complete joke of a professor. no clear grading rubric so she grades basked in how she feels about you. does not provide proper feedback and fails you if she disagrees with your point. has an inflated ego and says she is an academic as a means to justify her lack of clarity.

Unclear grading criteria, disorganized class structure, felt uncomfortably pretentious at times. Passionate professor and fun class, but with the amount of reading, very specific timed pop quizzes, script writing, 4 in-class acting performances, random assignments, papers, etc. SO not worth it. Easy grader, but it's not worth the trouble.

Completely disorganized. Forgets her own syllabus and is never consistent with what she says, gets upset when students ask questions for clarification. Assigns heavy loads of work forgetting that students have other classes and responsibilities. Lectures are just random rambling and barely gives time for group work in class.

Absolutely do not waste your time!! Material you read is great but assigned insane amount of books to read and expects you to know every page by heart and grades you based off of your ability to memorize each sentence?? Does not prepare slides, gets sidetracked, rude, exams are atrociously written. Got A's on essays but everyone failed exams!!

She is a very good professor who is passionate about what she teaches. This can make her lectures very interesting. They can also be interactive and she gives extra credit. Although the downside is because she is so passionate the workload is very heavy. The level of analysis she expected for the midterm was very high which made it difficult.

TLDR: Attend every lecture, read everything assigned at least ten times so you can quote the material like the back of your hand, and write flawlessly. Otherwise, don't bother taking this class. You will fail the midterm and the final.

Not for you if you need clear-cut lesson plans & slides, but don't be daunted by group presentations & the discussion based curriculum––classroom environment was almost casual, lots of shared excitement for material. Dr. Batiste has much meaningful insight, geared lecturing around our questions. Meet her for office hours––lovely to talk with!

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.

Professor Batiste is a great lecturer, and you can tell that she genuinely loves the texts she assigns and has a strong passion for the sociology, history, ethnography, and tradition behind this course's criteria.

Definitely take a class with Professor Batiste while at UCSB. Even if you think you are "woke", Professor Batiste articulates descriptions of our World and analysis of the texts we read in truly a revolutionary way.

So much reading. SO MUCH READING. But according to my TA, she lessened the reading this quarter from the other quarters, but it was still so much. She's very passionate about the subject, but her lectures don't really have a structure. Regardless, going to lecture is a must

No lecture structure.

Must attend lecture to get any concepts down. Incredibly tough grader. Expects you to know all about black literature and as much as she knows in 10 short weeks. Confusing lectures. All short answer and essay questions. Requires to write an essay. As are ridiculously unhelpful. Letter grade only. A lot of grading. Must work incredibly hard to pass.