HIST W3926

A bunch of reading, two incredibly obtuse papers that essentially ask you to explain the entire thesis of the class, surprisingly tricky and hard final

Amit is an excellent TA! He was extremely helpful in breaking down the extensive readings from a hard course, and was always willing to discuss the difficult readings or go over drafts of papers. He is also a really intelligent, organized, and nice guy. If you get a chance to have him as your TA, do not hesitate, go for him!

Sam Moyn is a good argument for why professors under the age of 50 shouldn't get tenure. He's super-hyped but truly disappointing. He's a decent lecturer but the structure of the class falls apart pretty quickly. He's willing to ask and answer questions in lecture but doesn't do enough to challenge students when they say inane or simply incorrect things. He tried very hard to be a personable, young, cool professor ("Hi, I'm Sam") but the minute you asked for help or even asked a question that front disappeared immediately. There are certainly more boring lectures, but I've never taken a more disappointing class overall. Think twice.

Amit is excellent, one of the best TA's I've had. Perhaps as a result of his years teaching high school, he actually teaches the material and he's always prepared and on time. He takes a Socratic approach to the material, questioning the section and then explaining the answer himself if he doesn't elicit any responses. He is a tough grader, but fair. My one complaint is that he was obsessed with comparing the methods of history to the methods of other disciplines in order to show how history's were better. Overall, though, I wouldn't hesitate before taking another section with him.

Fair amount of reading, but I didn't do a lot of it and still got an A (not to say it's an easy class, I think I just got a little lucky). Two papers (5-7 pp. and 7-9 pp) and a final (no midterm). The final wasn't too bad, IDs and an essay. Weekly discussion sections which were helpful to clarify the material.

Sam is a great professor. His lectures were almost always engaging, even engaging enough to keep me awake at 9 a.m. He brought up great points and questions in his lectures and used a lot of helpful metaphors to clarify some of the denser, more academic language of the readings. He sometimes had to rush through parts of his lectures and skip entire pages of the powerpoint that seem like they would've been valuable to discuss, but that will always be difficult. The class was extremely interesting and eye-opening. It helped me approach human rights in a different way and provided a lot of context for understanding human rights. If you are at all interested in human rights, this is a great class to take. The only downside is that if you are a bleeding-heart humanitarian, you may come away feeling a bit disillusioned. Sam definitely presents the material in a somewhat critical way, but I think that that's a good thing and that it's one of the ways he gets you to really engage with these issues.

The workload for this class consists of weekly reading (not too too much but challenging at times), two papers (5-7 pg and then 7-10 pg), and a final exam. There is also a weekly discussion section led by a TA. Discussion sections are mandatory, unless you opt not to do one in which case your papers are weighted more heavily in your grade. I'd recommend the section. It gives you an opportunity to discuss some really interesting readings. Also, the papers are challenging, so you might want to balance those with the discussion.

Professor Moyn, or Sam, as he will introduce himself, is a truly fantastic professor, and probably one of the best that I have had here at Columbia. His lectures are engaging and interesting, and he does a nice job of inserting some humor in there as well to keep the energy in the classroom up. He presents a lot of information in class, and some of the concepts that he brings up might be a little overwhelming. (He's quite brilliant-- there were definitely words he used that I found myself heading to the dictionary to look up...) This is definitely not an easy A. The material is complex, and it will really force you to think way outside of the box. You'll probably come away from the class with more questions than answers, but I think this is a good thing! His powerpoints might not make a lot of sense on their own, so I definitely recommend going to all the classes and taking notes that correlate with the slides. This will help in studying for the final exam and will also help when you are writing your papers. Plus, it wasn't exactly a chore to go to this class. I really enjoyed it and definitely came away from the experience feeling like I had been challenged intellectually. Also, appreciate this reading list. There is a lot of material, but it is manageable, and really interdisciplinary, which I think was a huge strength of the class overall. I'd definitely recommend this clas…

A considerable amount of reading but nothing too thick. Weekly discussion sections where you are expected to know the material. Two doable papers during the semester (5-7pg and 7-9pg) about interesting topics (you get a lot of choices about what to write about) and a final exam (don't know the format yet)

I'm writing this review a little early, since we haven't taken the final yet or had a review...but I'd have to say that I recommend this class to people who are interested in human rights, philosophy, or especially law. It goes into a lot of theories about where the concept of human rights came from and how it has been applied over time. The reading may be philosophical and look a little dense at first, but if you read carefully and highlight the important points, the information you get from it can be very interesting. Keep in mind that this is an upper level class and the reading is pretty fast paced. There are a few books assigned on the syllabus, and in addition to reading the books there are about 2 or 3 printouts to read for each class day. The discussion section is optional (if you don't take it your papers count more in your grade) but it's very helpful in understanding the material. My TA (Michelle) was really cool and understanding of the students. Professor Moyn kept in touch with his TAs on what to discuss and what would be the most helpful to bring to discussion section. The lectures are very easy to follow and interesting too. Even though it's a morning class, you won't fall asleep. The lecture material supplements the readings without being a useless summary. Professor Moyn uses slides and puts them up on courseworks the next day or so. For me, it was a little h…