I like this cluster a lot, but the topics were heavy. Similar to first quarter, two essays and the final. Manageable workload.

I am writing this firstly to commend Professor McBride for the tremendous experience he built within this Cluster class, and secondly to defend Sharon, a TA, for unfair and rude criticism expressed in another review. As a professor, he created informative yet engaging slides that compelling conveyed class concepts in a digestible manner. As an administrator, he put much effort into organizing out-of-class events for the Cluster class. Despite their lower-than-expected attendance, these were great events that I encourage people to attend. The Cluster is ultimately a year-long class and getting to know some fellow students and interacting in a more cordial setting with the professors and TAs can be a huge help. Developing these relationships is one of the most rewarding aspects of the Cluster program. Sharon was an exceptional TA who tried her hardest to accommodate the needs of a class of mainly unenthusiastic students taking a course outside their major. Of course, this lack of enthusiasm is natural and expected, but a lot of students were actively hostile towards Sharon and the course in general, making it hard for her to work with everyone at times. However, Sharon nonetheless went to great lengths to ensure we were never alone when it came to course content. Sections were dominated by class discussions where we unpacked weekly readings in-depth. This way, even if you didn't read a page of the assigned weakly readings you would walk away from section with a sufficient understanding of the concepts, themes, and essential information within each reading. Her grading of papers was, in my view, balanced. I wouldn't say it was easy per se but it surely was not unfair or harsh and you essentially got the grade you deserved. She is incredibly understanding and sympathetic to circumstances and will generously grant exentions if you have at least some reason.

This review is mostly about the TA Sharon, since TA's determine your grades for this cluster. She is most possibly the harshest TA I have ever had. She expects you to write at a graduate level, inconsiderate of the fact that this is only our second quarter in college and that this entire course is meant to be a GE not a major required class!! Also, when you try to seek out help from her, she will give you some vague advice or only help you with a small thing such as a thesis, and won't really help you overall. Then, when you do apply the advice, it's still not good enough for an A. She also expects us to be lively during discussion but to be fair she's not really much of an exciting person herself, and I'm pretty sure everybody's quiet because they don't like her enough to feel bad and say something. My first quarter TA, Cardozo, was quite literally the nicest person ever. As long as we said one thing during class he gave us full participation, and his advice and help was actually useful. Anyways, pick your TA wisely because your grade depends on them lol. Take this class if you can get a good TA and don't pick Sharon. Professors/lectures/ topics themselves were interesting.

I had my qualms with Cluster 48A but went ahead and continued on to 48B because I didn’t know what else to do. My TA Rebecca was a lot better than my 48A TA Sharon. She really cared about her students, her discussions were a lot better structured, and she was an easier grader (still hard, but slightly easier). There were 2 6 page essays this quarter, each 25% of your grade, participation 25%, and your final, which is 2 4 page essays, worth 25% as well. This quarter in general was a lot more conceptual and literature based than 48A since in 48A you were learning a lot of the history but in 48B the focus is more on memory, justice, and representation (films, books, etc.) of political violence. The first essay of the quarter came really easy to me, but the second essay was based on the Armenian genocide and Prof Sengul’s lectures are really hard to understand and digest so the essay was really hard to write. This definitely was not my favorite class and I wish I had picked another cluster but it is ok to get by with some half assed effort.