I took a class with him a few quarters back and I really liked the material that we learned. He allowed us to rewrite our essays which was very helpful and you can go to office hours to get more elaboration. Pretty easy going during class and makes the conversation engaging with the students. Not intimidating, very approachable in my experience

His grading criteria is haphazard. There are weekly readings of up to 100 pages that you are supposed to condense and analyze "thoughtfully" in 500 word papers. His lectures make no sense. When you ask the TA why you got a low grade on the weekly paper even though you followed the syllabus guidelines they tell you they "can't articulate it"

Stephens is clearly passionate about history. His lectures can be a bit dull but he is super nice and genuinely cares about his students. Go to office hours and talk through your paper, it is highly helpful.

I enjoyed his class for Hist 2C, the papers due for the class aren't very difficult. The class is lecture heavy, but I recommend him very much. He's also pretty funny so that was a plus.

I enjoyed taking this class because Professor Stephens clearly told us information in lectures, and fairly warned us what was going to be on exams. The class is mostly based on his lectures and documents we would read for section. He also gave pop quizzes throughout the quarter! I would say overall he was a fair professor

Genuinely cares about the success of his students and wants to see them do well. As a new teacher, he is still perfecting his lecture style but honestly still does a great job so I don't understand why he is criticized so harshly sometimes. Attendance isn't mandatory but still go to class because there are 5 pop quizzes! Overall he is very kind

He's pretty new to teaching so I wouldn't be to hard on him. He really does care about his students and their understanding of the material. Lectures are sometimes boring but he tries his best to make a few jokes. There were 2 midterms, a 6-7 page paper, and a final.

I had prof Stephens for HIST 2C so I was prepared for his style of teaching. Hes honestly improved a lot more. Theres 2 midterms, 1 final, 1 paper (6-7 pages), and section. I studied a lot but your grade also really depends on your TA. TAKE NOTES ON WHAT THE PROFESSOR SAYS IN LECTURE not the slides!!!!! He posts the slides on gauchospace.

I had Stephens for history 2c and did not like his teaching style and choice of readings but after taking 17b, I realized throughout this quarter that he was really trying to improve his class. His readings became more relevant to the course and were actually very useful and lectures became more understandable. Overall, a good and caring professor.

Professor Stephens genuinely cared about improving as a lecturer, and he was a good one! Good study guides but exams are long and require a lot of prep. The textbook (Foner) was super helpful and filled gaps in lectures. Definitely possible to get an A and the grading system is fair, but you got to work for it. Don't let my rating scare you.

Two Midterms, and essay (6-7 pages), and a final. Stephens is a great professor and tells jokes during lecture, not sure why his reviews are so horrible. I enjoyed him and his class, I attended every lecture and only used the books for the essay and a few IDs on the final. He gives you the questions for the final and midterms on the study guide

5 Pop quizzes in class to check for attendance, one paper, and two midterms and a final. Gives you a study guide with what exactly will be on the midterms and final. Very easy to talk to and tries really hard to connect to his students. Extremely caring professor who genuinely wants us all to do good. Highly recommend. Class is easy if you try.

Stephens is a great professor! He genuinely wants to help students learn and is very helpful outside of class. He's a new professor and is trying to improve his teaching constantly. Very fair grading criteria. I'd say a lot of people don't like him because he forces them to actually think about the concepts more than just memorizing facts.

Stephens was one of the most kind and genuine professors I have had the opportunity to take a course from. He taught very well to a large lecture and was alway available outside of the course. Love the guy would take again. PS: His humor is top-notch!

basically I never went to class and got an A-. this was bc I did extremely well (100%) on the rhetorical narrative. but I did badly (C-) on the second assignment. but managed to get an A on the final. The final was easy as long as you study the study guide he provided for you. never went to class but did that at least.

DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR! His lectures are super confusing and all over the place, he goes off tangent all the time and does not know how to answer student questions clearly. It does not seem like he a has a good grasp on the material he is teaching. There are two midterms, a 6-7 page essay, and a final.

Its so difficult to understand the point Stephens attempts to get across with his unnecessary use of words, he elaborates the same idea tiredly. Most of the time students were confused on what the readings had to do with the lecture and vice versa. The rhetorical narrative and primary source essay hardly had explanation prior to the due date.

If it weren't for my amazing TA (shoutout KT-MG), I would've failed this class. Professor Stephens is difficult to understand at best with his overly-enunicated words you'll probably need to keep a dictionary around to understand. I mean, you're talking to a student body aged 18-22 taking a lower division history class, cut us some slack. Skip him

Professor Stephens is a cool dude, but not a good history professor, at least for a lower division history class. His lectures and words sound like he's teaching a bunch of fellow historians, not a student body which the majority of are taking the class only for their pre-major requirements. Do yourself a favor and skip the dude, take 17A instead.

Boring, hard to understand lectures, with lots of outside reading that wasn't helpful on most occasions in regards to a deeper understanding of the course. Section was more used to discuss vague concepts of the reading when that had nothing to do with one the main essays and had nothing to do with the final or the final essay.

Prof Stephens is a chill guy but not the best teacher. I get that he is new at it but it was so bad I have never been so confused in a class before. He goes extremely fast through his lectures he talks like he's explaining it to himself. Unless you love history so much you already know it all I would not recommend

Stephens style of teaching made world history extremely confusing. He doesn't teach the material in a chronological order, he prefers to teach the material thematically. I had to have my dictionary out the whole class just to understand his choice of words. I learned more during dead week reviewing the material with my study group then all 10 weeks

There isn't a set textbook, only a large number of supplemental readings, so attendance in lecture is mandatory. Professor moves through things very quickly so I recommend voice recording. Lecture slides are available to students but don't go in-depth so take heavy notes on what is being spoken.

He is not a good teacher. He's a cool guy but does not explain anything well in lecture. His presentations were unorganized and he doesn't speak about anything on his presentations. He gives us tons of readings, but he hardly mentions them in his lectures. He doesn't explain and answer questions at all. Don't take this professor