This course made me rethink so many constructs and knowledge I've gained in my life. After every lecture from Professor Sheppard, I would feel so mind-blown. He is such an amazing lecturer and really effectively introduces you to the topics. I also admire his openness to opinions and respect/high regard towards his students despite his accolades. Readings are definitely on the heavy side but if you are disciplined about it, you only need to read a few pages every day. Exams are essays and definitely require a lot of content but nothing ever comes up as a surprise. I had Fernanda as my TA and I highly recommend her--she really helped make discussion useful and engaging. If you're at all interested in development and capitalism, even if you don't know much about the third world, you should give this class a chance!

This is the best class I have taken at UCLA. I have had some amazing professors from the UCLA geography department and Sheppard was by far the best. The class was so informative and really straightforward. Honestly the class was inspiring too! There is a discussion which sucks but I had Clare Beer as my TA and she was great too. She often let us out early if we had finished our work in the section. She was so approachable and sweet! The tests are straightforward just go over the slides and main themes. There was a final paper but if you put the work in you could get a good grade on it. Overall I would highly recommend this class.