she is a very nice person but I did not enjoy her lectures at all. The other lecturers and TAs in the course are amazing, though, and that made this class my favourite during my first two quarters at UCLA. I would 100% recommend it.
Winter 2021 - Professor Sengul's lectures were very dense and hard to understand. I know other students would make comments about her accent and stuttering but imo that's very ableist and it was never a problem for me. However, she assigned very long and convoluted readings, and because her lectures were so hard to understand, they weren't great. I stopped going to her lectures after her third lecture during fall quarter. She's very very knowledgeable and that's evident through her lectures and everything else but she also speaks very fast during lectures and that makes it hard to understand what she is saying or even to grasp what she wants to convey to students. I respect her a lot and she is a very nice person but I did not enjoy her lectures at all. The other lecturers and TAs in the course are amazing, though, and that made this class my favourite during my first two quarters at UCLA. I would 100% recommend it.
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