Professor
Rafael Perez-Torres
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2022 - Workload: Not bad. We have to read one book a week. Sometimes he makes us discuss it with a group, other times not. We have a few assignments and like two essays (one is about 7 pages long). Grading: Tough grader, the scores are shown on the assignment post, so we know what the lowest and highest score people in the class have got. Keep in mind that even getting a 8 or 9 on these assignments means getting an A- or a B, just based on those 3 assignments alone. The biggest issue is also that his feedback isn't always clear. In addition, it can sometimes seem like if you don't think exactly the way he does, then it is wrong. He grades throughout the semester. Attendance: His attendance policy is weird. He didn't take attendance for the first few weeks of class, then suddenly popped out an attendance sheet for a while, then suddenly stopped. It does say attendance is part of the grade though. Note that he does record lectures. Textbooks: All can be find online for free! He does seem to prefer people to have the physical book though since the pdf's usually don't match the page numbers. Overall though, he has a lot to say and lectures well. You can tell he has invested a lot of time and energy into analyzing the books he has assigned. I would say he is really organized, and he uploads the lecture recordings right after class.
Fall 2022 - Workload: Not bad. We have to read one book a week. Sometimes he makes us discuss it with a group, other times not. We have a few assignments and like two essays (one is about 7 pages long). Grading: Tough grader, the scores are shown on the assignment post, so we know what the lowest and highest score people in the class have got. Keep in mind that even getting a 8 or 9 on these assignments means getting an A- or a B, just based on those 3 assignments alone. The biggest issue is also that his feedback isn't always clear. In addition, it can sometimes seem like if you don't think exactly the way he does, then it is wrong. He grades throughout the semester. Attendance: His attendance policy is weird. He didn't take attendance for the first few weeks of class, then suddenly popped out an attendance sheet for a while, then suddenly stopped. It does say attendance is part of the grade though. Note that he does record lectures. Textbooks: All can be find online for free! He does seem to prefer people to have the physical book though since the pdf's usually don't match the page numbers. Overall though, he has a lot to say and lectures well. You can tell he has invested a lot of time and energy into analyzing the books he has assigned. I would say he is really organized, and he uploads the lecture recordings right after class.
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Most Helpful Review
174B, American Literature since 1945 for Fall 2014: Easy A. Perez-Torres lectures well, has good slides, mostly interesting book choices, gives pretty good feedback, and invites active discussion. Most people don't take him up on that last offer, but there's something about crowded classrooms (40ish students) that makes you (or maybe just me) not want to speak. Attendance is part of the grade (25%), but thankfully this part also includes any assignments, of which there were 4 (half to one page long quote analyses). If you're too lazy to attend or have a busy schedule but do well on everything else, you'll be fine. The midterm was 5 short essay questions (with passage & author identification). When he says "short," he actually means it. I did only three sentences with some of them, left early, and still got a 97. There was also a midterm essay (bummer, yeah) due about a week later, but it was only 4 pages. The final essay was 8 pages, and a comparison between 2 of the later works in class was necessary. The prompts were limited for this one, giving only two pairing options (though with different topics), so I'd recommend making your own prompt, if possible, for this one. Unlike most professors (in my experience), he kept the assigned final exam deadline rather than allow you to send it in, online only, at the end of the week. He's very serious about not accepting late papers, apparently. All in all, I'd take his class again, especially in a 4+ courses schedule.
174B, American Literature since 1945 for Fall 2014: Easy A. Perez-Torres lectures well, has good slides, mostly interesting book choices, gives pretty good feedback, and invites active discussion. Most people don't take him up on that last offer, but there's something about crowded classrooms (40ish students) that makes you (or maybe just me) not want to speak. Attendance is part of the grade (25%), but thankfully this part also includes any assignments, of which there were 4 (half to one page long quote analyses). If you're too lazy to attend or have a busy schedule but do well on everything else, you'll be fine. The midterm was 5 short essay questions (with passage & author identification). When he says "short," he actually means it. I did only three sentences with some of them, left early, and still got a 97. There was also a midterm essay (bummer, yeah) due about a week later, but it was only 4 pages. The final essay was 8 pages, and a comparison between 2 of the later works in class was necessary. The prompts were limited for this one, giving only two pairing options (though with different topics), so I'd recommend making your own prompt, if possible, for this one. Unlike most professors (in my experience), he kept the assigned final exam deadline rather than allow you to send it in, online only, at the end of the week. He's very serious about not accepting late papers, apparently. All in all, I'd take his class again, especially in a 4+ courses schedule.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2022 - I liked Professor Perez-Torres. I didn't earn a good grade due to a fault of my own, in general I think he's a lenient grader. Professor Perez-Torres is friendly and approachable and his passion for good literature is inspiring. I really liked the material from his lectures, we read James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, John Okada, Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey, and Sandra Cisernos, looking at various perspectives of American society in the 20th century. I wish he would slow down to have a conversation with us students instead of just a full lecture. But the lectures are valuable, full of history and textual explication, and you will learn something if you take this class.
