Samuel Roberts

I went into this class hopeful despite negative reviews--I'm highly interested in the topic and don't mind longer readings. I also know that Culpa reviews tend to be skewed. Unfortunately, the class has met none of my expectations. Professor Roberts is deceptively friendly, (attempting) to learn people's names, cracking jokes, etc... That being said, he's actually extremely grumpy for lack of a better word. If people don't immediately raise their hand when he asks a question (often about an obscure detail that no one would notice in a reading), he immediately assumes none of us have done the reading. Which, honestly, given how much reading he assigns, would be a fair move--but a lot of us have and its frustrating when he assumes we're not putting in the work. Speaking of not putting in the work, his slides are consistently disorganized. I theoretically knew this going in. But I underestimated just how disorganized they were. It genuinely makes it very difficult to follow along in his lectures--he's always apologizing about his slide order but never actually does anything about it. It's not the one off mistake he claims it is every time. He runs consistently behind on lectures, getting caught in irrelevant details. This leads to our readings and lectures being profoundly out of sync, making it difficult to synthesize information. The content is also just not particularly intere…

I took his seminar last semester and I was really disappointed in his class. His grading and help on the research paper was pretty arbitrary. I showed up to his office hours but he offered almost no help on the paper. The whole seminar is based on harm reduction and no one could criticize the idea, only think of ways to implement harm reduction better in the system. The readings and discussions got pretty repetitive after a while because every week the discussion boils down to the glory of harm reduction. He makes strange comments during discussion and often goes on tangents, ruining potential for a good discussion. His comments on paper is mostly based on fixing grammar or citations and not actual help on content. The class is extremely disorganized. If you ask for an extension he'll say no, but you can submit the assignment in late anyways and not have any points taken off. His contributions during discussion is condescending and meaningless.

I was very surprised when reading Prof. Roberts' other reviews because I thought that his seminar was GREAT. Perhaps he is more effective in seminars than he is in lectures (but I have also seen Prof. Roberts speak for large groups of people, and I think that he can be an organized, effective speaker). First of all, as mentioned in other reviews, Prof. Roberts is brilliant. He has a deep understanding of the history of racial inequality and criminal justice in the United States and always brought his expertise in the history of medical and public health into our discussions. All of the texts that we read for the course were extremely interesting and gave us a good historical foundation for our discussions on current events related to policing and incarceration. Although Prof. Roberts' classes were sometimes not as organized as they could have been, I did not necessarily think that this was a complete loss. The way that he structured the class gave us the space to discuss the parts of the texts that were most relevant and interesting to us and to talk about how the historical framework that the texts provided shaped our understanding of these issues presently. Also, as a professor who is actively working to address the issues that he discusses in his work, Roberts brings his applied experiences and practical knowledge into the classroom. Lastly, Prof. Roberts genuinely cares ab…

Excellent professor. Friendly, funny, and extremely knowledgeable. My class was on 20th century black urban history and onely had 16 people in it. Class is usually based around small group discussion of the readings and then a full class discussion based on the small groups. Class participation was a large part of the grade. His lectures were thorough but he was also very supportive of student contributions. Fair grader. Kind of obsessed with using different columbia websites like wikispaces and sakai, which created some technical problems throughout the semester.

Sam Roberts is smart, no doubt, and funny, sure. He is not, however, a good teacher. Yet. The syllabus was great, but too full (the other reviewer forgot to mention the additional 100-200 pages of article reading each week), and about 200 pages of text assigned were never discussed...per week. If you're someone who reads, it could be extremely frustrating. If not, then you're in luck. He calls people by their last name, which is cute in a gimmicky way, but a little on the annoying or patronizing side. He strikes me as a young professor trying to earn respect, and, if he didn't forget due dates and assignments, his hard-ass approach to conducting class and assigning written work wouldn't matter as much. He is brilliant intellect-wise, and will probably be a very successful and important academic, and I'm holding on the possibility of him becoming a great teacher too.

OK, just to clear up some misunderstandings that have arisen from the reviews on Roberts. I took his class last spring (yet I had such an unpleasant experience that I still remember it like it was yesterday), and he was a nice enough guy trying to come off as the students' friend by attempting to turn the 1 hour and 15 minute lecture sections into a discussion. What ended up happening was people voicing remarkably stupid comments/questions, and any lectures or information to be taught were hastily thrown at the class in the last 10 minutes. Also, the lectures, when he decided to give them, were horribly dry and boring, making the amazingly interesting topics seem incredibly offputting. (Like one reviewer wrote, even the TA's, who were great by the way, didn't know what the heck he was looking for.) Oh, and don't try and blame my "negative tone'" on not doing the work or cutting class: I went to all the lectures and did every single assingment (although, now I regret having wasted so much precious time). So again, you can overlook this pathetic excuse of a class due to his inexperience, or what have you, yet this does not change that it is a large disappointment, and at over $800 a credit, you deserve much better.

I am not entirely sure how to fill out this course evaluation but I am confident that through the course of writing my Masters thesis I have improved my skills as a researcher and writer.

A few hours of reading per week, take home midterm and final.

When I was choosing classes for next semester, I was a new history major trying to find courses that I found interesting and might go towards an eventual specialization. History of Health Inequities in the Modern United States popped up as I was reading through offered courses, and it seemed like something I might enjoy. In order to take it along with the other classes I was interested in, I decided to petition and take the class. I both regret and enjoy my decision. Professor Roberts is a very charismatic and warm person. From the first lecture, he was incredibly laid back and spent the lecture offering a few jokes in between asking questions about history and learning names. He always made sure to ask people how they were doing when he called on them throughout the course. It made lectures feel a bit more low stakes, especially since it's a fairly big lecture. He forgets names from time to time, but you get used to it. If he likes you or you raise your hand a lot, he's a lot more likely to remember you. The environment of the class is very good. His lecture style is interesting. Professor Roberts clearly knows a lot about the topic, and offers plenty of information not only from his slides, but from his own research and knowledge. His slides often have good supplemental materials to help you understand the content, like graphs, video clips, and more; however, some of his sli…

Readings per week- usually 50-100 pgs. on average. Class participation. Also a class presentation (10min.) on an assigned week. The majority of the grade is based on a research paper you work on throughout the semester ~15 to 25 pgs. Class discussion participation 35% Presentation of the readings 15% Writing assignments 50%