I'm not a history person at all (I hate remembering tons of historical facts or writing history analysis essays), but I enjoyed this class. I REALLY did not want to take Iberian culture, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Contrary to some of the other reviews, the lectures did keep my interest most of the time (although I will admit to occasionally spacing out... it gets boring SOMETIMES). Prof. Dagenais and all the TAs really love Spain, which makes the class much better.

There are biweekly quizzes in section. I didn't do well on the first one, but got As and Bs on the rest, and he drops the lowest score, so you should be fine. Just study the notes, it's not that hard. The midterm and final are also pretty easy--multiple choice, matching, short answers (very short, not hard), and one essay (easy because you get the topic beforehand and it doesn't really require analysis).

Prof. Dagenais posts all of his lecture slides online, and pretty much all the questions are based off of that. I read them all over several times, got on A in the class.

Oh, there's also a film review. It's kind of... not that relevant to the course. But it's an easy A and extra points, I guess.

Dagenais is a clear speaker, straightforward, perhaps even entertaining. Never went to office hours or emailed him, so can't speak to his availability, but I don't think you'll need much extra help from him. I had Eilene Powell as a TA and liked her a lot. She's really cool and fair--DEFINITELY get her if you can. Discussion sections were fine--just show up. Say something if you have something to say, but you're not actually graded point-by-point by how much you talk (thank god).

Oh, and no textbooks for this class. Just articles he posts weekly--super easy. Definitely recommend this class!

His lectures are not bad. Sometimes he is very funny. The course is not structured well, but the examinations are pretty easy. Got an A-.

The only good thing about him is that the class is easy. But your probably in college to learn, and you won't learn anything in this class. This "professor" has the lowest level of intelligence of any I've ever had.
He lists crackpot theories about whites and blacks arriving in the Americas, before Native Americans.
Invents things like the Hispani-Romans, there never was such thing. Gives a disproportionate amount of attention to the Jews and Moors. It's like teaching U.S. history but only talking about Jews, Blacks, and Indians.While completely ignoring Christian Whites.
If you want to actually learn about Iberia take a class with Teofilo ruiz. This class is propaganda, and if you don't repeat his B.S. he will cut your grade. Lesson learned never take classes in the Humanities!!!!!

This class was more of an annoyance than anything remotely difficult. The lectures were extremely long, and he simply read off the powerpoints. Yes, he was passionate about Spain, but at time he went off tangent and took forever to get back on track. Honestly, attending his lectures are unnecessary since the powerpoints are posted online. Easy A, just pure memorization for the midterm and final (which does include an essay btw). There are 4 quizzes in discussion sections to make sure you're doing the readings, but your lowest quiz grade is dropped.

Would very much recommend this class. Although the lectures are long (2hrs), they are interesting and seem to omit the boring stuff. TAs were very lenient and assigned interesting and relevant articles for discussion. Pretty much an easy A. The key is to show up and listen to lectures and remember the half dozen dates that he tells you will be on the exams. Study for quizzes right before class, and maybe for an hour the night before exams. The stuff I learned here has applied to other classes as well. 5 unit A, TAKE IT!!

Surprisingly interesting history class. All notes available in power point, the professor essentially reads them to you but goes QUICKLY and adds in anecdotes and stories of his trips around Spain. Very knowledgeable, easy to talk to during office hours. Not an automatic A! I studied hard for this class all quarter and only managed a B because the TA determines your grade. You have a midterm, quizzes in section, a film critique (pointless), and the final. Try to do well on the quizzes because they are tough and you definitely need to study lecture notes and know people/dates! I wish I would have known this because better quiz grades would have gotten me an A :/

This is quite possibly one of the easiest classes that I've taken. The grading is consisted of: 25% midterm, 15 % quizzes during discussions (4 quizzes in total, but you get to drop the lowest one), 10 % film critique (kinda unnecessary IMO and does not necessarily pertain to the class), 15 % participation points during discussions, and 35 % final. Both the midterm and the final were very easy but I guess we had lenient TAs (I had Paula). Basically participation points are pretty easy to get as you only need to skim through the internet articles (which by the end gets really redundant. For example, there were articles about 'Laws of Historical Memory' or 'ETA' for three weeks but I guess that's good since you don't have to do the readings the second or third time around and the material really sinks in by the end).
Pro: So easy. Midterm asked the easy stuff for most part (the TAs wrote the midterm). Also for both the midterm and the final you have to identify some slides (15 slides out of about 30 slides that you have to study from) but this part is basically free points. The same thing goes for the final. There are some matching and multiple choice but were also fairly easy. The huge part is the short answer part (which is like half of your for the midterm/ final) but they are nothing tricky; it just requires minimal thinking. Also there is no textbook so that's definitely a huge plus.
Con: going to class is not necessary as the lecture notes are posted online and Prof. Dagenais basically just reads from his powerpoint presentation anyway. Also he does not seem to care much about students (after all, he is the chairman of the department what do you expect?)
Overall, I'd definitely recommend this class as a GPA booster. Plus Spanish History is actually quite fun and interesting.
Grade Received: A+ although I only got a B- on the paper (which is only 10% of your grade so it is okay to bomb the paper completely).

Dagenais knows a lot about the subject material, but he conveys the information in a very boring manner. He pretty much reads word for word off the slides (which are on his website, so going to class is not necessary!). There's no textbook reading, which is nice. The only homework is downloading and skimming news articles on the internet. There are quizzes every other week, but as long as you have skimmed the reading and paid a small bit of attention in class (or read through the lecture slides online), they are easy. My TA was awesome. I got an A with very minimal effort, though the lectures were very long and dull.

Overall the content is very interesting. The TA's write the tests so I don't think they completely captured the overall content of what Dagenais lectured about, but the tests are fairly easy. I recommend this class because it's pretty laidback and interesting...just hope you get a good TA..

Overall a good class - interesting and not too hard. All the powerpoints are online, and if you study them you'll do well. He focuses on the broader themes and not the specifics, so basically all you need to do is look over the slides until you get generally what's going on and you'll probably get an A