History · Columbia University
He is the man! He is very entertaining, and not terribly demanding. Class notes are a must. Reading is minimal. Prof. Vinson is a great professor and a great guy, very engaging and enthusiastic in class and polite and interesting outside of it. I would highly recommend his class as a great, easy way to fulfill a major cultures requirement.
You could go through college and never have so brilliant a man. Ben Vinson is the best professor and lecturer that ever was. His sense of humour and unbelievable contrasts between historical figures and contemporary media figures is down right hillarious. A course from him should be as mandatory as Logic and Rhetoric. His young, hip, and loads of fun. By the way he has his stuff together and makes years of history blend into a seamless story which is intresting and memorable. A great man.
An excellent, excellent professor. He turns facts and dates into a well told story. He's very passionate and knowledgeable about the subject matter. It's important to be in class and awake because the midterm focused mainly on the lectures and not the readings. Also, he tends to start a few minutes late and frequently lets us out a few minutes early. Overall, it's a very enjoyable class.
Vinson is a great professor, who is clearly passionate about his work. An energetic and cheerful teacher, he makes the material really interesting.
Vinson is awesome. His lectures are extremely entertaining and he even brings in slides and handouts to help get across his material. His grading, however, is a bit strict on the midterm, but this is a must as there are about 200+ people in this class. He's the best professor for this course if you are really into latin american civ.
Did you enjoy high school? If you did, this course is for you. Prof. Vinson treats the subject matter in a most superficial fashion. His lectures sacrifice true depth for slide shows (we spent an entire class comparing the facial features of European royalty to the action stars of current movies) and at the end of the class, one leaves at best feeling unfulfilled, but more likely simply frustrated. This is what I expected from my 11th grade history class...not from a university. Granted, this is a major cultures class, but still, I never enjoy wasted time, even if it is for the Core.
Ben Vinson's antics definitely make the course worthwhile. He is probably the most entertaining lecturer I know... to me anyway. you definitely have to appreciate his type of humor. He would quote bill bellamy and talk about books he was reading, like, oh, "what women want." according to him, Lucy Liu wants a guy with "bank." The best was when he compared Cortez with Jean Claude Van Dam. I couldn't contain myself. But seriously, he has his act together. His lectures are always really coherent and easy to follow. And the midterm and final are based strictly on the lecture notes, so if you came to class, you have it made. But the class would have sucked for me if it wasn't taught by him... you have to take it for the experience. i forgot to mention how his crazy way of pronouncing spanish words like tlacopan or se acatl tolpitzin. so funny.
Midterm, Final, Book Report (4-5 pages).
Fairly light workload during the semester for undergrads - one 4-5 page paper due at the end of the semester (the catch is the book has to be read apart from the regular weekly readings). If you're a graduate student, you have a lot to do - several papers, again on books not in the weekly readings.
Midterm, Final, 4-5 page book review on The Black Jacobins (undergrad)