Absolutely loved this class. It completely changed the way I view the world and while the readings were dense at times, they were really rich. Everything graded pretty leniently and lots of opportunities for extra credit. Prof is clearly passionate about the subject and was very helpful in office hours.

Incredibly performative and insincere in both his teaching and interactions with students. Texts were too long and dense for a GE class, the TA got me through them. Take this class if you don't care about your professor being full of himself and a fake activist. He masks this insincerity by being a dynamic speaker, but he is the worst.

Professor Blankholm is a fantastic speaker. The content he speaks about is occasionally long-winded but he makes it engaging regardless. The readings are dense but get oversimplified during lecture (which is for the best). The tests require little studying/preperation if you consistently attend lecture and do the readings. Would recommend!

I really enjoyed this class because I found the content to be really interesting. It's really reading heavy, and I struggled through a good bit of them, but my TA was super helpful. It was a lot of work, so not an easy GE but still a great class. If you go to class and do the readings you should do fine. Offers extra credit, helpful office hours

Least favorite professor I've ever had. Very performative when it comes to social justice, and he has a raging superiority complex. Class was not as described in GOLD; readings were extremely dense and long for a GE arts class. Feigns respect for students' concerns and social justice issues. Overall, this class always left me feeling frustrated.

RGST 35 is an awesome course, and so is this one. It was definitely more challenging, but it's also 5 units, so I think that is fair. It honestly changed my perspective about everything, not just religion and pop culture. He knows the material is difficult and adjusts to accommodate that. Take this class! It takes work but it's worth it.

Professor acted like everything he said was a new profound idea that he created, even though it was a regurgitation of other peoples ideas. Did not practice what he preached in terms of social justice which uninspired me. The readings are super long and difficult to understand, TA got me through the readings.

Prof is nice but the class wasn't anything like what the info page described. It was mostly theory and philosophical stuff. There was a ton of reading and most of it was not relevant to current pop culture at all. The readings rarely made sense and a good TA was all that got me through it. 30% paper, 45% midT+ final, 25% section quizzes/attendance.

This class was so interesting. There was a lot of reading and you did have to pay good attention, but if you stay focused the midterm and final are very fair. The professor is amazing, approachable, and keeps you engaged in lecture. I would 100% take this class again.

Very interesting class, but heavy on the readings. He's a great lecturer and is very passionate about his lectures.

Great speaker, highly knowledgeable, I could listen to this guy talk forever. Decent amount of reading, but super relevant so it went quickly. Complicated concepts, somewhat easy grader. Pretty heavy GE, but worth it. Lectures were posted on gauchospace, but just go to lecture, the discussions were fantastic.

Super interesting lectures. By far my favorite course/professor in my first quarter at UCSB.