Shocked by the negativity of reviews for this class. One of the best classes I've taken at UCLA, by far the best art history class I've taken.
Postives:
- Professor Burke is friendly, approachable, and very happy to answer questions about course content or assignments
- Grading is generous -- provided that you complete most of the assignments, you will get an A easily
- Assignments consist of four term definition lists and a research paper, spread across the quarter so you get at least a week or more per assignment
- Course covers a broad cross-section of Islamic art and culture in the Middle East, mostly around the Early Islamic period in Arabia and Greater Syria
- Concepts introduced and explained in a way that is very accessible to someone not familiar with Islamic history and Islam
- Final and midterm exam both based on term definitions and short written answers, minimal studying required if you finish the assignments and pay attention in lecture. Terms will all be the same as homework and essay topics all heavily emphasized in lecture
Negatives:
- Lectures almost always ran overtime
- Lectures were fairly dense, run through pretty quickly, and not recorded
- Term lists are deceptively difficult due to fairly rigorous sourcing requirements. I spent easily around 6-8 hours on each and often submitted them unfinished (but Professor Burke still gave me 85-90%). This has since been changed after student feedback to be more lenient, more like 4 hours per term list now
Overall an excellent class. Cannot recommend Professor Burke enough, whether you are interested in art history, Islam, Arab culture, or are just lazy and want a GPA booster.

From a student that has taken multiple Islamic themed courses, this class was abysmal. In fact, I dreaded attending and doing any work for this professor...here's my list babes:

Pros:
-Love Islamic Art and Architecture: this class addressed ceramics, coins, architecture, historic events, and your basic archaeology studies.
-Slides were clear, interesting, engaging, and informative

Cons:
-Assignments were easy in theory, HOWEVER, the professor lacked the ability to be organized and CLEAR in her directions. Therefore, ALL assignments felt like rollercoaster of uncertainty (I had to increase my anxiety meds for this piece).
-Nitpicks on the most irrelevant items.
-Again her clarity was the worst when it came to assignments. No exaggeration (I have screenshots), we would receive at LEAST one/two announcements a week regarding the clarification of her instructions to either her Vocabulary lists (5), Mini Essays (3), and Final Paper.
-If I received the amount of clarifications on my instructions...the problem is me. I would fix that. Let's do better, yeah?

Lastly, would I recommend this professor? No.
Save yourself the frustration and anxiety medication.
I had to be practically sedated to make it through the last three weeks of this class.

I loved this class and will be taking her class again next quarter. She is very nice and very helpful. She really loves the subject that she is teaching and that is a very important characteristic that a professor should have. The tests weren't that hard; an in-class essay and short questions, but a lot of people had struggles with the map quizzes. I personally like the map quizzes because it was just memorization of 10-15 places on a map and did that right before class. There is a research paper that she gives, which is about 10 pages but you have the whole quarter to do it, and it can be about anything about Islamic Archaeology. Overall, it was one of the best classes I've taken.

The most helpful professor I've had this year. Very understanding and accomodating. Prof. Burke is a great source of information, further readings, and will help you find sources for final paper (hint: use books, not JStor articles.) The final paper prompts were very interesting! Lectures are clear, but a lot of information, so be ready to take notes quickly. Readings are relevant (Insoll is especially enjoyable). I learned a lot. Would absolutely take classes with her in the future.

For someone interested in art history and archaeology, I LOVED this class. Islamic Archaeology is a topic not often covered in your GE courses, so it was really cool to go more in-depth on it, and it felt very relevant to today's world. Professor Burke does speed through the lectures, so be ready to take lots of quick notes (she does post the slides though, which are basically all you need). There are map quizzes every week, which were the hardest part for me since it was just memorizing a bunch of Arabic city names. Otherwise, the midterms weren't bad, and the papers, while quite long at 10 pages, were manageable if you put the time in. I would recommend this class! You'll learn a lot and enjoy the material.