Marlon Ross is absolutely brilliant, and easily one of my favorite professors at UVA. He is so thoughtful and so incredibly knowledgeable about everything from English to race and gender theory to American history, I was blown away. I had never taken an English class before at UVA, and he was patient and helpful with me in questions about structuring my papers. Could not recommend this class more!

This was the best class I have taken. Marlon Ross is the best lecturer I have encountered at UVa., and I hope he stays with smaller class sizes and larger course numbers, because I do not think his style would be as effective with larger class sizes and [often] less-engaged or less-qualified students. He respects the opinions of his students, while supplementing and challenging their observations with his seemingly-endless knowledge of A.A. lit, and 20th century social movements. He is an excellent critic of papers both stylistically and content-wise. My single gripe is that he sets overly-ambitious goals for the semester; we skimmed the last two or three sections we were supposed to cover. That being said, should he decide to pare down the syllabus, and set it more realistically, the courses will likely be better and better.
I learned an incredible amount about events and discussions within the literary theory world that I never knew existed, from Hughes through present day considerations of BLM and Afrofuturism. The material is often dense, but equally as often gripping in that way great essays are apt to be. I would recommend this course to anyone serious about their humanities education.