HIST BC2401

I took it in the Fall of 2023. I believe it was 2 or 3 essays and an essay as a final assignment that reflects on one or more themes present in the class. For this I suggest to keep notes during his lectures and readings because while it may seem unimportant in the moment.....it'll be harder to do the final assignment. Readings are assigned every other class (ish), and while some can be longer he stresses you don't have to read them all and even sometimes is like "Get to them if you have the time." What a guy. Participation and attendance is important and part of your grade, but his class is very interesting so there's no major incentive to skip. Also you don't even have to participate much. Just be friendly, maybe sit a bit closer to the front, and meet him at OH. I think any teacher will give a better grade naturally if they know the person they're grading.

I love this man. All the reviews complaining about this class and him are making me think they attended the wrong class .....I took this class to fulfill the Thinking Locally req as an Econ major who doesn't normally enjoy classes that don't involve computational material. Does he tend to go off of the syllabus schedule? Yes, but not in a bad way. IF anything he will run behind schedule and extend due dates. I don't get how people can complain about this, but I guess if you absolutely lose it over some disorganization don't take him. He's an incredibly nice and friendly person and is always willing to help. He creates a very engaging classroom and the material he covers is extremely interesting. He's super flexible with deadlines and just creates such a chill class. I REALLY enjoyed this class. The negative reviews must've done the absolute bare minimum and received a bad grade, to take it out on him here. Ignore them. He still expects a certain standard of work, but as someone who isn't the best essay writer and got an A in the class, it is 100000000% doable. If you're still unsure, sit in his class during the shopping period and you'll see. He creates a great class environment. Talks a lot about his dog which is a plus. Always expresses his opinions on random things happening in his life and in the world. Very knowledgeable and evidently passionate about the course material.…

only two 6-8 paper plus the final paper that was 5-9 pages. Attendance can only boost your grade and the papers were all weighted equally. There are a bunch of readings but control f was my bestie during discussions. highly reccommend.

i LOVE this man. I would go to war for him. I am his number 1 fan. major babe. he is a fair grader and a chill guy. he might rant about his fear of robots but we love it. he has a tendency to go off schedule because he lectures from memory. HOW MANY LETTERS IN MATTY VAZ? ATEEEEEE!

unreasonable grader, terrible class. Way too many readings, says you don't need to read them, but then they appear in the final.

Not worth the time and effort you put into it, lectures are unstructured and don't follow the syllabus at all. Doesn't post slides. Changes the deadline of assignments randomly.

25% participation, 25% paper 1, 25% paper 2, and 25% take home final. He does take attendance. The assignments are very doable for the course. The take home requires citations from readings and lectures, so if you did not take notes or read then it will be difficult. The paper seemed to be graded very generally. He has some random guy help him grade.

This class was not enjoyable. I am a history major and am very interested in criminal justice and incarceration. I was very excited about this class and was disappointed by it. Professor Vaz shows up late for class and keeps students over time. His lectures are extremely unorganized and sometimes he spends class just rambling about random irrelevant topics. He lists his classes in two different categories, one being lecture and the other being discussion. None of the reading is required and he makes it clear that it is optional. He has very little expectations for students. While this may sound appealing, it makes for a very unmotivating class. He has random slides with lines and lines of information and other slides with random photos. Half the time he says "you don't need to remember this." I found the topics to be very confusing and his lectures to be so boring. They are unorganized and confusing to follow. The work load is light, but I do not think it is worth it because the lectures are so awful to sit through. Perhaps it was more difficult because it was an evening class.

Outside grader that I found to be fair. Vaz is very lenient with deadlines and is incredibly relaxed about late work.

Although he sometimes goes on tangents and doesn't follow a rigid course structure, he is an engaging and interesting lecturer! Two 5-6 page papers and 1 take home final. Readings are not every week but when they are, they tend to be long. Although he obviously wants everyone to read, you do not need to do all the readings to do well in the class. He always discusses current events at the beginning of class which was great to bridge the past and the present.