Professor
Lauren Derby
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - I thought the class was alright. Professor Derby's lectures were somewhat disorganized and occasionally hard to follow, but she and the TA Becca were helpful in clarifying when you ask questions. The class was mostly based on two papers and discussion posts in the Slack. The papers weren't graded too harshly and Becca was helpful if you wanted feedback on your work. The textbooks are necessary for the papers, but you don't need to read everything, just enough to include the material for the topic you're writing about. I definitely learned a lot of new and interesting information overall, despite the disorganization.
Winter 2021 - I thought the class was alright. Professor Derby's lectures were somewhat disorganized and occasionally hard to follow, but she and the TA Becca were helpful in clarifying when you ask questions. The class was mostly based on two papers and discussion posts in the Slack. The papers weren't graded too harshly and Becca was helpful if you wanted feedback on your work. The textbooks are necessary for the papers, but you don't need to read everything, just enough to include the material for the topic you're writing about. I definitely learned a lot of new and interesting information overall, despite the disorganization.
Most Helpful Review
Derby is passionate and well-intentioned, but overall a very poor professor. Unfortunately, Derby's love for Latin America and the Caribbean does not translate into anything comprehensible in lecture- her lectures are random and extremely unorganized, often with Powerpoints of only keyterms and a picture or two. Fortunately, TA's are understanding of Derby's terrible lecture skills and really help the students to understand the material, which spans many countries and several hundred years. An interest in Latin America before Hist. 8C helped me to get through the class, but others were not as fortunate. The class consists of three essays (two for the midterm), which are all doable, and one broad final on the hundreds of keyterms throughout the quarter. Not the worst class I've taken, but certainly not the best.
Derby is passionate and well-intentioned, but overall a very poor professor. Unfortunately, Derby's love for Latin America and the Caribbean does not translate into anything comprehensible in lecture- her lectures are random and extremely unorganized, often with Powerpoints of only keyterms and a picture or two. Fortunately, TA's are understanding of Derby's terrible lecture skills and really help the students to understand the material, which spans many countries and several hundred years. An interest in Latin America before Hist. 8C helped me to get through the class, but others were not as fortunate. The class consists of three essays (two for the midterm), which are all doable, and one broad final on the hundreds of keyterms throughout the quarter. Not the worst class I've taken, but certainly not the best.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - I took Food in the Atlantic World over the zoom year. Professor Derby is so nice and if you express interest in any topic she'll do what she can to help you out. Her class is pretty much a straight lecture in which she discusses themes from the readings. I encourage you to go to her office hours. There isn't as much opportunity to engage in class, and she's very understanding and helpful if you talk to her in person. There were no tests, it was all paper based, so people that weren't either already into the topic or didn't take time to talk to her about their papers, had a harder time. You definitely need to know how to write a history paper because she grades like an English teacher. I didn't do as well as expected on the first paper so I followed her suggestions to use the History Writing Center for my second paper and I did well (I had never written a history paper before). For the final paper I talked to her in office hours and I did fine. A lot of people were disappointed in what they interpreted as nitpicky grading and this is definitely not a class in which you learn to write. You have to do that on your own. Most of the complaints were from people with high b's and a high b is into actually a bad grade and she won't treat it as a bad grade or raise it for you when you complain. Its an easy class in that you don't need to prove your participation (there was a weekly blog discussion board for that) and you could skip lectures and she gives lots of opportunity for attending talks and getting extra credit. But its hard in that you need to know how to write a good paper on your own- its not the kind of class where you build the paper in class. There is also a lot of reading and you have to use those readings in your papers. I learned a lot about the food exchange in transatlantic trade and I came into the class with a lot of food knowledge. So, it's worthwhile if you're into food history.
Fall 2020 - I took Food in the Atlantic World over the zoom year. Professor Derby is so nice and if you express interest in any topic she'll do what she can to help you out. Her class is pretty much a straight lecture in which she discusses themes from the readings. I encourage you to go to her office hours. There isn't as much opportunity to engage in class, and she's very understanding and helpful if you talk to her in person. There were no tests, it was all paper based, so people that weren't either already into the topic or didn't take time to talk to her about their papers, had a harder time. You definitely need to know how to write a history paper because she grades like an English teacher. I didn't do as well as expected on the first paper so I followed her suggestions to use the History Writing Center for my second paper and I did well (I had never written a history paper before). For the final paper I talked to her in office hours and I did fine. A lot of people were disappointed in what they interpreted as nitpicky grading and this is definitely not a class in which you learn to write. You have to do that on your own. Most of the complaints were from people with high b's and a high b is into actually a bad grade and she won't treat it as a bad grade or raise it for you when you complain. Its an easy class in that you don't need to prove your participation (there was a weekly blog discussion board for that) and you could skip lectures and she gives lots of opportunity for attending talks and getting extra credit. But its hard in that you need to know how to write a good paper on your own- its not the kind of class where you build the paper in class. There is also a lot of reading and you have to use those readings in your papers. I learned a lot about the food exchange in transatlantic trade and I came into the class with a lot of food knowledge. So, it's worthwhile if you're into food history.
Most Helpful Review
I took Hist 161 with Derby and she's a total sweetheart. She does have the tendency to trail off in the middle of sentences and can sometimes be hard to follow, but you get the general themes she trying to express and the class overall was not too difficult. It consisted of a take-home midterm and a take home-final which she gave out weeks in advance and you had a choice of prompts. She loves tons of examples from the books she assigns and shes a pretty lenient grader. I personally loved the class.
I took Hist 161 with Derby and she's a total sweetheart. She does have the tendency to trail off in the middle of sentences and can sometimes be hard to follow, but you get the general themes she trying to express and the class overall was not too difficult. It consisted of a take-home midterm and a take home-final which she gave out weeks in advance and you had a choice of prompts. She loves tons of examples from the books she assigns and shes a pretty lenient grader. I personally loved the class.
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