Before taking this class, I had thought that I knew a decent amount about the topic, but I learned that I didn't fully understand the depth of the philosophical movements regarding peace that are often left out of European history courses of a similar nature. The class consisted of a take-home midterm (40%), an in-person final (50%), and a participation grade (10%). The midterm was on a subject that I was actually able to engage in. It was very open-ended which let you form and defend your own argument revolving around a primary source from the class. The paper itself was only 700-800 words. I know some people don't like open-ended prompts, so if that's the case, this isn't the class for you. I have not yet received my final grade, but we were given the questions for the final in advance, so I felt that it was a fair test. Professor Ghervas is much less concerned about grades and more about what students actually take away from the class-which I appreciated but some might find frustrating if you're just looking for an easy A. An A definitely seemed obtainable, but you have to do more than surface-level analysis on the papers. Overall, I would recommend taking it!

When I first saw the chance to take a class on War and Peace in Europe in 132, I immediately jumped at that chance since I am very interested and knowledgeable in the subject, which meant that going into the course, I and some of my other classmates knew some of the things she taught already, and Professor Ghervas was a great lecturer when it came to those things and as she is extremely knowledgeable on these topics. Though something that I personally really enjoyed was getting new perspectives on the history that we have all gotten accustomed to learning about it as a certain type of way, but instead in this class she challenges that which made for very engaging lectures with interesting primary and secondary sources. The class structure itself was nothing crazy, consisting of a 3 page midterm essay and a 6 page final essay, the midterm was more of a reading response while the final essay was more of a research paper. Both were very interesting to write/research, and I was able to go to Professor Ghervas' office hours when I had questions where she gave much clarity regarding these assignments. Though there was problem with ChatGPT users in the class for the midterm, I felt she handled it well and I very much appreciate her willingness to keep the final exam as an asynchronous paper and not an in person blue book exam. Overall I really enjoyed the class and I feel like I learned a lot that will definitely stick with me for not only the rest of my college career, but also personally with the history I love to learn about pertaining to war and peace in Europe; and I hope that others will be able to experience this class to also get an eye opening experience like I did regarding this field of history that Professor Ghervas is so passionate about.

Coming into Dr. Ghervas' class, I felt that I was quite knowledgeable regarding the content of the course and that it would be more of a refresher than an actual learning experience. Dr. Ghervas' unique approach to teaching Early Modern History showed me that there was so much more to both the time period than the baseline understanding of it that I had previously cultivated. She is as knowledgeable regarding what she is teaching as she is committed to the learning of her students. I never felt like there was a question that couldn't be asked, or an opinion that couldn't be expressed as Dr. Ghervas welcomes all forms of discourse and discussion. The assignments (1 midterm & a final paper) were very reasonably sized and graded fairly, if you apply yourself in this class you will do well. I strongly recommend taking HIST 132 with her even if you aren’t a history major due to the raw amount of knowledge you will be exposed to during your time in her class.

Professor Ghervas is an extremely knowledgeable and accomplished professor and I am very fortunate to have been able to take her class. She has extensive academic bona fides; she has taught at prestigious universities all over the world and speaks 7 languages! Professor Ghervas had engaging lectures and offered intriguing analysis of European history and enriched my understanding of major historical events and their implications. She welcomes questions in lecture and is great to talk to after class. The midterm and final papers were rather short, a three-pager and a six-pager respectively, which allowed more time to focus on the subject matter in class. I am very glad that I took this course with Professor Ghervas and would highly recommend that others do the same.

Professor Ghervas is an excellent instructor. She welcomes questions and always makes time to meet with students. Her lectures are both informative and engaging, and I always felt like I had learned a lot after leaving class. Many professors do not have innovative approaches to the courses they are teaching, but Professor Ghervas is an exception. She has published extensive research on many of the topics covered in this course, and she is very knowledgeable on the latest perspectives and interpretations of the material we studied. The assignments were manageable, straightforward, and always relevant to what we learned in lecture. If you have any interest in European history, or even international relations, you should take this class. Overall, I highly recommend Professor Ghervas, and I thoroughly enjoyed taking History 132 with her.

Overall, I enjoyed this class tremendously! I felt that Professor Ghervas gave engaging lectures and allowed students the opportunity to participate in class and share their knowledge on the topics we discussed in class. Professor Ghervas is incredibly knowledgeable and supplements the lecture with readings that allow students to more thoughtfully engage with the content discussed during lecture. Additionally, Professor Ghervas is incredibly accessible to her students and creates an environment during office hours that is inviting and encourages students' growth! I 100% recommend taking any of her courses! Your grade in this class is comprised of attendance, a midterm exam, a final exam, and optional extra credit.

Professor Ghervas is a very knowledgeable professor of European History. She takes attendance so you must attend lecture, but she also encourages attending her office hours. That being said, she is a very tough grader and has seemingly unrealistic expectations for her students. There were an average amount of readings but it sometimes felt like she expected us to have a total recollection of them. If we weren’t able to answer her questions in class regarding the readings, she was kind of passive aggressive and would say we just didn’t do them. Assignments consisted of a Midterm Paper that was 3 pages, a Final Paper that was 6 pages, and an Extra Credit film response. The midterm grades were very harsh in comparison to other professors here. The average was 20/30 and she even went as far as telling us in class that we essentially sucked at writing. I, along with other classmates, took our papers to the History Writing Center, per her suggestion, and they even said that it should’ve been graded higher. Also, while we were given papers, she’ll probably stray away from this due to a few students using ChatGPT in our class. She’ll probably do in class Blue Book exams instead, as that is what she stated we might switch to after the midterm paper. Overall, you’ll learn a lot but her expectations seemed insane at times.

I appreciate that this was Professor Ghervas' first time teaching at UCLA, but honestly I was really disappointed. I signed up for the class really excited to learn about peace and war in Europe, but was quickly met with the fact that this woman has very specific beliefs and preconceptions about Europe which she wanted to pass on to her students, thinking outside the lines here or contradicting her made her upset. One major thing that the professor repeatedly brought up was strong anti-Russian sentiments, you could tell her positions on the current war in Ukraine and she was not open to discussion to challenge this position at all. Throughout the whole course she would continue to slip in her own personal opinions and biases into the lecture. Overall this left me really disappointed as this was a class I was really looking forward to, but one that was ruined by a professor who was not able to keep their own biases out of the classroom and welcome all opinions.