HIST 111B
Topics in Middle Eastern History: Early Modern
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Designed for juniors/seniors. Examination of Istanbul in Ottoman period (1453 to 1923); relationship between history and literary imagination and view of history as dialogue between past and present; scholarly debate on urban history of early-modern Middle East; introduction to corpus of theories (world economy paradigm) through discussion of Ottoman port cities. May be repeated for maximum of 16 units with topic and/or instructor change. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Summer 2023 - This was a great class - I took it over the summer so the lectures were all over Zoom, but Professor Koh was great at keeping the class engaging. The first half was lecture based off of slides (with a lot of Turkish dramas and video clips throughout), and the second half was a discussion with 4 classmates then a whole-class discussion. The class was graded off of attendance/participation, a 2-3 page essay, and a 4-5 page final essay. The first essay was based off of a specific topic and set of readings, and the final essay was a question that had us synthesize material from throughout the course. We also had weekly readings that she summarized in class and we discussed in discussion. The workload was super manageable and she's very understanding with extensions and helping you understand the material. The material itself was all very interesting and presented clearly, and Professor Koh was great at highlighting the most important points so I felt like I learned a lot throughout the course despite it only being 6 weeks. I will say that the grading seemed a bit tougher than the other history courses I have taken based off of class averages, but the professor gives very detailed feedback on what you can improve and getting a good grade isn't tough if you put in even a little effort. Overall, I would highly recommend this class!
Summer 2023 - This was a great class - I took it over the summer so the lectures were all over Zoom, but Professor Koh was great at keeping the class engaging. The first half was lecture based off of slides (with a lot of Turkish dramas and video clips throughout), and the second half was a discussion with 4 classmates then a whole-class discussion. The class was graded off of attendance/participation, a 2-3 page essay, and a 4-5 page final essay. The first essay was based off of a specific topic and set of readings, and the final essay was a question that had us synthesize material from throughout the course. We also had weekly readings that she summarized in class and we discussed in discussion. The workload was super manageable and she's very understanding with extensions and helping you understand the material. The material itself was all very interesting and presented clearly, and Professor Koh was great at highlighting the most important points so I felt like I learned a lot throughout the course despite it only being 6 weeks. I will say that the grading seemed a bit tougher than the other history courses I have taken based off of class averages, but the professor gives very detailed feedback on what you can improve and getting a good grade isn't tough if you put in even a little effort. Overall, I would highly recommend this class!
AD
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - Professor Momdjian is a great teacher and I think that if this course hadn't used Canvas so much, the class would have been great. She often had trouble using Canvas, which resulted in her getting frustrated at students and readings being posted late. She grades very generously and puts an extremely large emphasis on participation on class, but makes it scary to participate. She can be very intimidating and make people feel bad if they don't give her the exact answer she wants. Other than all of this, her assignments were easy and consisted of a weekly blog post every week, two papers and a group project that replaces a final.
Winter 2022 - Professor Momdjian is a great teacher and I think that if this course hadn't used Canvas so much, the class would have been great. She often had trouble using Canvas, which resulted in her getting frustrated at students and readings being posted late. She grades very generously and puts an extremely large emphasis on participation on class, but makes it scary to participate. She can be very intimidating and make people feel bad if they don't give her the exact answer she wants. Other than all of this, her assignments were easy and consisted of a weekly blog post every week, two papers and a group project that replaces a final.
Most Helpful Review
Good Lecturer and a funny guy who really knows his stuff on Arab Provinces in the Ottoman Empire, the experience only got better with Nefertiti as my TA, she was awesome! Anyways, discussion section, final, midterm make up the grade in this class, and it's not a terribly hard class, but the readings were very complex, nevertheless take him, he's really cool!
Good Lecturer and a funny guy who really knows his stuff on Arab Provinces in the Ottoman Empire, the experience only got better with Nefertiti as my TA, she was awesome! Anyways, discussion section, final, midterm make up the grade in this class, and it's not a terribly hard class, but the readings were very complex, nevertheless take him, he's really cool!
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