POLS W4454

One midterm (he literally gives you the entire list of things that will be on it and if you cover that list throughly you are guaranteed an 80+ and if you are really good at it then a 90+) 6 weekly assignments (literally a page each) One final

I am writing this review to provide an updated perspective so you don't have to rely on 5 year old reviews Take this class. It has simply the BEST selection of readings I have ever come across at Columbia. Oldenburg KNOWS his stuff. He has lived in south asia for years upon years and his depth of knowledge is insane. Is this class hard? Yes Are the readings sometimes a lot to do? Sure Is lecture often boring? Yep Is it worth it? Undoubtedly You will never learn more about one of the most important geopolitical regions in the world and be able to actually understand how these countries have developed politically in the last few decades. A lot of the class is on India (understandably) and the kind of conversations to be had are spectacular. You might not get an A grade or even a high B grade but please tell me you went to Columbia for more than flexing your gpa. Take it.

Plenty of reading, but only 1 midterm and 1 final. Good luck with the grading.

I hated going to class and ended up skipping as much as I thought I could get away with (turns out I could have skipped most). While I see below that his grading is easy, I'm going to have to disagree. It's more luck of the draw; he has no clear rubric, and he makes up his grading scheme as he goes along which makes the process incredibly subjective. If you happen to get an A, then good for you. If not, tough, because without a clear set of directions there is no way to even talk to him about it. When I tried to, he got so defensive that I just dropped it. He wouldn't even make eye contact with me, I just had to walk away from the guy. That one example of his social skills might give you a clue as to why his lectures are empty. Best value for me was knocking out the cultural diversity with a poli sci class since it's my major. And I agree with others that the readings were good. But, one can find cultural diversity requirements with other poli sci classes, and similarly his syllabus can be obtained without taking his class. So I would say this is not worth anyone's time.

Probably the easiest A I've ever gotten. Each week, there is "required" reading and then optional reading to choose from. Go ahead and read all the required reading if you want, just because they're almost all interesting, but don't expect to be tested on it. For the midterm, he gives you a pretty short set of terms to study - "short" and "long" ones, the latter a little more specific. Personally, I had not done a single reading by the midterm. I just went through each reading for the "definition" and "significance" of each term (a long process if you want that easily attainable A - otherwise, you could probably Wiki all the terms and do relatively well). I wish I hadn't worked so hard on getting those terms, as he only asks you to identify a few IDs. If I went to class more than 4 times the entire semester, I probably would have gotten in on some study group to divide up the terms; you should probably do that. The final consisted of IDs reminiscent of the midterm and 2 short take-home essays (pretty specific topics, easy to pick which readings to use, NO outside research needed, which was strange for the culminating exam in a 4000-level class).

Euphemistically speaking, seriously one of the least impressive classes I've taken at Columbia. The subject matter is fascinating, as is the reading; this much I can attest to, since I'm a MEALAC major. The articles, when I ended up reading them for the midterm/final, were really interesting. His reading list is one of the most well though-out and researched I have seen in a while. Unfortunately, his obvious knowledge of the topic is not reason enough to take the class. His delivery creates an atmosphere of general disinterest and apathy amongst the class, save the token few overly eager students. I think the problem stems from the structure of the class, which is technically a lecture (of maybe 10 students any given day, maybe up to 15-20 were actually in the class), which meant Oldenburg just spoke at us for an hour or so in his monotone voice (after going through current events in South Asia for far too long every class, though I appreciate his attempts at trying to keep his teachings relevant and topical, a necessity as the political state of South Asia is unstable at best). When he did encourage class participation, it was the same few people. We weren't encouraged to talk, since class participation was not part of the grade, and so most people stayed quiet...or just slept in.