Dr Bell was super nice. His teaches his classes like a discussion, which can be engaging if that's your style, but he's not very skilled teaching over zoom. The readings were mostly interesting, but he assigns a lot of pages per week. He's really friendly and helpful outside of class so it's quite easy to do well in his classes. There were 2 quizzes and a research paper, which is not too difficult. I would recommend taking him if you don't mind regular zoom meetings where you have to discuss.

I actually enjoyed this class. At the begninning of the class, it was kinda confusing because it was the first online class for Dr. Bell I guess. He is knowledgeable about South America. The required readings were pretty long but interesting. There were a final paper like 5-pages and two quizes. The first quiz was super hard, but Dr. bell let us drop the score of the first quiz because it was too hard, and it wasn't allowed to go back to previous questions. However, the second quiz was strightfoward and easy since it was all from the lectures.

Professor Bell is extremely knowledgeable. He might not give the most glamorous lectures (in fact he has no slides and only ever references a single piece of paper) but if you're interested in knowing the historic and current dynamics of South America, with little to know reading or prior knowledge necessary, take this class. My only advice would be try to show up and try not to fall asleep; in that case the midterm/final essays will be easy. I got an A- and never bought the course reader.

If you want to buy the course reader for less than Westwood Copies sells it for, text me at **********.

Easy class. Only went to class a max of 4 times. Got an A-. Selling course reader for $40 **********

If anyone needs the course reader,, I am selling mine for best offer. **********

Professor's Bell style of teaching might not suit everyone. He narrates a story every lecture without slides and students would have to take notes just purely by listening. Sometimes he goes off tangent, but for the most part, I think he does a good job highlighting the main points of the readings. Readings in the course reader are very important because they provide a lot of information and expand on what Professor Bell talks about in class. There's only one mid term and one final. Overall, I enjoyed what I learnt from this class and would take another class with him.

All of these reviews are correct. His lectures are extremely boring. His TA grades hard. The readings are long and boring. BUT, this class is easy. Really the only struggle is staying awake in class, but if you can do that he makes it very clear what is going to be on the tests (besides the multiple choice form the mid-term which was fairly random). I was able to get in A in this course without reading the course reader cover to cover. Also, take it with a friend, or make a friend in class. It really is invaluable in this course to have someone to talk to and compare notes with before the tests because undoubtedly you will doze off from time to time.

I really like this guy. You can tell he genuinely enjoys what he is talking about and that transcended to my learning experience a bit. Sure it wasn't quite my cup of tea, but I at least learned a lot of information that I dont think you would get from other professors on the same subject. I must admitt he can be a bit dry and monotonous at times but he does have a stiff sense of humor that breaks things up from time to time. If you do the readings the class is very straight forward and he doesn't put a lot of pressure on you to immerse yourself in the class. I would take another class with professor Bell.

SO BORING. Prof. Bell talks with a monotone, spends every class period reading off of his notes with no visual aids, and is the most boring professor I've had (and hopefully ever will have). I thought a class on South America would be interesting, but he focused extensively on specific topics he thinks are just wonderful (like the pampas of Argentina & the city of Buenos Aires). It's definitely not a comprehensive overview of the continent. The midterm is a few multiple choice and some essays while the final is two long essays you chose out of 5 options (which was cool because you didn't have to study everything). I got an A- but it wasn't really worth the pain of going to class & being bored out of my mind day after day.