Professor Sexton is great, and this was one of my favorite classes at UCLA! This class provided opportunities for me to develop and strengthen important critical reading and writing skills, oral communication and listening skills, and research and data collection skills. I believe it has had a significant positive impact on my academic growth. The research project is a large portion of the grade. It was done throughout the course of the quarter, and involved conducting interviews, attending observational visits, collecting field notes, presenting an in-class presentation, and writing a research paper. This class, and especially this project, challenged me to apply my knowledge in a real-world context, to think critically, and it expanded my opportunities to establish connections both inside and outside of UCLA, all due to Professor Sexton. He provides ample guidance and support throughout the research process, and is overall an engaging and inspiring professor. Beyond the classroom, Professor Sexton is continually committed to supporting students in pursuit of their higher education. Definitely take this class if you are looking for ways to increase your academic experiences, and develop valuable skills.

Dr. Sexton is one of the best professors I've ever had. He is very clear and explains materials in a very easy-to-understand manner. He is very kind and is always looking to help, offering office hours beyond his normal scheduled ones. I remember at one point in the quarter I needed some help with my final paper and Dr. Sexton did not hesitate to create a time that worked for both of us to meet. He truly looks for the best in his students and only wants to see them succeed and understand the world we are living in today through the lens of Sociology.
The class is not that rigorous with 3 quizzes and a final ethnographic paper which was fun and a great overall experience. The topics in the course are both interesting and fascinating to contemplate. Overall, the course makes you question why religion exists and what reasons individuals adhere to certain religions and their differing values. The course also covers the history of religions in various parts of the world.
Overall, I highly recommend this course both because it is interesting and more importantly because Dr. Sexton is a great professor and an even greater person to get to know.

I'm devil's advocate here. I did not enjoy Professor Sexton's course as much as others did. The class was structured as follows:

Reading Homework / Discussion Section (30%) where we needed to read our required text and make questions based off the readings and discuss them in section
Research Paper (40%) that's 10-12 pages
Final Exam (30%) that's a in-class essay
1% extra credit for doing the evaluations

Everyone talks about how he is an engaging lecturer and so on, but I always felt that he mumbles a lot or rambled onto other topics many times as he lectures. These tangents don't help with learning the material either. Our homework felt so pointless because we weren't allowed to use any of the required text on the exam, which is total bullshit. The required readings were, for the most part, amazing and helped me truly understand the key concepts Sexton went over in lecture; not being able to use them as evidence for the essay made me felt like that work was for nothing. The worst part is again, his lecturing style wasn't the best and hard to follow imo. The TA strike really fucked things over and many of us felt lost in how to write our research papers and it didn't feel as if the prof was THAT accommodating to us about it. It wasn't until many of us decided to write an email to the prof about our grievances that he gave us an extension for the paper. I loved the subject don't get me wrong, but I wish it wasn't him who was teaching this course. Anyone who tries to talk some shit about how this is an upper div and it's meant to be hard, fuck off. There's a difference between hard and tedious. This class wasn't "hard", it was tedious and annoying.

What can I say about Dr. Sexton... He is amazing! I have taken two of his classes so far--and Spring quarter will be my third--and I can honestly say he's my favorite professor here at UCLA so far. His lectures are engaging and informative. His attitude is positive. He is very approachable both in and outside of class. I really have no complaints for Dr. Sexton. I guess one minor gripe would be that he assigns a lot of reading each week which can be hard to keep up with--it hasn't been for me personally, but I have heard complaints from other students. I HIGHLY recommend any class taught by Dr. Sexton! 10/10

Dr. Sexton is one of the best Sociology Professors at UCLA! Hands down one of my favorite courses. Sociology of crime was interesting and provides a sociological perspective. I was introduced to the topic of governance through crime, which was extremely eye opening. The books assigned were amazing and compelling. My favorite was Locking Up Our Own, by James Foreman. It helped me understand more of the punitive sanctions that impact Black communities. The material overall has been helpful and applicable in other courses I've taken.

Proffesor is always welcoming to questions and is available to further elaborate during office hours. You don't need to drop in to office hours for this course necessarily , as the material is provided during lectures is pretty concise and clear. But it helps that Proffesor Sexton is approachable and engaging.

I love the slides he uses for lectures. It helped me organize my notes and made it more streamline to study for the final. ( The final is pretty straight forward) As long as you attend most of the lectures, you will be able to write about the topic/ prompt provided.

Great course, definitely recommend it! I would take this course again if I could.

