I took "Literary London" online in Fall 2021 with Professor Makdisi. Overall, it was a great class. The grade consisted of section participation, a take-home midterm "quiz," a map project, a 8-10 page research paper, and a take-home final "quiz". For the upper-division English classes I've taken, I would say this class has an above average amount of reading. As long as you watch the lectures, the midterm and final are fairly straightforward. Everything else is pretty specific, so you can choose a few readings that interest you to spend time on. I'm not saying you don't have to do the readings, but I was very selective with what I read and I didn't feel like I was missing too much.

I think all of us were let down that this class was online and asynchronous. Everyone was pretty miserable that Makdisi's magnanimous nature didn't translate 1:1 in online lecturing and that e-mail communication wasn't great and directions could be confusing. However, office hours with Makdisi were a real treat and he's quite the opposite of the person he seems to be over email. I enjoyed the content of this class, some of the lectures were uninteresting while others slapped. Kind of a mixed bag, but I'm happy with the ground of both canonical and noncanonical surveys in the course. The class looks at how each text interfaces with power and class dynamics (lots of British politics), and Makdisi is particularly good at unpacking orientalist/occidentalist themes... he is the nephew of Edward Said after all. Makdisi a lot of the time cut the time short on really great texts he assigned, but when he focuses on one piece he does a great job toeing the line between historical context and textual analysis. I didn't buy the course reader and was fine, if anything I lost out cause I didn't get to enjoy the texts but if you are worried about the class difficulty you shouldn't. Gabriela Valenzuela is the funniest TA. She actually got me excited about the English major and the value of close reading — if you ever see her name listed anywhere do not hesitate and enroll into that section. Definitely some shortcomings in the class, but at least you won't have your hands too full, and you are bound to learn something you didn't know before.

I had Makdisi with Elizabeth as my TA. I loved this class. Makdisi's lectures were recorded but he put so much effort into them, and his passion for London shifted my opinion on what I had initially believed were boring texts.
We have a ton of readings each week but as long as you read a few and connect then you're solid. Our midterm was about making connections, and you were not required to cite, just show you knew what you were talking about. The final was a bit much. We had a map project, a 8-10 page research paper about the context of the historical places that aligned with our readings, and another test. Both Elizabeth and Makdisi were available to help. Poor guy would have office hours and rarely anyone would attend. He would send emails and post videos clarifying any concerns. For me, this kind of initiative demonstrated he cared.
I lucked out with my TA. Our discussions were always fun, enlightening, and everyone's voice was welcomed. Because of this approach, we learned from each other without feeling the need to compete. Really, this was the best class I've taken at UCLA so far.

He can be deceptively proficient. He’s got a pet author he splurges a great deal about every week but when it came to the final, hardly any of the questions touched on it. He’s speaks with a soft, innocent voice, but Rambos you with a spectrum of 60 assigned texts. His lectures are well organized and fairly well communicated through video and audio clips and a Power Point presentation every class, yet he spent merely half the last day’s lecture to cover the final. He issued not a single quiz nor midterm. Half of your grade lied in assigned essays, the other half sank solely in the final. Even the best of the best students in the class were clueless when it came to the final. Absent of issuing any study guides or accurate examples for the test, I asked him for suggestions to narrow my study platter. His response: “Anything I covered in lecture is fair game.” This would be nice if he actually kept to his word.