Professor
Simos Zenios
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2023 - If I was to recommend one class I have taken so far, it would be this one. Professor Zenios is a very engaging lecturer who clearly cares about both the students and the material. Class is usually made up of a short presentation at the beginning, followed by small group and then class discussions. Professor Zenios will sometimes ask you to elaborate on your point or offer a counterarguement, but he does so in a way that doesn't discourage students from participating. The readings themselves are a bit lengthy and dense, especially the more theoretical ones, but I found them so interesting that getting through them was not an issue. Everything we covered felt like it made sense with the overall theme of displacement, and the spread of genre and type of media from article to fictional short story to poetry to documentary were all engaging and interesting. Professor Zenios also offers extensions for both the midterm and the final paper with no reason required as long as you let him know in advance. Overall, this class is fascinating if the topic interests you, the workload is manageable, and Professor Zenios is a wonderful professor.
Winter 2023 - If I was to recommend one class I have taken so far, it would be this one. Professor Zenios is a very engaging lecturer who clearly cares about both the students and the material. Class is usually made up of a short presentation at the beginning, followed by small group and then class discussions. Professor Zenios will sometimes ask you to elaborate on your point or offer a counterarguement, but he does so in a way that doesn't discourage students from participating. The readings themselves are a bit lengthy and dense, especially the more theoretical ones, but I found them so interesting that getting through them was not an issue. Everything we covered felt like it made sense with the overall theme of displacement, and the spread of genre and type of media from article to fictional short story to poetry to documentary were all engaging and interesting. Professor Zenios also offers extensions for both the midterm and the final paper with no reason required as long as you let him know in advance. Overall, this class is fascinating if the topic interests you, the workload is manageable, and Professor Zenios is a wonderful professor.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2024 - I'm very sad that professor Zenios is leaving the classics department at UCLA. This class was fantastic. Professor Zenios assigns challenging texts, but he always has such rich commentary on them, that you'll get something out of the class even if you don't read a single one. My favorite section of the class was the modern literature, but the ancient texts were interesting, and even the political theory was worthwhile. The texts themselves are challenging, but I would much rather read them and actually discuss the texts in detail than read something simpler and never analyze it in class, which has been my experience in some other classics classes. Overall, Professor Zenios is an extremely passionate person, and one of the most intelligent and thoughtful professors I know. I highly recommend him as a professor in case he ever comes back as a lecturer.
Spring 2024 - I'm very sad that professor Zenios is leaving the classics department at UCLA. This class was fantastic. Professor Zenios assigns challenging texts, but he always has such rich commentary on them, that you'll get something out of the class even if you don't read a single one. My favorite section of the class was the modern literature, but the ancient texts were interesting, and even the political theory was worthwhile. The texts themselves are challenging, but I would much rather read them and actually discuss the texts in detail than read something simpler and never analyze it in class, which has been my experience in some other classics classes. Overall, Professor Zenios is an extremely passionate person, and one of the most intelligent and thoughtful professors I know. I highly recommend him as a professor in case he ever comes back as a lecturer.
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