I have the class online because of the pandemic. Dr. Green is a fantastic lecturer and wants you to enjoy the materials. The grades however depend on your Ta because your letter grade depends on three essays only. So, if you meet a harsh Ta it will NOT be an easy A. In my case I have Ha as my TA who is fantastic and lenient!

This class is graded based on three essays and nothing else. In the syllabus, it states that attendance and participation in discussion sections are mandatory, but they are not included in the grade composition, so I am unsure how it is enforced. Participation in discussions is probably important to get to know your TAs, though, who determine your entire grade. Lectures, which are podcasts recorded by the professor, are not required and are not needed to get a good grade from my experience. I personally did not have this issue, but because the grade is entirely based upon the grading difficulty of the TA's, you have to kind of get lucky with which TA you get to get a good grade. The class workload is very light, which is nice, but no extra credit or grade fluffing assignments are offered so you have to be a good essay writer to get a good grade in this class.

Disclaimer: this was during COVID-19. I came into this class expecting it to have a heavily workload, but it honestly was pretty light. There was no “busy work” nor tests in the class – our entire grade was determined by three essays. On top of that, we had to watch podcasted lectures, read the textbook, and read primary source documents every week. Discussion sections were mandatory, but if you have a good TA these are extremely helpful for midterm essay preparation.

The lectures were very engaging. Each 80-minute-podcast was accompanied by a PowerPoint filled with visual aids. Honestly, I didn’t read the textbook because the lectures and supplemental readings covered most of the material. Definitely read the primary sources though because your essay grades were predicated on your understanding and explication of these materials. The midterm essays (4-pages double spaced) required us to select a visual source (essay 1) or textual source (essay 2) from a select time-frame and write about their historical contexts and speculate about their purposes. The final essay asked us to synthetise textual and visual material to discuss religion in an 8-page paper. Don’t panic though, my TA was very lenient in grading the papers – far easier than say an APUSH essay in high school.

Prof Green is very charming and well-spoken. The lecture: Some key dates, places and people hand written on the chalkboard then he lectures for the rest of the class. Most of the class is his verbal lecturing so if you are not there to take down verbatim what he says-it'll get confusing to borrow notes from someone who just wrote a few dates that he wrote on the board. There are no slides or lectures posted online but he assigns weekly readings that include primary sources. You don't HAVE to read them but if you go through them the class makes so much more sense so if you skip a day you won't be totally confused. His midterm was a take home paper. He provided 2 questions from each of the weeks 1-5 and we had to choose one and write a paper on it using that weeks primary sources, readings and lectures. I did not try my hardest on it and was a little scatterbrained and I got a B. He writes e-mails back very fast and I've been to his office hrs once and he seemed approachable. He can come off a tad intimidating but you can tell he just wants students to learn. I am in week 9 but the final is the same format of the midterm except it is in class. He is going to give us a week in advance to look and study the question so on final day we come in and write the essay on the spot. Overall, he is a good prof and very passionate and colorful in his teaching style. He is also very open-minded and provides all different historical views! Good prof, take him if the actual subject matter is of slight interest to you. So if you can handle a class that has no online post of lectures-no slides, only a midterm/final essay style but with a good prof relaying it to you-then take it!

I agree with the person above me. He is a very approachable guy, good lecturer, and very open to questions or comments. I had no interest in the topic matter prior to the class, I joined the day of when my other class got canceled, and ended up really enjoying the class. He is a mildly hard grader, I got an A- on the midterm after putting a decent amount of effort into it. Saw a few Cs from other people. Lecture material and online readings cover everything. Books aren't really needed. No surprises on the final (which I am about to take)saves a lot of headache. Overall I would highly recommend him. I plan to take his 175 class next quarter (assuming I get a good grade in this class! :D)

Actual Course Taken: 2010 Winter - HIST175C-1
Special Topics in Contemporary Indian History: Muslim Reformation? Islam, Modernity, and Empire in British India.

Structure: Midterm: 50% , Final: 50%

Midterm: You get to pick one question from weeks 1-5. He provides 5 questions or so and you need to answer one. His syllabus is all online with all online readings organized week by week in themes. He gives a week's advance for a 5-10 page paper. I left it till last minute (Same as I did in the other class) and received a B+

Final: He gave us one "theme" question everyone had to do and then a question chosen from 3 possibilities. He gave the questions 5 days in advance and it was on the spot bluebook. I received a B+

Overall, he is a good lecturer, he is interesting but there are NO slides or no overarching textbook to refer to. The readings every week are helpful and you don't need to read every one(Just the weeks you choose to write about). That is good because there were some weeks (Like the Christian missionaries in British India) that did not interest me. I've taken him twice, each time got a B but I would take him again. It does not demand much of you, and if you're into the subject take it! Even if you're not interested in the subject his passion and English accent will make you into it.

You need to take one of his classes, bottom line.

Professor Green is an incredible lecturer, and this is coming from someone who DREADS going to class. But, his lectures are very well organized, easy to understand, and he himself is such a chill person. I loved 185B so much that I decided to take a seminar (191N) with him too. While he does want you to do the reading, you don't have to. But DO go to all of his lectures, pay attention, and write everything that he does on the board. Also, he gives you the essay questions for the midterm and final in advance. This allows you to make a clear and structured essay, memorize your outline, and deliver on the day of the test. Awesome, awesome guy, and both classes were really great.

Grading: Midterm is in class essay. Final is take home paper. You get the questions for both on the first day of class. Keep in mind, the final paper is 10 pages (double space). The midterm isn't difficult per se, but if you are like me and have terrible memory make sure you make a timeline/outline essay that you can memorize and then dump on exam day. Got an A in the class, and Prof. Green is great! I was very surprised to see a British professor speaking and reading Farsi and Arabic like it was nothing! Lectures can be kind of long, but if you like architecture, history, and art you will enjoy them. Make sure you do the readings and annotate a few things as it will help for your final paper.

Professor Green is a really engaging professor who really wants his students to do well. For this class the grade was made up of 50% midterm, 50% final, but he took attendance every class.

For the midterm, the thursday before he gave us the midterm question prompts- and told us we we would get to choose two questions for the midterm. He doesn't surprise you at all, he just really wants you to prepare your answers beforehand. I didn't put that much effort into the preparation and only got a B- on this.

For the final, he gives you the prompt in week 1 of the quarter, and it's a 10 page paper due in Finals week covering the theme of the whole course. I wrote this paper in 24 hours before it was due, and received an A- in the class. He really wants to make sure you show that you've done the reading for this class, so as long as you incorporate at least 1 or two readings from each week into your paper you should be fine.

Professor Nile was a great professor and interesting lecturer. Definitely recommend this class!

Lectures can be boring and redundant, but Professor is extremely nice and willing to answer in depth questions. Only take if you're actually interested in topic.