The best part of this class was Professor Cooney's lecture. She made jokes and was very engaging, which made lectures pretty interesting. I thought the material covered was also pretty interesting, but the readings could be somewhat lengthy. There is also a 12 pg essay, which was a lot of work but not too bad. TAs can provide you with feedback at their OH and you can also turn in an optional rough draft in which they critique it. If you do that, you should be able to get a good grade on it. Note the TAs are the ones who grade the essay so their feedback is in way more important than Professor Cooney's. Also, the essay is worth more points that the final and the midterm (35% vs 30% and 25%). The midterm and final are also essays, but you're given the questions in advance so you should make outlines and write practice essays for them if you can. I did that and managed to get a 98 on the midterm.

K so. I am a south campus major and this class was RIDIC. The beginning was awesome yeah cool cool, but then it started to get real boring real fast. Just a bunch of women, I don't know. Cooney was nice and easy to listen to but the content really changes like three weeks in. The essay? Also RIDIC. Thought I could do 12 pages, but there is like no outline on what to write on, which is easy for some, but the thesis and idea needs to be "original" and not written about in previous essays or literature so it was tough. PLUS a FINAL? It is not a writing 2 course. If it was, I would understand. My TA graded pretty hard so this A- was so hard for me and I ended up doing bad in my important classes. Do not recommend.

This class was really cool. Cooney's sense of humor made the material interesting and engaging. It was interesting to gain a new perspective on how women have been able to achieve different forms of power across different cultures from basically the beginning of time. Grades are made up of the midterm, final, and a 12 page research paper on any topic of your choosing. I'm not sure how much participation in discussion actually factored into the grade but I don't think it was too much. The midterm and final essay prompts were given beforehand so they were rather easy to prepare for. The hard part for me was writing the 12 page paper because I'd never written anything so long before and I had no idea know what my prompt would be. The TAs have little checkpoints throughout the quarter to keep you on track, but I didn't end up starting it until a few days before it was due. I wish it was a final paper instead of us having an additional exam because by the time the actual final came around my brain was too exhausted to put any real effort into it. It just felt extra to have both, especially for a GE. Other than my stresses about the paper, the class was really enjoyable. Would I have taken this class in the first place had I known there was this paper? Probably not. But am I glad I ended up going through with it? Heck yeah.

I enjoyed this class so much and had a great experience with my TA's grading. Since a huge part of your grade is based on the paper writing, my only advice is going to office hours and fixing what the TA asks you to fix and you are almost guaranteed a good grade in the class ! The professor is so much fun and her lectures are so interesting, you are bound to pay attention and listen ! If you are thinking about taking this class, defiantly go for it and DO NOT get discouraged by the big paper because it is not bad at all with the help of your TA. Good luck !

This class was MUCH harder than expected. There's not much work to turn in, but there is one midterm, one final, and a 12 page paper that was worth a good chunk of my grade. The midterm and final were essays. Cooney would post the potential essay questions for the midterm and finals before so we could prepare for them, but even so, as someone who is not strong in writing, I only did decent on the midterm. I don't know about the final, but the level of difficulty I would say was similar to the midterm. The research paper she had us do killed me. I spent so much time on it and went to office hours to get help so often, I still struggled with it. Probably because writing is not my strength so this class was hard for me, but for those who are good at writing, this class may be for you. I would not consider this a easy GE.

Professor Cooney has so much passion and you can definitely sense that in her lectures. That being said, because she is an egyptologist, she doesn't know much about China, India, Persia, etc, but her course still covers it. In my opinion, those lectures are too rushed and barely touched the surface, and it would have been better if she just stuck to what she knows. her lectures are discussion-styled, and because of that, the final exams and midterms, which are essay questions given beforehand, can be difficult because they don't always get covered in lecture. Had it not been for my TA Andrew, who took the time to give us a general idea in discussion and did activities for them, I probably wouldn't have done very well. But If you plan out your essay beforehand, memorize some key examples, you should be fine.

There were also weekly readings and a final, 12-page research paper on anything you want pertaining to the class. I actually really enjoyed the paper because I picked a topic I was really interested in. My TA also paced the class by giving us deadlines, so we weren't procrastinating. He also helped a lot in terms of develop our thesis and was even willing to edit a first draft for us if we submit early. But because I'm a south campus major, I definitely felt a little stressed with the paper and all the research I had to do because it's worth such a big portion of the overall grade.

Overall not a bad class as Professor Cooney is actually pretty engaging and preppy, you just have to pace yourself on the paper and keep up on the lectures.

Professor Cooney is an amazing professor! She is engaging, interesting, insightful, and adds humor and tidbits from her personal life into all her lectures. Although she teaches complex history filled with confusing names and dates and places, Professor Cooney is an expert Egyptologist, which is truly evident in her lectures. The final grades composed of one midterm, one final exam, and a final minimum twelve page research paper. For the two exams, Cooney provides all possible questions beforehand, and two are chosen for each exam. She says these are essay questions, but they are actually more along the lines of long answers or extended response. The final paper sounds daunting, but if you start early enough and find a well-researched and interesting topic, it is not difficult to make the twelve page minimum. Additionally, she includes readings from a few novels and some online articles, but these are not necessary to read if your TA does not discuss them in section. Overall this was a great GE/ diversity requirement class that was interesting and not ~too~ work intensive!

This class seemed like an interesting historical analysis GE. HOWEVER, the structure of the lectures were highly unorganized, the material was all over the place and the syllabus was rarely followed. Class time is mostly spent with the professor telling us anecdotes about her own personal life and Egypt. The overall material was interesting but there was never enough time taken for any part of the class to gain a full understanding. The final project itself was extremely time consuming and required a lot of extra research, labor , TA help and time. I do NOT recommend this class unless it is for a major requirement and you are passionate about teaching yourself the materials.

Professor Cooney focuses mainly on Egypt, Greece, and Rome. We barely spent a week on India and skipped China altogether. Egyptian, Greek, and Roman lectures would be the main ones to focus on studying, especially for the final. While I enjoyed Professor Cooney, her lectures were all over the place and the structure of the class often unorganized. You really do not need any of the assigned textbooks to succeed in the class; the PDFs online are more than enough reading.

This is a really interesting class, but your grade and how you learn the information 100% is all on your TA. Professor Cooney gives really engaging, interesting lectures, but she is completely disconnected from all of the grading of the assignments. So basically, your grade rides on whether or not you have a good TA. If you take this class, make sure you don't take it with Tao Shi as your TA. He is extremely unclear, unhelpful, and can't articulate the concepts we were taught in class. He is completely disconnected from class material, and even when people in discussion would ask really clear questions he couldn't provide a concise response. That being said, the workload for this class really isn't bad. There's one written assignment due every two weeks and the final project is either a 12 page paper or a 10 minute podcast. There's also a written final but Professor Cooney gives you a list of all the possible questions before hand and then just picks two to put on the final. Highly recommend if you can get a good TA and are a strong writer, if not, I would try to avoid this class.