Wrote my honors thesis under the supervision of Dr. Blake. She was the most reassuring and compassionate professor I have ever been in contact with, and her feedback and brainstorming sessions gave me the confidence I needed for my work. Also took her class on prison literature which was phenomenal. She is truly a one-of-a-kind, amazing professor.

Taking this class is the best choice i made all summer. Blake makes the class interesting and engaging and this is from someone who didn't care about black studies. There is a lot of reading, but is very doable considering I'm a slow reader. Take this class!!! Or English 50 with her, Blake is amazing and will help you. Covers WRT, ETH, and ENG GEs

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

She's really great. Very passionate about the material. I also got to be in the honors section/seminar with her and knew her better in that context too. Her lectures are funny and she is very energetic, even though my lectures were at 8am. She will call you out for sleeping in class. Be prepared to participate in lecture too. Good class.

Dr. Blake has a great energy to her lecture style that makes me genuinely look forward to her class. She has greatly broadened my viewpoint on racial identity and culture and inspired me to pick up a minor in Black Studies. I would take any class she is teaching.

Bottom line, she changed my life.

This is a professor that will not only change your intellectual mindset, but your entire life. She has one of the most passionate, helpful, caring, beautiful souls. She will inspire you, nurture your interests, and blow your mind. Taking a class with her is basically the best thing that can happen to a person. TAKE HER EVERY CHANCE YOU GET.

Amazing professor. She will change the way you think about everything. So intelligent, so caring and helpful. It would be a mistake to not take at least one class with her. Highly, highly recommend.

She is an amazing professor. People are only giving bad reviews because they wanted to get an A for doing nothing and not going to class!! She is SO brilliant and extremely helpful. You will learn so much. Do not leave UCSB without taking a class from her! She is very fair and will give you the grade you want if you do the work.

Bad teacher. Bad grader. Class is mandatory but extremely boring and not pertinent to writing the essays.

One of the best professors at UCSB! She may be young but you can immediately tell that she is extremely intelligent and passionate about her work and the class. She is very helpful and uses a variety of materials to introduce topics. I learned more in this one class than most of the rest combined. Highly recommend. Very fair grading.

brilliant, such great insight.

Blake is a great professor. People just refuse to do the readings/don't want to be there. She is very knowledgable on all of the material and draws connections between it and current topics which makes the class way more interesting. The readings are completely necessary if you don't have the ability to retain everything she ever says.

Very insightful professor! I really enjoyed this class and her teaching style. I would love to have her again for sure.

Blake is a really cool person, you can tell that she is very bright through her charisma. She is also very sweet and understanding. However, as a teacher, she is boring and all over the place. Her lectures are extremely unorganized. I would say the class is difficult because it is so abstract. I would agree- it really is more like black studies.

I was not looking forward to this class until i showed up. The class was full of insight and she allowed students to give input and express opinions. She was very helpful and clear with her lectures. Midterm and Final were take home essays, 2 essays 3 pages each. GREAT CLASS! interesting and passionate

Most annoying class ever. Lectures are so boring and disorganized, she writes on a projector slide as she goes and then you try to study but the only notes you have are a random list of phrases. Also class seems more like black studies and not womens culture