Professor Herrera is amazing! He is an incredibly engaging, interesting, and practical lecturer. He is very approachable and really cares about the well-being of his students. The class mostly consisted of ~2 page reading responses based on short readings that you can skim as well as a straightforward midterm and final. The professor gives out study guides that are basically everything you need to prepare for the exams. The content of the class is also mostly just common sense about social concepts, in my opinion, so it was really easy. I had Travis Bott for a TA and he was one of my favorite TAs so far at UCLA. If this class fulfills a GE for you, you should take it for an easy A.

ONE OF THE BEST CLASSES TO TAKE AT UCLA. As a Geog/Environmental Studies major, this was a lower div requirement, but I am so so grateful for this class. Professor Herrera is absolutely amazing, hip, and hilarious. This class is the more in depth and woke version of AP Human Geography. Some of the reading can be a bit long, but they are all super super interesting and it doesn't feel like work because you will learn about so many shady things that have negative implications on low income communities of color and so on. I don't like terming classes as "easy A's", but this one was fairly easy. As long as you did the readings (which are all super easy to understand and are discussed in lecture and discussion) and understood the whole point, you will get an A in the class. The midterm and final consisted of a variety of T/F and multiple choice and fill-ins on some terms and the other portions of the test were to talk about the readings. You will feel prepared for both the midterm and final if you at least attended lectures and discussions. I will ALWAYS recommend this class taught by Professor Herrera to anyone. Also, I didn't go to office hours, but I should of because he is very kind and takes the effort to remember names and conversations. TAKE THIS CLASS BECAUSE YOU WON'T REGRET IT.

I thoroughly enjoyed this class with Professor Herrera. It was his first time teaching at UCLA so he had some things to work out (such as lectures) but he did a wonderful job regardless. I ended up switching my major because of him. The one thing that I wasn't super stoked about was the course reader because it was kind of expensive...I split the cost with a friend in the class. Professor Herrera was super receptive though and since this was his first time teaching he didn't realize that the course reader would be so expensive so I think that he was going to adjust that for his future classes. My TA was great but a bit of a stricter grader than the other TA. You definitely have to do the readings but honestly, the readings are so captivating and relevant that its not really a chore to do the readings. This class opened my eyes (so cliche I know but its true) and Professor Herrera's obvious passion and enthusiasm for the subject inspired me to pursue these kind of studies. Take a class with him if you can.

This class was one of my favorite this past year, both because of the material presented and the clear passion that Professor Herrera has for the subject. You learn about widespread social issues that are relevant to the present and allow you to construct a deeper historical understanding of the past via issues like Muslim surveillance/injustice, oppression against people of color, queer spaces, migrant stories and more.

His slides were very word heavy, often holding paragraphs worth of information. I personally had to type relatively fast to keep up. To someone who has never taken a course like this before, the terms and ways things are worded may be confusing (or just very new) at first, but you learn to develop thoughts as a "cultural geographer" would. The class may a little reading heavy at times, but it is interesting and thought provoking content.

Speaking to exams, they involved IDs, definitions, and free response questions. You are provided an extensive study guide beforehand with the important topics and questions, so it is not difficult to do well if you commit yourself to studying those things. There can and will be other questions/topics, still.

I wanted to make it to this class every lecture because of the content and the evident passion. It has made me consider a minor in the geography department, or similar course of study. The course ended with Professor Herrera sharing his own inspiring personal story through education and applause from the class. Truly, a wonderful experience.

So overall I would have enjoyed this class had I had a better TA, because I was not having it with the one I had. In terms of Professor Herrera, he was fairly good, although when I took the class he was only just starting at UCLA so he was still practicing his lecturing techniques, but they were by no means terrible and was often fairly engaging. Your biggest issue with Geog 3 will definitely be your TA, but you really don't have to worry about this professor.