This class was a lot of political theory, less on international relations. We covered a lot of interesting thinkers from Hobbes to Grotius etc. I would not consider myself an expert on political theory, but the content was definitely interesting. Lectures were a lot of information and loooong excerpts from texts thrown at you, but they are also uploaded on the canvas.

You are graded on participation in section (asking questions about other peoples' presentations, contributing to discussion), delivering a group presentation in section based on the readings, midterm, and final. The presentation was not bad at all- do the reading, collaborate with your group to each pick an interesting excerpt and give commentary on it. The midterm and final were both open note in-class timed essay prompts. You are given an author, the work, and an excerpt and you have to comment on it while drawing info from the class and historical context. Totally not bad, just make sure to study and really be familiar with the important terms in lecture. TAs are super helpful and overall this class was interesting and not too hard

Your grade pretty much depends on the TA, and I had Roey, who was great. Pagden gives engaging lectures and I really enjoyed taking his class. Your grade is based on attendance in section/short responses to the reading, midterm and final that aren't particularly hard.

I really liked this class. It was more of a political theory class than an international relations class, so if you hate philosophy, I wouldn’t recommend this class. Professor Pagden is a great lecturer and is really awesome to talk with in office hours (especially about Vitoria and all of his crazy ideas). He’s pretty cool and definitely happy to chat with you. I recommend downloading the slides he puts on the class website and then typing what he says at the bottom where it says, “notes,” because you won’t have enough time to type (let alone write) everything that is on the slides because he usually includes long quotes. Even though he uploads the slides, you do really need to go to class because he expands on the concepts a lot and sometimes the theorists' ideas. I thought the professor did an excellent job at explaining the material and helping students to differentiate between the theorists' views. He pretty much gives you the info to write on the exams. In addition, I felt the exams actually tested how well we understood the material and challenged our critical thinking skills; they were not tests of mere memorization (but a little).