PLIR 1010

Definitely an interesting class, very heavily reading-based although the readings were usually intriguing & thought-provoking with the exception of a few. Lecture is, as others have said, a bit useless, as Furia tends to go off on tangents and his powerpoints are typically not very relevant to the exams. I was lucky in that I had an excellent TA who prepared us well for the exams, and I tended to rely more on discussion review and the textbook with regard to preparing for tests. Typically the only reason I went to lecture was the lecture assignment, which you only need 20 of; however, I did feel that lectures were a bit tedious and could have been much more relevant to the class.

If you have ANY interest in international relations or any intention of being a Foreign Affairs major, take this class (... it also might be required haha I don’t remember). Yes, Peter Furia assigns a lot of reading. However, the exams were definitely easy and the TAs are there to help you succeed! With that being said, YOU MUST attend discussion AND lecture. I LOVED this class, and did well. There also is no final exam, you write a research paper/pilot study and you get to pick the topic. TA recommendation: Aycan Katitas -- she is the best.

This class was completely asynchronous, which I am grateful for based on the other reviews. We had podcast lectures twice a week and Furia seemed to always go on tangents which made him go over his time limit. Everything was done through our TA, and I am grateful that mine was laid back and flexible. If you have the opportunity to take anything with Ferdinand Flagstad, I highly recommend!

For Ferdinand: I enjoyed discussion section with Ferdinand. He was laid back and flexible, but very thoughtful at the same time. For the first part of the semesters, as a class, we would discuss our thoughts on the books and then talk about Ferdinand's questions and relate what we read with IR. Then Furia made the TAs give us some sort of graded assignment, so for the rest of the semester, we would have presentations (you picked a day and only presented once over the semester) and then discuss questions posed by our classmates and Ferdinand in break out rooms for the rest of the class time. I learned so much from Ferdinand and his sections, much more than I ever learned from Furia's podcast lectures. Highly recommend taking anything with Ferdinand!!

#tCFspring2021

This class was pretty much a huge book club. Furia's "lectures" were supposed to be about the book that we were assigned to read that week, but most of the time they went on tangents that were pretty much impossible to follow along. They were also podcast-style, so there were no slides or anything. I rarely did the readings just because they were so long and there was no assessments on them, just general discussions about the books' topics in discussion in breakout rooms. However, with that being said, most of the book topics were pretty interesting as most were NYT bestsellers. I found that this class depended on your TA and discussion section, as the TA's had different assignments. I had Harrison Weeks and we just had to do short weekly essays (1/2 page single-spaced) on the reading that week that were basically graded on a completion basis. At the end of the course we had to do a "pilot study" which was basically a 5-7 page watered down research paper. Overall, I didn't really get much out of this class and was pretty disappointed with it. It is definitely doable to get a good grade in this class; just make sure to go above and beyond especially on the lab activities to guarantee an A. I don't really know what the class will be like in person, but if it's anything like the online format this spring, lectures will pretty much be useless. #tCFspring2021

Take this review with a grain of salt, as I took it when the class was online. Prof. Furia taught the material through biweekly podcasts, which weren't all that bad in that he had plenty of fascinating stories to tell. However, as others have said, these stories are often tangents. This can be good or bad; if you read the assigned book every week (most of which can be found online!), then it could be refreshing to hear his takes on how the reading relates to research or the world while you do the laundry - it's not just a regurgitated synopsis he gives you. Still, the readings may be bestsellers, but the tangents are less so. Up to you. Content for each week is themed, and the majority of the class was driven through discussion. You do two "labs" which consist of data interpretation in Excel. No exams (at least for this semester). Finally, there's a "pilot study" paper at the end where you do some semi-original research on variables which interest you, and it can be overall low stress if you go to OH and/or have the right TA. Speaking of which, I cannot endorse Aycan Katitas enough. She is kind, helpful, facilitates discussion well, and cares for the wellbeing of the students. Take discussion with her if you can! #tCFspring2021

I took this class online asynchronously and liked it, although I'm not sure how well it sets you up for future classes in IR. You don't learn a lot of theory because the majority of the class is based around discussion for that week's memoir. That being said, I enjoyed all the books that we had to read and didn't find the reading assignments to be overwhelming at all because all of the memoirs are bestsellers/easy reads. Furia seems like a nice guy, but does tend to go off on tangents, which can make the podcasts useless at times. We tended to read a different memoir each week and Furia recorded two podcasts to go along with each reading assignment. The only other assignments were two labs (extremely easy and took 1 hour max), discussion assignments, and a 5-7 page pilot study (also extremely easy and not too time-consuming). My TA was David Stiefel and I would definitely recommend him. He's a really interesting guy and made the discussion assignments (which were up to the TAs to design this semester) enjoyable and quick. Overall, I would say it's relatively easy to get an A. The grade breakdown was: 10% discussion attendance, 10% discussion participation, 10% discussion assignments, 10% pilot study proposal, 30% pilot study, and 30% for labs. I enjoyed this class because I like reading, but you should know what you're getting into before signing up. This definitely isn't a typical intro class and you will only have one textbook reading for the entire semester. Whether that's something that you want is up to you.

This class was definitely interesting, but not challenging. Whole grades are based on discussion participation, 2 labs, a pilot study proposal, and a final project (pilot study). I had a great TA for this class (Ferdinand F.), that made the course relatively easy to understand and made sure we knew what was expected of us as students. Recommend this class if your looking to get rid of gen-ed's this is a relatively easy class.

I would describe this class as a large book club. I would say that if you show up to discussion with having read at least parts of the book, and put effort into the labs, this class should pretty much be an easy A or A-. I had a great TA (Layla Picard) that made the class enjoyable. Furia does tend to go off on tangents, but his lectures are optional and he always posts them online afterwards. Overall, I thought the class was enjoyable and a nice intro to IR, but not necessarily a good overview of IR theory etc

I LOVED this class. It was my first politics class, and while I've definitely heard that it's very different from a typical politics class, this class really did pique my interest in the subject. I loved the way this class was structured, with the midterm/final (and honestly lectures) being completely optional. If you are genuinely interested in the class, the readings are captivating and moreso memoirs rather than textbook reading. The labs were quite easy and there was a lot of freedom in the pilot study (worth 30% of the final grade). I had a great TA, Layla, who made discussion sections so much better than any others I've had. A great easy, engaging class if you're interested in the subject - you'll take out as much as you put into it though.

#tCFF23

I loved him!! He made lectures fun, had engaging material, was a slow speaker which made it easier to comprehend. He was funny, kind, and reasonable with work. We had quizzes every Monday off of a huge chunk of reading, but I was never bothered by the amount of reading because of how INTERESTING all of the content was! Midterm and Final were optional. Pilot study at the end is a lot of work, but worth it for the slack he gave us most of the year.