for the love of god do not get behind on your readings. they are the key to being able to follow the extremely fast paced and packed lectures, and you will need them in order to complete the exams. clearly intelligent and amazing teacher, but you need to be on top of it!!

Strathman is a great teacher with great lectures. The midterm/final is primarily based on the lectures but needs reading references. While there is a lot of readings, you can just get a general summary and a connection to a key concept. The paper topics offered are very vague but allow a lot of freedom in choosing your topic. YOU NEED THE LECTURES

Worst professor I've experienced at UCSB and the only bad grade I've received. His 60 slide lectures lack significant detail, often using a single word for an obscure event, a good prof will create 20 detailed slides. All exams are handwritten blue book. The worst part is he genuinely seems like he wants students to fail. Did not earn my respect.

Prof. Strathman was the highlight of my UCSB PoliSci career. He's not the easiest professor, but he is a fantastic teacher. I've taken a number of his classes and would recommend anyone taking PoliSci who is looking to learn the subject to take Prof. Strathman for their IR focus. It won't be an easy road, but the lessons taught will stay with you.

I have taken 4 classes with Dr. Strathman. His classes don't offer much room for error due to their balance. Exams are graded on knowledge of minute details taken from any reading or section of the notes. In order to do well on a final you must bring in every reading applicable, and the omission of one results in a poor grade. Take at your own risk

tbh I wish he had more things within the class to be graded on cause I got messed up by the 2 exams... TBF I didn't do any of the readings lol (I learned my lesson) and thought I could get away with my skim and organize method. but also didn't really try. his lectures are good tho. the tests are pretty hard lots of connecting and things and whatnot