Incredible class with every lecture being extremely interesting and different from the last. Each week ties into the next, but with different professors taking on different perspectives, the class is much more engaging than a singular viewpoint.
A great way to learn about data with respect to justice and society (like it mentions in the cluster).

Absolutely despised this class, but I think it is because I am not much of a politics person and got really bored of lectures + reading to the point where I just stopped doing the readings. I'm sure a lot of my peers enjoyed this class a lot, and to me it wasn't too difficult of a class, but DO NOT take this class if you are not passionate or remotely interested about anything related to the namesake. It will become a LOT of work and mild suffering if you hate it, and only take this class for the credit - I don't think it's worth the extra GE + writing II credit.

The DJS cluster is phenomenal, and I would highly highly recommend it to anyone interested in the humanities or social issues. It does NOT require any knowledge/interest in data science or statistics. Every single lecture I'm left in awe of the discussions and examples in class. For example, felt like I learned more about the horrors of slavery in 1 lecture than in my entire 12 years of school. Undoubtedly, I feel the cluster captured the complexity of using data to understand social issues and fight for justice; I absolutely love this cluster course, it has completely changed my perspective on so many things around our daily lives that I take for granted.

Workload-wise it was my easiest class by far; there is no homework or tests aside from a short discussion post each week and 3-4 writing assignments each quarter.

Professor Presner is truly a PHENOMENAL instructor. He not only has an enthusiasm for the subject he's teaching, but he also does an amazing job of presenting it in a digestible, easy to understand format. I especially like how Prof Presner uses questions to prompt further discussion on topics, rather than just speaking without interacting with students at all. After every class, I was consistently left thinking about some call to action made by the Prof or further topic of discussion. He is also happy to clarify assignments and answer questions that may arise.

Definitely recommend taking this class! You get assigned a Holocaust survivor to speak to for four sessions. The other classes are spent discussing with the other students in the class. The grade is 60% attendance, 10% introduction letter, and 30% for writing a letter to a future UCLA student about the experience. It is only an hour once a week and they serve food after the sessions with the survivors. It is a really meaningful and unique opportunity!

I expected this class to be a walk in the park, as Bruinwalk suggested. However, I was so very wrong. Professor was alright, but literally we could not go a lecture without TA Anna Brungardt interrupting to make a “point of privilege.”

For example, in Week 3, she made a whole deal about avoiding the words “insane” and “crazy” in our weekly 2-page reflections because using those words are “ableist and appropriate the real lived experiences of someone with mania or hysteria.” I am not even kidding; this was said in class. I got points taken off of my reflections for writing “It is insane to me when I fathom how many lives 6 million lives is.”

I was docked so many points for not being the most PC person in the class. I tried but I can never be as woke as the TA, and when I voiced my concerns that I don’t understand how she would like for assignments to be done, she corrected me on my privilege. It was week 8 at this point, so it was too late to drop or P/NP.

There was A LOT of readings and movies to watch: like 3-5 hours a week every week. The final was 3 hours long and 9 pages of intense writing about close readings of a graphic novel character’s costume or a close reading of why a 2 degree angle is vitally important in preserving memory.

If Anna Brungardt is your TA, run for the hills b/c Todd Presner will enable her behavior and do little to assist you in being successful in the class.

WOW. What an awesome class, no lecture was ever boring. Prof Presner is a wonderful professor. I highly recommend enrolling in german 89, the honors section for 59. You get to take an extra section with the prof and you get to have some in depth discussions with him. It's easy to get a good grade in the class if you do all the work. But don't think this class is just a breeze. There is A TON of work to keep up with. By far my most time consuming class; lots of reading, short papers, and long long movie screenings. Despite all the work, I highly recommend this class. Presner is a great lecturer, I mean this is only his 3rd year teaching this class and look how popular it is already!

Ok I'll make this short and easy to read so you will actually look at it:

- This class is fascinating
- All the material is SO manageable and very interesting (a couple films and 3 books)
- If you attend and pay attention lecture, you will Ace the class, finals and midterms are structured only after what he has covered in great detail
- You will learn a lot not only about the holocaust, but you will also walk away with a more critical eye of film, poetry, and literature

Only word of advice, its the TAs who are in charge of your grade so definitely discuss and attend in discussion, email them your thesises for the essays so you know they approve. But essays really can be drawn from lecture notes.

Definitely one of my favorite classes I've taken at UCLA. I did put in some study time, but I was confident of my A the entire time.

Professor Presner is wonderful-- he is pretty young, and always upbeat and interesting. He is very approachable and his German 59 (Holocaust in Film and Lit) class was relatively easy, and very informative also. I would love to have him again in another class, and I would recommend him to everybody!
(Another plus: he's really good-looking)

This class was actually rather rigorous and I was fairly stressed out throughout the quarter. However, Presner assigned such fascinating works, that I consider it one of the most invaluable classes I've taken at UCLA. You will learn something amazing and your perceptions about human nature WILL change. Getting an A was important for me as a pre-law student, but I would still recommend this class if I had done worse. Take it, this class is amazing.

Well, I read all these reviews and took this German 59 thinking it would be a fairly easy GE and interesting to boot. But in fact he has lots of silly little assignments and all of his essay questions and exam questions are so broad that it's ridiculous to answer them in a page. I find that this class is way more work that it's worth - the film screenings, the useless section, and the boring lectures. Plus, he attempts to have a class discussion in a huge lecture which just seems pointless and a waste of valuable lecutre time. Plus, he gives you a THREE hour final for only 25% of your grade with no break. Overall, I think he's made this class a lot tougher from previously and it's not the easy A class it used to be.