I really liked Dean Segura for his clear and engaging lectures as well as thought. What I disliked were the readings because they were all extremely long and unclear. Many of my classmates also agreed that the readings were hard to get through. Discussion sections were very engaging and fun to attend because we got to hash out lecture material. There is a group presentation that you get to pick during discussion and that was also a good experience. Overall this class was pretty good mostly due to Dean Segura's lectures and the discussion sections. However, some classmates came off as racist during discussions so to those people, shut up and listen. And to my people of color, call them out.

I really liked Dean Segura's lectures. He's funny, engaging, up-to-date, etc. I honestly didn't do most of the readings as they were all summarized by groups in discussion. I only really did the ones when it was my group's week to present. There are no tests just a midterm and a final paper so if you're a good writer you should be okay. The papers relate to what you learned but ask you to expand the ideas presented into different realms. I know some people were disappointed with grades but I did fine, maybe someone with a different opinion will review!

The class is extremely interesting and the professor is also very good at explaining and catching our attention - if you work hard on your midterm and fine you’ll be fine overall. There’s also one discussion where you have to lead the class along with two or more other people, but it’s not as bad as it seems. Overall, great class, interesting material, engaging lectures.

The class is super interesting and really helps you become more aware of current issues. He is really passionate about what he talks about, and often elaborates on his points. His slides were super thorough, and they read like he was literally typing out his thoughts on the page. The papers are pretty easy to do, but the prompts aren't too clear and can be a bit hard to tackle at first.

This class was awesome. I took this class during Spring 2020 when COVID-19 forced everyone home. Dean Segura and the TAs were extremely accommodating and kind. Dean Segura would post the lectures in advance and set time aside to answer questions during the class. The readings weren't really necessary as he covered everything in his lectures. The midterm and the final consisted of two papers that were pretty challenging but not too hard. Maria was also an awesome TA who was really understanding and helped break everything down.

Dean Segura is really knowledgeable, and he could answer basically any question that you asked him during lecture. During covid, all lectures were pre-recorded and there were two essays which made up 2/3 of your grade (other third is participation). The concepts aren't terribly difficult to master and you could probably get by without doing ALL of the reading, but it's all really interesting so it's not hard to do it all. I think you read 5 or so books by the end of the quarter, but the lectures and notes are super well crafted and the assignments are super fair. TA grading, one group presentation in your discussion section

The class was asynchronous, and there was only one mandatory live class we had after the election. Both midterm and final essays were graded by the TA's, which can make or break your grade if you have a tough grader, since those were essentially the only components of your grade. We were required to facilitate discussion once with a group, based on that week's readings. Live office hours were great, as we got to discuss a variety of current events going on at the time.

I love Professor Segura! He hosted office hours every week for us to come in and ask questions about the readings or anything (we had a special Election Day meeting where he answered questions about the election). The main portions of the class were discussion (which really only consisted of asking two questions on a discussion forum every week and a group project), and two essays--a final and a midterm. The essays were given with very short notice (we only got around 4-5 days to work on it), but the prompts were extremely interesting and relevant! The only complaint I had was that the readings are extremely long, sometimes 100-200 pages in a week. They are interesting although they are dense.

Professor Segura is wonderful! He is super engaging and nice, but there is a lot of required readings (and the readings are often older philosophical or political dialogues so they can be difficult to get through). However, if you balance your work load and participate a lot in discussion you will do great. I also had an amazing TA (shoutout Ryan Dougherty - he is phenomenal and super helpful). I highly encourage students to take this class.

Professor Segura was a super engaging lecturer and was inviting and friendly in office hours. I can't say enough good things about his class. His lectures were recorded, and the assigned class times were used for required Q&A and optional office hours, where he went deeper into or clarified the material where there was student interest. I also really appreciated that instead of the lectures covering just the key points of the required texts, Professor Segura gave important context and presented more material. The one place where he could have improved is giving context about some of the more difficult texts earlier, so do ask about that in the Q&As if he doesn't mention it. I didn't find the actual discussions particularly valuable, but the overviews of the material my TA gave were absolutely key in helping me understand and get through some of the difficult texts.

PA 50 should be named "Introduction to Democratic and Social Theory." The first half of the class was about theories of democracy, politics, justice, and the second half was about race, gender, and class and how they intersect with democracy. It was a super interesting and foundational class in social sciences that definitely should be GE. I highly recommend taking Professor Segura's class. You'll learn a lot, and I promise you that the moderate workload is worth the effort!