I prayed to get struck by 50 bikes omw to his class.

The criticisms are fair. There is an absurd amount of readings to do in the class, and the grading structure is disheartening. However, let's not act like the class isn't interesting. Study for exams, get the overall gist of the weekly readings, and take lengthly, but quality notes. He's very lenient with the exams. Just give complete answers.

The amount of reading assigned is comparable to what you'd normally see across multiple classes in an entire year. Most POLS majors I've talked to intentionally avoid this professor, and now I understand why, but with UCSB's limited course options some of us end up stuck. If you care about your GPA or your sanity, take literally anyone else.

As of writing this I am looking at 724 pages of readings for the 2nd half of the quarter. The final is cumulative. I have 100 on the midterm but that's not stopping me from failing lol About half (17… ish readings) are “recommended”, but our TA told us that these r NOT recommended but necessary for a good grade on the exam. This is inhumane

Very hard professor, but he is my favorite at UCSB. I generally learned so much from him and this class, but this class is incredibly hard. I would expect around 8 hours of reading per week, and you literally need to study every single thing he's ever said in his lecture and every author and its content for the midterm and final.

actually so confusing

for the love of god do not get behind on your readings. they are the key to being able to follow the extremely fast paced and packed lectures, and you will need them in order to complete the exams. clearly intelligent and amazing teacher, but you need to be on top of it!!

Strathman is a great teacher with great lectures. The midterm/final is primarily based on the lectures but needs reading references. While there is a lot of readings, you can just get a general summary and a connection to a key concept. The paper topics offered are very vague but allow a lot of freedom in choosing your topic. YOU NEED THE LECTURES

Easily one of the best professors I've had at UCSB, if not the best. His lectures are engaging and his material is genuinely interesting. These criticisms of him seem misplaced, likely coming from these soft students who expect an A+ just for showing up. Grow up. Put in the effort and you'll do well - not rocket science.

I love love LOVE Prof Strathman. He is honestly is one of the best professors. He is super engaging + definitely loves what he teaches (you will too)! I would recommend him 11/10 times + I cannot wait to take another course with him. I def recommend always going to lectures, he gives great insights for the strategy briefs.

Good prof, but his lectures are way too theoretical and “academia” focused. Wish there was more real world application and discussion of current events. Cares too much about memorizing names of academia researchers. Ton of reading and most of it isn't well written or engaging, coming from a guy who loves IR. TAs were terrible this quarter.

Wow. get ready to read, get ready to memorize every reading for the final. No study guides/reviews are given, simply memorization. He is a great guy and everyone seems to like him, I just tend to not love his grading and teaching style. Having a good TA will help you a lot. Ahh lots of work but rewarding for sure.