Wow, I adore Stephanie Batiste. She's my favorite at UCSB by far. She is incredibly knowledgable, witty, and inspirational. What a lovely introduction to African American Literature. She did a wonderful job. Show up to class, be engaged, and participate (even if it's nerve-wracking at first). I'm gonna miss her.

Utter foolish Professor peddling her incoherent mess of a book constantly while having zero introspective capabilities. Demands class to overview reading material yet her final is a poorly, clunkily organized series of plays. Absolute disgrace to the ideal of an English Professor.

I loved this class so much. You'll read a lot but it's good quality material that's engaging. Classes are spent discussing materials amongst students & her while she goes more in-depth about the authors, history, & other aspects from the era of focus. Participation is important but if you're shy like me, just go to office hours it'll help.

Do not take her class. If you want to complete GE requirements, go choose other professors. Worst professor ever met in university. She should learn how to make outlines as well as NOT promote her vague boring book.

Nothing posts online except reading materials. No lecture outline, no midterm review, no clear requirements and deadlines for assignment. You are required to recall any sentence from reading materials, which are about 100 pages per week. Final is not cumulative. Do not take her course unless you have no choice.

Disorganized as the 10lb purse she carries. Doesnt want you to meet during office hrs. Has fluid syllabus & grades subjectively. Keep your work, she will lose it. She sings high praise & then smacks you upside the head w/ a C. She is academic but has NO classroom management. Outside events mandatory. 10-15 hrs/wk of reading, ind/grp projects.

One of the most disorganized teachers I've ever had. Does not keep track of her assignments or the stuff she grades. Keep track of all your graded material and don't throw anything away. I would NOT recommend taking this class, everything is very cryptic and YOUR interpretation may be considered wrong if it isn't like hers.

I swear I had received all my assignments back w/ high scores and she STILL gave me a low score. She is very unorganized and doesn't keep track of the assignments she gives us. Don't recommend this class to anyone, if you do, keep track of everything because she doesn't. And she doesn't use gauchospace to upload grades.

The very opposite of clear grading criteria. I winged it most of the class and we'll see how that goes! Very unclear guidelines and assignments. Fun professor to just talk to, but not to teach this subject effectively. Made good friends in class.

Batiste is very bright but she tend to confuse her students with assignments instructions. She lectures as if she expects you to know, understand, and love her field of research. She invests more into her research then anything else. The worst part is she made everyone perform for the final regardless of your acting or performance abilities.

Batiste is a great professor, but her lectures can be a bit confusing due to the fact that she doesn't use slides. She expects you to know a lot by the end of the ten weeks. You should definitely attend lecture, because she loves to give pop quizzes. A lot of the things she says in lecture appear on the midterm and final so make sure you take notes

I was really excited for this class going in but was even more excited when it ended. Her lectures were extremely disorganized and she insisted on having us "know everything" for the test with no outline or direction. Also, pop quizzes in lecture on top of the attendance sheets!! And no P/NP option! The grading criteria were also quite unclear.