Dr. Sexton is a dope professor. His lectures challenge you to think critically and to judge multiple experiences of a subject matter. I would say that this class sparked my interest in sociological research and creative inquiry. We read 3 books, none which were meant to actually be remembered word for word but as long as you pick up the concepts you're good. A lot of students made it out to be the longest workload ever. It's an upper division bruh step your game up. The lectures and readings aren't the exact same but relate in content. I liked to think of the lecture content as having provided me a sociohistorical lens to read the books which are all written in modern English (not difficult at all to read).

Test was cumulative but literally as long as you went to lectures and took basic notes, you'd be good. I took notes every lecture and didn't study at all for the final to still earn a 95. Professor Sexton also really encourages discussion among the class and values different perspectives, so he'll often allot time at the end of lecture to pick our brains. Unlike other professors in the department, I'd say it's easier to engage with professor Sexton because it doesn't feel like he's dodging students or just plain condescending.

Anyways, I'd definitely take Dr. Sexton's class again and plan to in the future.

Great professor! Loved the topic, turns more into a topic secularization of crime. Discussions were mandatory. Separate readings assigned for discussions. You created your own 10 questions of the assigned readings as part of your grade. He has a final which is all based on his lectures so its pretty much an A if you attend or grasp the concept. His exam is blue book, just written. He provides you what the potential topics will be for the essay question , so helps you prepare. One main written signalment for the quarter and thats it. He is helpful and kind towards students. He's supper engaging and open for questions even not related to his topics. I would definitely take another course with him, and next time would not stress about the 10 weekly questions I created based on the readings.

The professor makes lecturers interesting by applying concepts to current events. Overall, I recommend this course if you are interested in furthering your knowledge on religion and the role it plays in society. Throughout this course I had the opportunity to conduct my own field research, which is experience I can utilize as a future researcher. Additionally, this course has allowed me to have a better understanding of how scripture, culture and tradition influence actions within communities. For example, prior to this course I would never have considered that there was a relationship between religion and environmental sustainability. However, this course allowed me to see that there is not only a relationship but a strong influence from religious groups' perception on environmental sustainability and its impact on the surrounding environment politically, economically and socially.

The course sociology 121 added depth to my perspective on religion. Specifically on Christianity and its branch in Roman Catholicism (because of the term research paper), their relationship with environmental sustainability, and how that translates at various levels in the United States. Professor Sexton and T.A Batac made my experience rich. Doctor Sexton holds so much knowledge, lectures with passion, and is easy to communicate. T.A Batac's enthusiasm facilitates communicating comments, questions, or concerns on assignments like the book quizzes and the ethnographic research paper.

The books we read like James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time and Robert P. Jone's White Too Long were incredibly eye-opening. Like others we read, these books helped lighten the shade off my glasses and, in my opinion, believe that all should read these two books once in their lifetime. Doctor Sexton has some of the authors of the books we cover come to class and speak about their piece and research, which is always rewarding as they hold much knowledge. It helps grasp the material and opens a line of communication for us to expand our network if it interests us. Doctor Sexton's flexibility for our term paper allowed me to discover and experience a new research method in Dirbagging. I enjoyed the procedure because it allowed me to develop a study on terms that felt right for the occasion, helping create a unique approach to researching the religion we students have the option of selecting.

Thanks to Doctor Sexton, T.A Batac, and my time and effort, I increased my understanding and confidence to hold a critical conversation of Christianity and its branch in Roman Catholicism in the United States with an emphasis on environmental sustainability.

Read, Research, and Participate = A- (I don't do well with timed/multi-option quizzes or else: A :D)

Sociology 147A is one of my favorite course taken so far at UCLA. I would definitely recommend this course to other students who are interest in topics on crime and want to challenge themselves with reading and writing skills. This course is not an easy course to take but you can really expand your knowledge after you have taken this course. This course has three components that I really liked. First is the engaging lectures and course contents. Second is the interesting books and reading materials. Third is the helpfulness of the Professor.
First, I think the lecture and the course contents are very interesting to me because I personally really enjoy learning about deviance and crime , but also Professor Sexton gave very engaging lectures that often relate current events to our lectures. He also would throw out some questions at the end of class, allowing us to engage in discussions.
Second, I really like the books Professor Sexton assigned us to read. There are three books we have to read and do homework on, and every one of them is very interesting. I personally really like "Smile Now Cry Later" by Freddy Negrete. The books are not boring and too academically sound, they are rather interesting but also contains useful knowledge.
Lastly, Professor Sexton is very helpful. Definitely recommend going to his office hour! He is a highly intellectual professor and very approachable. He knows a lot and is always very supportive. The course contains a research project where you get to pick the topic. Professor Sexton is very open to giving advice and resources to students regarding their projects.
Overall, it is a reading and writing dense course, but it is also a course very worth taking!