Fall 2022 - I liked Professor Perez-Torres. I didn't earn a good grade due to a fault of my own, in general I think he's a lenient grader. Professor Perez-Torres is friendly and approachable and his passion for good literature is inspiring. I really liked the material from his lectures, we read James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, John Okada, Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey, and Sandra Cisernos, looking at various perspectives of American society in the 20th century. I wish he would slow down to have a conversation with us students instead of just a full lecture. But the lectures are valuable, full of history and textual explication, and you will learn something if you take this class.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - Professor Perez-Torres is one of the best professors I've had so for. He is incredibly engaging in his lectures and genuinely interested in what his students have to add. He doesn't just talk at the audience, but often takes time out to encourage class discussion. The lectures make you really interested in the texts, even if you didn't necessarily like them at first glance. For the workload, it was definitely quite a bit of work, but I also personally put a lot of effort into this class. I'm sure you could get away with doing less. We had one midterm, a shorter essay (about 1200 words) and a final paper (about 2000 words). He gave prompts for the papers but was very lenient in adapting them to what you want to write about. He was very helpful in office hours and often took out time out of his day if I needed an office hour outside of his regular schedule. He also let us do a short presentation for extra credit. If you ever have the chance to take Professor Perez-Torres, you should! I wouldn't even care what he is lecturing about, he'd find a way to make it interesting.
Fall 2021 - Professor Perez-Torres is one of the best professors I've had so for. He is incredibly engaging in his lectures and genuinely interested in what his students have to add. He doesn't just talk at the audience, but often takes time out to encourage class discussion. The lectures make you really interested in the texts, even if you didn't necessarily like them at first glance. For the workload, it was definitely quite a bit of work, but I also personally put a lot of effort into this class. I'm sure you could get away with doing less. We had one midterm, a shorter essay (about 1200 words) and a final paper (about 2000 words). He gave prompts for the papers but was very lenient in adapting them to what you want to write about. He was very helpful in office hours and often took out time out of his day if I needed an office hour outside of his regular schedule. He also let us do a short presentation for extra credit. If you ever have the chance to take Professor Perez-Torres, you should! I wouldn't even care what he is lecturing about, he'd find a way to make it interesting.
Most Helpful Review
I took him for Recent Chicana/o Lit - not sure if thats M180? Anyway, he's a really nice professor - very personable despite being the head of the English Dept. He's very approachable and friendly. I was initially worried about his class because in another Chicana/o Studies class we used a book he authored and it was an EXTREMELY difficult read. Clearly he is a brilliant man and very enthusiastic about literature and la gente. While I initially enjoyed his interpretations of the texts, it did become just a tad bit tedious by the 5th & 6th week. Loved some of the readings (Cisneros), but hated others (Zeta Acosta - yuck). The first graded paper was a quote intepretation and it was graded hard. I was really bummed because I thought I did better than what my grade reflected. I didnt know it at the time, but he had a reader grading the papers. I think perhaps someone must have tipped him off that the reader was grading WAY TOO HARD, and for the next paper, he actually allowed us to resubmit if we were unhappy with the grade. After that, the grading was a bit more reasonable. My faith in him (and in myself) was restored. All in all, he's a good professor to take, ESPECIALLY if your not an English major because he really shows you how to deeply examine the texts - its like mind expansion without having to take acid. He would be a cool person to smoke out with - he's pretty deep.
I took him for Recent Chicana/o Lit - not sure if thats M180? Anyway, he's a really nice professor - very personable despite being the head of the English Dept. He's very approachable and friendly. I was initially worried about his class because in another Chicana/o Studies class we used a book he authored and it was an EXTREMELY difficult read. Clearly he is a brilliant man and very enthusiastic about literature and la gente. While I initially enjoyed his interpretations of the texts, it did become just a tad bit tedious by the 5th & 6th week. Loved some of the readings (Cisneros), but hated others (Zeta Acosta - yuck). The first graded paper was a quote intepretation and it was graded hard. I was really bummed because I thought I did better than what my grade reflected. I didnt know it at the time, but he had a reader grading the papers. I think perhaps someone must have tipped him off that the reader was grading WAY TOO HARD, and for the next paper, he actually allowed us to resubmit if we were unhappy with the grade. After that, the grading was a bit more reasonable. My faith in him (and in myself) was restored. All in all, he's a good professor to take, ESPECIALLY if your not an English major because he really shows you how to deeply examine the texts - its like mind expansion without having to take acid. He would be a cool person to smoke out with - he's pretty deep.
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