While I enjoyed this class and attended every discussion, I found that the class was mostly self-guided as we completed our research projects. My grade was an "A—;" however, my grade was entered as a "B" because I did not raise my hand enough or speak up in class, which is an arbitrary reason to mark someone down. This wasn't communicated.

Very nice person who tries to make class interesting. There is a big project in which you choose a field site in the community and study people in the setting. For winter 2012, we had to relate it to justice. Be prepared to do a lot of work for this project. Otherwise, pulling off a B in the class was pretty easy as long as you put in the effort.

One of my favorite professors here at UCSB. He is incredibly understanding and will help you work through concepts that you are not sure about. His lectures feel inspiring, and the speakers he brings inform us of current-day issues in the system, which I hadn't known about. The workload is manageable, participation does matter, so make sure to go.

Interesting class material, but Dr. Rios is absolutely horrible at communicating. Never responded to urgent emails even after I spoke to him in class multiple times. Never graded any of the assignments we had 2x a week so I had no idea what my grade was or if I was doing the assignments well until the final grades came out.

I have never written a RMP post until meeting Dr. Rios. He's the most inspirational professors I have ever met. Not only is his past so moving, but he makes such an effort to connect to his students, something rare especially post pandemic. I feel like I have learned so much intrinsically rather than just going through the motions of the course.

Professor Rios is incredibly understanding and is an amazing lecturer. I have a lot of respect for him as a person but I took off a star as he is awful at communicating; no response to emails, miscalculated grades, and unclear grading criteria. Easy class, great professor but poor communication.