Professor Blake is probably the most enthusiastic professor I have had at UCSB. She is incredibly passionate for the 8am and I respect her for that. It's an easy GE if you participate and do the readings.

Incredible professor, talked about a lot of really relevant topics. Reading is hard to keep up on but if you do it's pretty easy to pass with a high grade.

Professor Blake is clearly very passionate about her work, I found the lectures to be pretty engaging. Keep up with the reading and its all good

Professor Blake was a good professor; taking this class was useful in helping me gain a better context for life generally.

Amazing professor that is passionate about the topic at hand. The class is graded on 2 short papers, pop quizzes, and in person midterm/finals. Would recommend to anyone to take her class. :)

I absolutely love Dr. Blake and would highly recommend taking one of her classes. You can tell she cares immensely for her students and their wellbeing. Her lectures are engaging and concisely cover the key topics for the reading. Most of the grade was from short quizzes, the short answer written midterm, and the two-page papers.

Homework is just reading, pretty long but not unmanageable. Pay attention in lecture, there's important info. I'm mainly impressed with how professionally she handled the fall 2022 TA strike. She cancelled lectures in solidarity but sent weekly emails providing detailed and straightforward updates. Very competent.

Amazing professor that genuinely cares about her students and the class!!! Lectures were very insightful and interesting. There is a LOT of reading per week which is easy to fall behind on but I still recommend taking the class. Also she has pop quizzes but they are on the lecture material so as long as you have paid attention you're good.

This class was on the more difficult side of GEs. If you are willing to read I would recommend! She is very passionate and lectures were always very interesting. She does have pop quizzes every so often, so be prepared! As long as you keep up with the reading and stay on top of your work it isnt too bad.

Professor Blake is amazing. I had her for ENGL 40BB, and I learned so much and found her course to be incredibly valuable. Definitely recommend. You can tell she genuinely cares about her students.

Prof Blake is an awesome person but online doesn't do her justice. Lectures have no slides to follow and she jumps from topic to topic a lot so it was really hard to follow. That said, she's really passionate, knowledgable, and cares a lot. The two papers are graded pretty easy and aren't long and midterm and final are moderate. Lots of reading.

Pretty challenging for a WRT GE. Since it was a mandatory 8 AM lecture (M,W only, no F lecture) with no powerpoints, it was quite hard to take notes based on just her speaking. A LOT of reading too: 5 novels, a few short films, and extra readings. 3 pop quizzes, two 2 page papers, a midterm, and a final. Papers not too bad. Great professor though!

Prof. Blake is extremely caring, compassionate, and understanding toward her students. She is a great lecturer who is very knowledgeable. She truly understands student's struggles and is sympathetic. There is a good amount of reading for the class along with 2 papers- beware of the pop quizzes! Overall, probably the kindest prof I've met so far.

Very fast paced class. Very eye opening. The professor has a great way of presenting ideas, but the class moves too fast.

Blake is amazing. She is so passionate about the class and justice for all. I would highly recommend, as you will learn about yourself in this class

Even at 8am, I didn't feel tired. She does a really good job being energetic and engaging to help keep people awake. The books we read were generally interesting, I would reread them again. I didn't visit her office hours but I wouldn't be afraid to go talk to her. She's really caring and wants everyone to succeed.

Worth the 8am. We just read four books and some articles throughout the quarter. Pop quizzes, two short papers, a midterm, and a take-home final.

If you need to fulfill a bunch of GE credit take ENG 50 with Blake. It is a lot of reading (novels) but they move quickly and are easy to read. Blake makes class actually engaging, interesting, and relatable, and her energy totally rubs off. Don't let the 8 AM time slot scare you off, it is so worth it.

Such a passionate and enthusiastic lecturer. One of the few 8ams I've enjoyed going to. Class is structured by pop quizzes, a midterm, and two papers. It's not extremely difficult and the material is really interesting. I definitely recommend taking a class with her!

amazing professor, clearly talented, passionate, and very intelligent. highly recommend this class!!

Blake was such a phenomenal lecturer. I really enjoyed this class. I got away with not reading all of the assigned books because the 2 essays of the class were about 1 book each. Very articulate and helpful highly recommend this class

Wonderful professor who made the class very interesting. The "final" was just a final paper which was nice.

The best GE class I've ever taken. Professor Blake made waking up for 8AMs worth it. She's really into it, and so are the TAs. Curriculum is really enriching, with two tests, four quizzes, and two short essays for the quarter. If you need to knock off a writing requirement and the ethnicity requirement, this is the class to take. No real final.

Blake is very passionate about the subject, and it shows through her great teaching style. She keeps everyone engaged, even at 8 am, and approaches the subjects with an open mind. While there was a lot of reading, the books were easy to read and entertaining, and the quizzes and tests are a breeze as long as you slightly pay attention