This was one of the worst classroom experiences I've had. I don't recommend anyone take any class with him, which is a shame because he teaches an important and timely topic. He's a tough grader, which is fine, but the way he interacts with students conveys a lack of care and general respect that shouldn't be prevalent for an instructor.

THIS PROFESSOR DOWN CURVES. Did very well on all of the assignments, but then they graded the final paper VERY harshly. Even if you finish with an A raw score, he will down-curve so beware. Boring lectures & attendance not mandatory. Take at your own risk

Prof Masterson knows what he's talking about, his class was a good intro to MENA politics. The material is very interesting but get ready to cover a lot of topics. Attendance in section is graded, Taft was my TA, he's very good and accessible. 3 papers, no midterm, 1 research paper and 1 map quizz. Textbook can be found online. My fav class so far.

I know he's new, but his teaching style bothers me so much I added him to the site. He bans laptops, so students can't take notes their way. Spends way too much time on very simple concepts and not nearly enough time on what matters. Expects us to know things before we've even learned it, and makes it impossible to keep track of all the states. BAD

His ME class is really good, the pols readings are really interesting but come with reading a lot of history too; also, he DOWN CURVED us (the next grade down) even after miscommunication between him and his TA's cost everyone a quiz grade (TAs didn't own up to the miscommunication and he took their word over ours)

Professor isn't very nice, he's very serious. There's 3 quizzes each worth 10%. First is the map quiz, next 2 are mcq and you need to actually study for these to do well. Final research paper is about 10 pages, they grade it harshly. I barely took notes and procrastinated everything (got an A). Just study the relevant stuff and ignore the rest.