RELG 2210

This was my favorite class of the semester by far. The homework was writing a short response on short readings the night before classes, and then posting a question you thought of after each lecture, all on Collab forums. Really simple; if you answered and it was relevant you got points. 4 essays over the semester, no exams.

Discussions were also supremely chill. You can get by with doing at least one of the readings, but I highly highly recommend doing them all if you have the time. They're always interesting and insightful, and sometimes the impression you'll get after just one is completely different from where the lecture will go. It's worth it to check them out.

Prof Jenkins is really great and really friendly. Take this or any other of his classes, he's a great lecturer.

I highly recommend this class!!! Professor Jenkins is a genius and he is an amazing speaker. The readings are very interesting, though a little dense sometimes, but that's expected when trying to think like an ethicist. But they definitely challenged you to think like you never have before- which was very cool for me. I don't think I ever spent more than 3 hours of homework a week, which is pretty good for a class that challenges your everyday type of thinking. Just readings before every class and a short response to the readings. Honestly, take this class because you will learn a lot, Prof. Jenkins will challenge your normal thinking, and because he's an amazing professor. That being said, I highly recommend going to class so you can actually understand what's going on in order to write good papers. Plus, I think lecture was worth going to every time. Five stars- a must take!

Prof Jenkins is smart and interesting, and the content is really great. The course is basically just readings, with 200-word response posts on collab due at midnight before every lecture and a 500 word discussion post every Friday. There are 3 papers throughout the semester. It's a great class!

This was a very interesting course and I highly recommend it for those looking to branch out into humanities. However, I will say that the readings get dense sometimes; you are assigned about 2-3 readings at a time that average about 40-50 pages but you really don't have to do ALL the readings. I found it better to understand one of the readings in depth rather than try to cover so many different ideas. If I had more time I would've definitely read it all.
Overall do recommend!

Every sentence that comes out of Proff Jenkins mouth is golden. His syntax is quite upgraded which sometimes makes the material hard to digest. During many classes I saw myself typing every single word he mentioned since it was THAT important. However, I later (too late I think) realized that it was better to understand and digest the material right there rather than reading my beautifully crafted yet vague notes. The weekly posts are interesting and selective reading is key since the course is reading heavy. The essay topics are flexible enough for anyone to choose their own path without feeling too restricted. I truly enjoyed the course and GO TO OFFICE HOURS!! although he may seem intimidating because of how brilliant and knowledgable he is on the topic, he is super approachable and really cool to talk to!! loved loved loved this course!! Jeremy was a fair grader and good TA.

Professor Jenkins is one of the most eloquent professors I've ever had that made material that can be very theoretical, very accessible. 2 200 word responses + 1 300-500 word response per week and 3 term papers but all of the TAs grade very fairly. Would highly highly highly recommend this class, Professor Jenkins is really awesome!!

Each week you have 2 prompts due before class which require up to 300 words and each Saturday you have a 300-500 word discussion and this is all based on participation. You have generally 3-4 long passages to read for each class but I just skimmed through one and wrote about that, and then during the lecture Jenkins goes into depth about each but more so the more important passages. He's extremely intelligent and you can clearly tell he's passionate about religion but sometimes the material is a bit dry, but if you actually listen to every word he says, it's powerful. You have 3 essays throughout the semester each being roughly 7 pages in length and they're not too challenging if you did your readings throughout the semester. I had Patrick as my TA and I wouldn't recommend him unless you want your grades a month after your liking since most of the TAs all grade on roughly the same scale. It's not hard to get an A as long as you complete every assignment.

This class is a requirement for the Global Studies Sustainability Major and speaking as one, this class was not as insightful as I expected it to be.
I thought the reviews were a bit over-exaggerating with the praise for Jenkins - he's a nice guy but I was pretty bored in class because it seemed to usually just summarize what we read about.
Moreover, the structure was disorganized when it came to religions because we always jumped back and forth between religions so we would end up repeating the same overall message about a religion after a few classes.
The essays are very flexible in which you just need to pick what readings you want to incorporate in them. They might say you don't need to use the class readings, BUT YOU DO - they do grade on your understanding of readings evident in your essays. They just give you a very broad prompt so you can mold your essay to fit the readings the way you want it. So you don't have to read all of them, you just need them for your essays. The readings for discussion posts are also very useful resources for essays. I got A's/A-'s on all my essays ended the class with an A having missed one of the discussion posts - so good way to knock out the second writing requirement.
The only struggle is that the essays are so broad that every essay kinda felt like I was writing the same thing, with a little bit of difference from the readings but same point about sustainability.

With one month still left in the course, I have written nearly 12,000 words. I will hit 15,000 words (50+ pages double spaced) before the semester ends. The workload is entirely superfluous, even for someone interested in the material, as I am. I am very interested in environmental ethics, but this was a bear of a class for no reason. I would not recommend taking it unless you have to, as it is an incredible amount of work even for a second writing requirement. For each class, Jenkins assigns ~50 pages of reading, which students must write 150-300 words responding to. After this happens twice per week, there is a mandatory online discussion post of 400-500 words that must be done between Thursday night and Saturday Morning (the absolute worst timeframe for mandatory weekly work). Then 3 times per semester, a 1700-2000 word paper is due. Class attendance is mandatory, and students only get 1 unexcused absence. This is the entire course, so just know what you are getting into.

Starting off with the positives, the course has interesting lectures from time to time and great guest lecturers. Professor Jenkins clearly knows what he is talking about, and it is definitely not a completely boring class.
Now for the negatives:
The discussion posts and reading responses are dreadful, especially since they are due at such awful times.
I cannot understand for the life of me why the reading responses are due at midnight before the class starts as it has no effect on the class. Many students are busy throughout the day and closing the responses on midnight is not a good deadline for them.
Furthermore, the deadline for the discussion posts is put awkwardly on Saturday at 11 A.M.
This would be fine if they did not post these discussions post prompts at awkward times and make them due shortly after.
They should make these due by the class meeting time not awkwardly at midnight and Saturday morning as they are not being graded for content but for completion.
Furthermore, the readings are pretty long but I tend to skim over them rather than read it all.
As long as you get the general gist, you should be good for the readings.
The essays are pretty fairly graded, and I do not have a lot of complaints for them.
Overall, do not take this course unless you are interested in the material and you have an alarm clock constantly reminding you when to turn things in.