Gergely Baics

Medium-heavy readings Midterm 3 IDs and an essay Final IDs and 2 essays, i think Film review on mediathread Biweekly TA recitation Participation

Lot of reading, though no responses (and a lot of it was skimmable), book review and final research paper.

I'm taking 20th Century Cities: Americas/Europe which is the 2nd half of the Emerging Cities sequence, and I am really impressed with Professor Baics's teaching abilities and ability to convey the point of the material. Having never taken an upper-level course, urban studies class or history one, I was a bit nervous about taking the class but there really was nothing to fear. The readings are a lot, but that's to be expected from an upper-level class with mostly juniors and seniors, and he would sometimes substitute or reduce readings to give us a break and the readings were mostly interesting. The lectures were really interesting and informative and helped a lot with understanding the denser readings, and his enthusiasm and clarity helped get the main point all the time. It was definitely worth the 8 40 am start time, and he always made funny comments and tried to wake the class up. His accent as well was wonderful, and the class really helped me learn a lot about urban history. We had to watch a movie and analyze it from one of two questions, and I found it a cool assignment because it was just 1200-1500 words, and we embedded parts of the movie in the essay which was dope. Midterm was IDs and an essay from options, and if you listened in class and did the readings then it would have been totally fine, and he does a pretty good job of going over the material and using Google…

Really great class. He has been one of my best professors and really inspired me to explore urban history. The class is organized by method (so economic history, geography, oral history, etc.) which really exposed me to all the different ways you can look at a city. However, there was a lot of reading, even by seminar standards. I didn't do all the reading, but it was interesting and I somewhat regret it. He manages to keep the discussion free-flowing but also guided so that we were able to talk about what we were interested in while still hitting all the main points. Both because of him and the other students, this was one of my best seminars. Baics is strict about deadlines, though, and the class is a lot of work. Not an unreasonable amount for a seminar, but definitely took a lot of time during the semester.

Heavy reading (ridiculously heavy but necessary to read to understand the material), Film critique paper (1200-1500 words) (20%), Midterm (30%), Final exam (with alternative paper option) (40%), Participation (10%)

I'm taking the second semester of this course- 20th Century Cities and I honestly do not understand how Professor Baics has a gold nugget. He is a mediocre professor, at best. It's clear that he knows the subject well but he barely gets his point across in lectures. He repeats himself a lot and I feel as if we go in circles in the lectures. The class may be moderately sized- with a cap at 75 students, but he doesn't make an effort to get to know individual students. I've walked past him a couple times and waved and he's stared blankly back at me. His accent is difficult to understand at times, especially when he is saying places/names. There's a midterm, a final and a movie critique. The movie critique was a disaster. He mentioned it at the beginning of the semester then barely gave us a week to complete it after going over the material we needed for the assignment. I only knew what the assignment was about from the discussion sections with the TA and from the readings. As for the midterm, he told us at the beginning of the semester that he may supply potential questions for the midterm and then select from those to put on the exam. That didn't happen. The amount of readings that he assigned was incredibly unnecessary. There was a lot of reading and you needed to know the general gist of them for the discussion sections. I've barely managed to keep up, but I try to read all of…

Medium-heavy (but by no means unmanageable) reading, 4-6 page mediathread paper, midterm,and either a final exam OR 12-15 page final paper on a topic of your choice

Professor Baics (pronouced Ba-eech, get it right for brownie points) is the absolute coolest. His lectures are about 75 people but it never feels like it could possibly be that large because the way he lectures feels so much more personal. He clearly loves his subject and wants you to love it as well. In that goal, he succeeds--he's the reason why I chose and Urban Studies major with a concentration in History. He's an incredibly eloquent man, and if it weren't for his Hungarian accent (he'll make sure to tell you he's from Budapest) you'd never know English isn't his first language. But you love the accent, believe me. I'm currently taking his 20th c. Cities class (the second half of the Emerging Cities lecture) and he takes what he considers a chaotic century of history and delivers it in a neat and orderly fashion--if it really is that messy a time period, you'd never know it. Professor Baics also really accessible and easy to talk to, and he's also incredibly kind and hilarious, and seems to really enjoy getting to know students, either personally or just in the context of his class. As he teaches, he tends to break the lecture into sections of about 30 minutes each and will ask if anyone has questions. Most of the time, people won't answer and he gets amusedly disgruntled, and sometimes likes to wait until the silence gets to be too awkward to continue. The class requires…

In-Class Midterm: 3 IDs, 1 essay Film Review: 5 - 7 pages Group Presentation: powerpoint, ~15 minutes Final: 5 IDs, 1 essay

Professor Baics is extremely enthusiastic about this course. He can go off on tangents about his favorite planner (Aldefonso Cerdá) or his favorite topic (public health), which are delightfully entertaining because of his expertise and accent. Don't fret - his lectures are completely intelligible. I would highly recommend this class, as you will learn a ridiculous amount of urban history. Baics delivers comical lines equal parts kitsch and historical context: “You do not build parks because they are cute! You built parks because they save lives! As well as they are cute. First half of the course is considerably heavier in reading; it becomes more interesting and lighter after spring break.