Professor Strathman is easily one of the best professors I have had at UCSB. So knowledgable on international relations and that is reflected in his dense and engaging lectures. This is an upper division class so you should expect to put in effort. Readings are completely manageable and engaging, midterm and final are pretty straightforward.

I don't think the course was insanely difficult. Yes, we had a TON of readings but the lectures complimented readings well and were interesting! A little more guidance surrounding what would be on the midterm/final would be nice. Lots of content so hard to narrow down when studying. I will say I had a good TA though that handled the grading aspect.

His slides are clear and he uses them as guides to which he elaborates on. I not only find the topics enthralling but his lectures are engaging and chock-full of relevant information. The only issue is now he has a grader (not his fault) instead of a TA and they grade based on a set of criteria (buzzwords) instead of content. ATTEND LECTURES!

I generally do pretty well in his classes, but I seriously struggled without a TA. On top of that, the course grader I genuinely dont think they read the readings because I was getting marked off for things that had a clear connection to the readings and really struggled without sections that enforced the assigned readings.

I prayed to get struck by 50 bikes omw to his class.

The criticisms are fair. There is an absurd amount of readings to do in the class, and the grading structure is disheartening. However, let's not act like the class isn't interesting. Study for exams, get the overall gist of the weekly readings, and take lengthly, but quality notes. He's very lenient with the exams. Just give complete answers.