HIST W3760

essay midterm, essay final, light reading

One easy midterm and a fairly demanding final paper.

you're responsible for one week's readings (includes really knowing the material and posting a framing question on courseworks) and a weekly courseworks post of about a paragraph that anyone could bullshit in 20 minutes if necessary... not bad at all and helps make sure you're keeping up with the work

Avoid. Interesting subject matter, rest – not as serious. Mann is soft-spoken, confined to his opinion and a pretty mundane lecturer altogether. Discussion never passed name-dropping. It was a very mediocre experience. The lectures were awkward and slow. I wish I could have engaged with the topic more, as African History is truly fascinating and important to know about; especially in Columbia's narrow West-centric universe. I would recommend getting the syllabus and read some of the literature instead.

Although his accent takes a couple of classes to get used to, Professor Mbodj is a terrific lecturer. He did an admirable job of presenting an absurdly large topic (Africa since 1800) in terms of comprehensible yet not overly simplistic themes. He has a propensity for making extremely witty remarks, which are both hilarious and perceptive. The material was consistently interesting; Professor Mbodj has a balanced and very plausible view of African history, he avoids both naivete and cynicism. I particularly liked the way he managed not to demonize the traditional villians of African history (colonizers, slave traders, autocratic leaders) but also didn't attempt to ignore or excuse their sins. The only part of this course I was less than enthusiastic about was the readings, which were sometimes distinctly uninsightful or just irrelevant.

Brandon was a great TA. I always found his section really useful and even entertaining. He assigned each week's discussion/reading to one or two students but typically ended up leading the class himself. I'm not sure how others felt about this (after having prepared for leading discussion) but I welcomed it both as a presenter and a student. He was really well-versed in his area of expertise (mainly Mali/Senegal I think) but also very knowledgeable about the course content and African history in general. I would recommend his section highly.

Seemingly average at first blush but you will find yourself working much harder than you expected for only the outside possibility of a decent grade. The TAs can be brutal and you may end up arguing minutia and semantics a lot. Mid-term and final require in depth knowledge of topics only briefly touched upon (if at all) and further development of themes not adequately addressed in lectures. 10-page papers on the topic of your choice but you have to come up with the idea and sources (both primary and secondary) early on in the class before you really know anything about African history. Weekly discussion sessions are mandatory and TAs are a real pain in the ass about grading. Take another class if you want to learn about Africa or want a decent grade for the amount of work youÂ’ll have to put in. My humble opinion: this class is NOT WORTH IT.

Midterm, 12 page paper. Midterm is really easy, 12 page papers are never fun.

This class is essentially an upper level survey course and like all survey courses it is inherently muddled and broad. Prof. Mann only contributes to the confusion with his meandering lectures and inability to effectively touch on (ironically) the “main currents in African history.” That’s not to say the class is completely uninteresting, at many points I found myself feeling like I was learning things that would be valuable outside the class for many years to come. That being said, the nitpicky grading and all over the place lecture style made those moments more difficult to treasure. This is one of those classes where you think you’ve nailed the exams but when you get them back you have a “what the f*#?!” moment as you stare at your blue book. Overall, this class is definitely not terrible but it’s certainly not great. If you were looking to find a class to meet the breadth requirements of the history major I would look elsewhere. If you were looking to learn in depth about African history I would look elsewhere. If you absolutely HAVE to take this class for some reason plan on spending way more time on it than you think you have to and you MAY do all right. This class is a GPA buster of the most annoying kind, one where the prof. asks the students to be perfect but falls far from being perfect himself.

Don't even bother trying to make out his accent. But he's a very enthusiastic lecturer, and the lectures prepare you extremely well for the midterm. The material is fairly interesting, and he'll occassionally crank out an absolutely hilarious remark in the midst of his lecture.