The material was surprisingly interesting. You get to choose movies to watch and write essays about them which were graded leniently. The books that you're required to buy are needed to cite in your midterm and final essays.

Lots of reading and it's important to go to the lectures, yet he also gives great lectures and provides what I felt was a fair and balanced view. You'll have to do a lot of readings, but they're all really interesting.

Al-Sabagh is such a father figure. Super caring and passionate about the subject. His lecture slides are dense, and it's good to attend because sometimes he'll make important points that aren't on the slides. He's an interesting guy and the materials he had us read were also interesting, but there were A LOT.

This was one of the best classes I've had at UCSB. The readings are long but Munther is pretty upfront about what will show up on the final - which was a take home exam. He's super respectful as well and made sure he could be heard at the back of the lecture hall. It's a pretty well rounded introduction to the Middle East.

Munther is a one of a kind guy. His lectures are interesting, but seemed to be heavily based on the Arab perspective. Sometimes I had trouble focusing during lecture though due to any number of puffy-style ski vests he would don as he passionately spelled out the case for why Zionism is a bad thing. I gotta say, very convicting, changed my mind!

Munther is a decent professor. Took his class over the summer. The midterm and final are 20% of your grade each and he gives you the exams ahead of time. The rest of the grade is a film review, section attendance/participation, and weekly journals. Attendance isn't required but his slides are useless, most of the information comes from what he says

Munther is a nice and easy-going professor. You will do well if you do the readings and pay attention to lecture, though there are almost tons of readings

Terrible teacher. He is from the most interesting part of the world but focuses on the most uninteresting topics in MES 45. Please, please don't take him. As a GLOBAL STUDIES major I hated him and this class. Absolutely deplorable.

Clear syllabus, get ready to read, interesting subject, easy to get a good grade. Attendance is mandatory (iClicker is 10% of grade). Tests straightforward with ID responses, final has three short essays (he gave questions a week before final).

My only complaint about this class was that the readings were pretty dry and long. However, other than that I really enjoyed the class. I am a biochemistry major with no previous knowledge in MES, for reference. He gave study guides that literally turned into the test. There was no tricks, that is, if you actually studied the material. I recommend.

He was very unbiased when talking about the middle east and only stated the facts. He uses a lot of slides which I personally really like in a teacher. He also discusses with the class a lot during lecture (something I don't like, but some people do)

He teaches in a way that makes boring content seem more interesting. He is also pretty fun and modern. I loved how he was not biased against "the west", but actually very neutral when talking about Middle Eastern issues.

I would avoid this class. I didn't like his lecture style and he was super bias, so the lack of perspective was disappointing. His lectures were unclear, and he did ask trick-questions on the test. He does not prepare you for the tests, so I kind of felt like I was on my own. And I did all the readings and still ended with a C+.

Great lecturer, but his tests are confusing sometimes and doesn't really make sense in a way. It's important to go to lecture because he asks questions from lecture. Make sure to read because a lot of the questions are a bit unexpected, but if you read you will be fine. Not too much work, but it depends on how well you do it. Pretty interesting.

If you aren't interested in the Middle East and don't have any prior knowledge of the region and its history, you may dislike this1 class. Tons of dry reading; Munther is very knowledgeable about the Middle East and says some interesting things, which are sadly made boring by his monotone voice. My TA Eric was awesome and could've taught the class.

Professor Munther has a grasp of modern Middle Eastern history, but he does present only one side of it. The class definitely did not cover a lot of material, it was fairly easy. The tests are a joke. Some of the multiple choice options were Star Wars references. Easy A

Literally the worst class I have ever taken. It isn't that it is hard, the professor is just very unreasonable. Assigned a 1800 word paper and it doesn't fulfill the writing requirement. His teaching is one sided, from the Arab perspective, and at times it seems like he doesn't know what he is saying. There is a lot of really dry reading.

Class was very interesting and he was a good lecturer. However, the tests were a little unclear and graded harshly. (They were 1/2 multiple choice, 1/2 essay.)