Professor Lydon's class is interesting, kind, and straight to the point. Her slides are relevant and easy to follow (take notes!). She starts every class with an African music video. Once finished she gives you some fun facts of the artists. She is not a huge stickler on participation, however, you do get graded so make sure you do speak up more than once in the quarter...the main idea is for her to remember your name, if you do, you're doing well. Her lectures are informative and again...straight to the point which is appreciated. I highly recommend taking her class and stop in for office hours, she is interesting and will help anyone that is interested in African History.
Last bit of advice...she isn't the easiest grader. Make sure your essays are polished and relevant to the prompts. She will give you helpful feedback if needed.

Absolutely amazing as a professor and person. She's passionate about what she is teaching. Theres a midterm and it has a map, ids, and an essay. Final essay. Loved every moment.

An absolute waste of time. Her lectures are entirely uninformative and not engaging in the least. I truly do not know how a women like this came to teach at such an institution. Her class is quite easy, but lacks any insight. Her lectures are useless and would be skip able, but she takes role on occasion. This women should not be teaching a middle school history course, let alone an upper div at ucla. The class is certainly an easy A, but mind-numbingly boring. I took nothing away from this class.