HIST 107C
Armenian History: Armenia in Modern and Contemporary Times, 19th and 20th Centuries
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Designed for juniors/seniors. Armenian question and genocide, national republic, Soviet Armenia, and dispersion. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - Aslanian is incredibly knowledgeable about Armenian history. You can tell he's a brilliant man who's read widely and deeply. I learned quite a bit. Ethnic Armenians may find it more interesting, but if you come to the class with an open mind your background doesn't matter, a fact he stresses. He's not particularly hard, especially if you are a good writer. I STRESS that you communicate with him throughout!! The class consisted of 10% for attendance and participation (make sure to raise your hand, he likes that stuff), 30% for the in-class ID/map exam which happened W4 Thursday, 25% for the take-home midterm (two 3-4 page essays), and 35% for the take-home final (two 3-4 page essays). The midterm/final are submitted on Turnitin, no hard copies. He gives you a study guide beforehand for the ID/map exam. I had 15 locations given and had to locate 10 of those on a map. I also had 12 terms to study, 8 of which were on the exam. There was 8% extra credit on this exam if you got everything I believe. The midterm/final were given a week or two in advance. Both had several straightforward prompts to choose from. For each "exam," you pick two prompts and write 3-4 page essays for each one, 6-8 pages total. Honestly, he has answered these prompts already in his lectures in his class if you paid attention. His essays do not take a terrible amount of creativity. You just have to make sure you synthesize all the sources that are relevant to the prompt in a way that makes sense. Your thesis should make sense. Don't include any cliches or flowery language - just be straightforward and answer the prompt, he hates filler. He assigns like 100-200 pages of reading every week. I didn't do any of them until the midterms/finals were assigned and I turned out fine. Honestly, it'd be helpful to skim them week to week so you don't get overwhelmed come essay time. You can't completely BS the sources, as he's fully familiar with them and several of them are his or his wife's own writings. The man is chill, but take him seriously. ALL THE READINGS ARE AVAILABLE ONLINE FOR FREE ONE WAY OR ANOTHER! He provides like half of them, the others you can find with some smart Googling. You do not need to purchase anything. A strong command of the English language, citing every relevant source, and paying attention/participating in class should get you far. He responds to emails relatively quickly and will even look at your introduction/thesis for you if you email it to him. I highly recommend communicating with him so you don't do something stupid on the essays. He's a pretty chill guy. He acts like he's harder than he is, I think, but the work is straightforward enough. Occasionally, his lectures can get a bit dry and off track. He'll spend too long on a point that isn't too pertinent. Not a big deal though. He has some funny anecdotes.
Winter 2019 - Aslanian is incredibly knowledgeable about Armenian history. You can tell he's a brilliant man who's read widely and deeply. I learned quite a bit. Ethnic Armenians may find it more interesting, but if you come to the class with an open mind your background doesn't matter, a fact he stresses. He's not particularly hard, especially if you are a good writer. I STRESS that you communicate with him throughout!! The class consisted of 10% for attendance and participation (make sure to raise your hand, he likes that stuff), 30% for the in-class ID/map exam which happened W4 Thursday, 25% for the take-home midterm (two 3-4 page essays), and 35% for the take-home final (two 3-4 page essays). The midterm/final are submitted on Turnitin, no hard copies. He gives you a study guide beforehand for the ID/map exam. I had 15 locations given and had to locate 10 of those on a map. I also had 12 terms to study, 8 of which were on the exam. There was 8% extra credit on this exam if you got everything I believe. The midterm/final were given a week or two in advance. Both had several straightforward prompts to choose from. For each "exam," you pick two prompts and write 3-4 page essays for each one, 6-8 pages total. Honestly, he has answered these prompts already in his lectures in his class if you paid attention. His essays do not take a terrible amount of creativity. You just have to make sure you synthesize all the sources that are relevant to the prompt in a way that makes sense. Your thesis should make sense. Don't include any cliches or flowery language - just be straightforward and answer the prompt, he hates filler. He assigns like 100-200 pages of reading every week. I didn't do any of them until the midterms/finals were assigned and I turned out fine. Honestly, it'd be helpful to skim them week to week so you don't get overwhelmed come essay time. You can't completely BS the sources, as he's fully familiar with them and several of them are his or his wife's own writings. The man is chill, but take him seriously. ALL THE READINGS ARE AVAILABLE ONLINE FOR FREE ONE WAY OR ANOTHER! He provides like half of them, the others you can find with some smart Googling. You do not need to purchase anything. A strong command of the English language, citing every relevant source, and paying attention/participating in class should get you far. He responds to emails relatively quickly and will even look at your introduction/thesis for you if you email it to him. I highly recommend communicating with him so you don't do something stupid on the essays. He's a pretty chill guy. He acts like he's harder than he is, I think, but the work is straightforward enough. Occasionally, his lectures can get a bit dry and off track. He'll spend too long on a point that isn't too pertinent. Not a big deal though. He has some funny anecdotes.
Most Helpful Review
This class requires a lot of reading which would not be so difficult if the book had a concrete structure. The chapters that are written by Hovannisian are all over the place. He puts so much information and so many facts but at the same time he forgets to explain them. Sometimes he talks about different dates in the same paragraph and makes it hard to follow the reading. The book is very dense and covers a lot of material. Take a lot of notes during lecture. He goes back and forth between events and this can make the lectures more and more confusing. You have a midterm and a final and a book summary. The book summary is about the book that his grandson wrote. It's not the best book. It has a series of disjointed thoughts and ideas and can improve a lot in structure. It seems as though his grandson was thinking while as he was writing the book. The midterm and final are not too bad. Just make sure to write a great essay. He tests you in an I.D. format so be sure to have a clear essay and a clear thesis. he gives study guides so be sure to go over those and write out the essays and memorize them. He knows a lot of info and is educated but when it comes to lecturing, I can say that there are better professors. Yes he knows his stuff, but he does not know how to articulate that so you can follow his lecture. He may be rude and blunt at times but he is nice guy.
This class requires a lot of reading which would not be so difficult if the book had a concrete structure. The chapters that are written by Hovannisian are all over the place. He puts so much information and so many facts but at the same time he forgets to explain them. Sometimes he talks about different dates in the same paragraph and makes it hard to follow the reading. The book is very dense and covers a lot of material. Take a lot of notes during lecture. He goes back and forth between events and this can make the lectures more and more confusing. You have a midterm and a final and a book summary. The book summary is about the book that his grandson wrote. It's not the best book. It has a series of disjointed thoughts and ideas and can improve a lot in structure. It seems as though his grandson was thinking while as he was writing the book. The midterm and final are not too bad. Just make sure to write a great essay. He tests you in an I.D. format so be sure to have a clear essay and a clear thesis. he gives study guides so be sure to go over those and write out the essays and memorize them. He knows a lot of info and is educated but when it comes to lecturing, I can say that there are better professors. Yes he knows his stuff, but he does not know how to articulate that so you can follow his lecture. He may be rude and blunt at times but he is nice guy.
AD
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