This class has good reviews, but Professor Cooney probably writes them herself. This is genuinely the worst class I've ever taken in my entire life. I am a south campus major and this class caused me more stress than my other classes.
My TA, @Dani Candelora, was absolutely horrible. She accused me of academic dishonesty and was very impolite and rude to her students. That being said, the grade you get depends entirely on your TA.
Cooney is very pretentious and only talks about her own experiences, not what we need to know for the midterm and final. Pretty much half the class is pointless because very few of the lectures pertain to what she actually tests you on.
There were a lot of students who tried to kiss up to Cooney and talk about their own views on feminism, which none of the other students actually care about.
The lectures are incredibly boring and truly pointless to attend. The final paper is ridiculous because no one teaches you how to do it, it's extremely long, and the process of choosing a topic is difficult. The topic she suggests are too specific and obscure, and the TAs claim most topics are too broad.
She doesn't know much about India, China, and Persia but still tried to lecture about it. It looked extremely unprofessional.
No matter what any of the other reviews say, I promise you will regret taking this class. It is absolutely horrible.

If you're looking for an easy GE this class might not be it simply because of the amount of writing you have to do. Although the material itself isn't hard, there's atleast one thing always due at the end of the week. There are weekly 1 page "activity journals" that you have to complete by Friday 11:59 pm, alongside any other assignments, and often you had to have watched the lectures in order to answer the prompt.

Some of the readings are short but most of them are pretty long, usually 20+ pages. I got by without really reading anything, besides skimming for quotes when I needed them for the paper/weekly activities. Watching the pre-recorded lectures and TA videos are required for participation, as well as having two zoom meetings with your TA. Alonside the weekly activity journals is a 3-4 page paper on Michael Mann's book on "Sources of Power" (due week 3), which is a topic you pretty much have to deal with the rest of the quarter. A general consensus the class had on Michael Mann's book is that he talks a lot but says nothing, where he goes on long tangents that aren't always entirely related to what the TAs are looking for. You will have to implement Michael Mann's IEMP model into your research paper/podcast.

There is a project that can either be done in paper or podcast form. There was very little guidance/detailed instructions on how to do the podcast, and because this class is online/asynchronous, it is hard to get help on it. Thus, I did the paper and I will only give details on that. The final research paper is due at the end of week 10/beginning of finals week depending on your TA. It has four parts to it. The first part is introduced around week 4 in which you have to start an annotated bibliography and begin forming your preliminary thesis/research argument. The annotated bibliography needs 4 primary and 4 secondary sources, each with a summary of what it is, who its written by, how is it useful for your research, etc. This portion was due week 6 at 11:59pm and is 5% of the total grade.

The second part of the final paper is your rough draft, which must be 10-12 pages in length, and must include a bibliography and a "figures sheet," which is pretty much where you put images of primary sources you used, considering many primary sources you will use consist of ancient relics like tombs, stone carvings, etc. This portion is 10% and due week 8 at 11:59pm. Week 8 is also the only week where there was no activity journal due.

The 3rd portion of the final paper is a peer review due week 9 at 11:59pm and is part of the participation grade. The 4th portion is the final/revised draft due around week 10 at 11:59pm and is worth 30%. A recording of you presenting your research is the final assignment, and is worth 5%.

I personally did not read or buy the professor's book. She also includes online access to other required readings, but her book is not one of them. Professor Cooney's lectures are engaging and she is a great presenter. However, there isn't much guidance on how to formulate your research psper, but it helps to base it on how she dissects each ancient society and what it means for a woman's access to power there. She has a total of two live events, and attending them in full gives one extra credit point for each event.

Overall grading breakdown:
Participation 20%
Reading Journal 20%
Assignment #1- Mann Synthesis 10%
Assignment #2- Research Paper (45% total)
• Part I- Thesis & Annotated Bibliography (5%)
• Part II- Rough Draft (10%)
• Part III- Peer Review (part of participation)
• Part IV- Final Draft (30%)
Assignment #3- Final Presentation/Podcast 5%

Depending on your TA, the grading can be strict or lenient. I had Aaron Samuels; although he can be a bit curt, I found him to be pretty chill and a lenient grader conpared to other TA's. Overall, the class material can be interesting but I wouldn't go out of my way to take it.

I have all the Cleopatra and The Woman Who Would be King textbooks for this class in practically new condition for $10. Email me if interested. *************.

I would highly recommend this class! She is a really cool, fun professor and the material is really interesting. I would also say that it isn't particularly hard to get an A in the class if you study!

Extremely accommodating Professor and TAs. They are extremely understanding and will do their absolute best to reply and help you - I've never been so impressed with a professor/TA before. Lectures are interesting and engaging, if you're interested in the subject matter watching lectures should be a breeze. Assignments are okay, probably pretty standard for a Writing II. Put in some effort and you'll be fine.

Loved the content, loved the class, wonderful professor. (there is a lot of reading and writing- but thats pretty standard)

This is definitely one of the easiest classes you can take to fulfill the Writing II credit. This class is offered both asynchronous and in person. In the asynchronous version, the videos are pre-recorded and students are placed in a TA section. There are weekly reflections (1 page double spaced), a short synthesis paper, and a final paper. The weekly refections and short synthesis paper are essentially free points. The essay is very doable with the resources offered in the class. The course material too is pretty interesting. Overall, I would highly recommend this class. It's pretty much a guaranteed A as long as you do all the work.

This class was both engaging and interesting. The professor did a great job teaching the material asynchronously. I also thought that the assignments were challenging but rewarding.

I loved this class for the most part. The material was rich, and I was genuinely interested in everything I learned. However, if you read the other reviews, they will mention how TAs can jeopardize your grade. THEY CAN, AND SOME WILL. I had an A with all my class material but was given a C for being late with four videos. Keep in mind most of us watched them late because some TAs didn't care. Despite that, we watched them all. She failed us as if we didn't watch any on time or didn't watch any at all. Keep in mind there are about 40 videos with the TA and Profs combined, and they both count for participation. Some TAs don't deduct points for watching late, but mine did and didn't give some of us the points for watching 90% of the videos on time (the syllabus doesn't say it won't give points for the videos we did watch on time) and ended up failing us in participation which is about 20% of your grade. I wasn't the only student with this issue and the TA is very rude and doesn't help out at all or try to compromise as well as the professor. Now, as a last resort, some of us have to go to the Dean's to try to get our grades appealed. This class and its material is genuinely fantastic, but all it takes is for one TA to throw all of that out the window. So my advice: don't pick Atiyeh Taghiei as your TA lol.

I took this class online and asynchronous for a GE, and I really enjoyed it. The beginning of this class almost felt like an intro to gender studies, and I found it super interesting. Every week, you have several lectures and readings to complete, and a simple quiz based on the lectures and readings. There are a few short (500 word) writing assignments. The course material is interesting enough, the course load isn't too much, and the grading is lenient. I would definitely recommend this class.

Good class to take if you want something easy to satisfy a GE requirement. It was asynchronous, so I didn’t have any interaction with the professor or the TA, although it is offered if you want that. We just had one quiz each week which was based on the content of that week’s lecture videos, and two reflection assignments due throughout the quarter. There was a midterm and final that were each two essay questions, 500 words each. Not a difficult class, just do the work and you will do well.