PORTGSE 46
Brazilian Culture and Civilization
Description: Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Taught in English. Topical analysis of cultural history of Brazil in context of Portuguese-speaking world, with emphasis on comparative, trans-Atlantic relations, social development, and artistic manifestations. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - This is the class to take if you are looking for something stress-free and an interesting, new topic to learn. Professor Bivona gives you every chance on Earth to get an A+ in her class. Most of the class is reading articles, chapters of a book, and watching films. Professor Bivona will let you know when a quiz is coming and from what material. There are a few papers which range from a page to 3 pages in length, all very straight forward. Participation is easy, just raise your hand and answer a question every now and again. The group presentations are interesting and everyone must do one. They are pretty easy and should only take a 2-3 hours of group work to complete.
Fall 2019 - This is the class to take if you are looking for something stress-free and an interesting, new topic to learn. Professor Bivona gives you every chance on Earth to get an A+ in her class. Most of the class is reading articles, chapters of a book, and watching films. Professor Bivona will let you know when a quiz is coming and from what material. There are a few papers which range from a page to 3 pages in length, all very straight forward. Participation is easy, just raise your hand and answer a question every now and again. The group presentations are interesting and everyone must do one. They are pretty easy and should only take a 2-3 hours of group work to complete.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2017 - Reasons this class is awesome: 1. It’s about the least boring historical analysis class you can take if you’re like me and you hate writing essays and learning history. I feel like it was even more of social than historical analysis. 2. We screened super interesting movies, saw a beautiful exhibit in a museum, and read a really good novella. 3. In general, readings were pretty short (except the novella, but it was interesting, so it was fine.) 4. The work load was so small. We only had to write five 3-page essays, two of which constituted the final. Plus, we had a significant amount of freedom to choose our essay topics. Also, the prompts were really interesting. 5. The class is basically four weeks of material stretched over ten weeks. Professor Johnson often repeated the same concepts, and we barely ever used the entire time for class.
Fall 2017 - Reasons this class is awesome: 1. It’s about the least boring historical analysis class you can take if you’re like me and you hate writing essays and learning history. I feel like it was even more of social than historical analysis. 2. We screened super interesting movies, saw a beautiful exhibit in a museum, and read a really good novella. 3. In general, readings were pretty short (except the novella, but it was interesting, so it was fine.) 4. The work load was so small. We only had to write five 3-page essays, two of which constituted the final. Plus, we had a significant amount of freedom to choose our essay topics. Also, the prompts were really interesting. 5. The class is basically four weeks of material stretched over ten weeks. Professor Johnson often repeated the same concepts, and we barely ever used the entire time for class.
Most Helpful Review
Great professor. She actually cares about her students, and lets them learn at there own pace. She doesnt force the information so it is a very enjoyable class. The workload for the class is almost non-existant. She is very understanding. Overall anybody that can take a class for her should, because you will not regret it.
Great professor. She actually cares about her students, and lets them learn at there own pace. She doesnt force the information so it is a very enjoyable class. The workload for the class is almost non-existant. She is very understanding. Overall anybody that can take a class for her should, because you will not regret it.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2015 - I just took the class for an easy GE and it totally was one! But it wasn't just easy, it was pretty interesting too. There was a lot about Brazilian history and culture that I never really knew about-- and I swear to you it's not boring stuff! The teacher is super nice and even though his lectures seem to go a little long, they really aren't that bad! There is barely any reading for this class (NO TEXTBOOK!!) and the quizzes and the final are soooOOOooo easy. The midterm essay is whatever, but I'm just not super great at writing essays in general. I got an A+ in the class it was so easy. But you have to go to class.
Fall 2015 - I just took the class for an easy GE and it totally was one! But it wasn't just easy, it was pretty interesting too. There was a lot about Brazilian history and culture that I never really knew about-- and I swear to you it's not boring stuff! The teacher is super nice and even though his lectures seem to go a little long, they really aren't that bad! There is barely any reading for this class (NO TEXTBOOK!!) and the quizzes and the final are soooOOOooo easy. The midterm essay is whatever, but I'm just not super great at writing essays in general. I got an A+ in the class it was so easy. But you have to go to class.
Most Helpful Review
Dr. Thomas was very professional, thorough, and informative. Her class was extremely interesting, and I learned a great deal about Brazilian culture from the excellent readings that she assigned and her good lectures. Definitely choose her for a class if you're interested in the subject material (or if you have to take it).
Dr. Thomas was very professional, thorough, and informative. Her class was extremely interesting, and I learned a great deal about Brazilian culture from the excellent readings that she assigned and her good lectures. Definitely choose her for a class if you're interested in the subject material (or if you have to take it).
Most Helpful Review
I also took this class as a GE and it was totally useless. There was no point in attending class because your whole grade was based on a term paper and summaries that you had to turn in at the end of the quarter. It took the professor until May 3 to turn in the grades for the Winter quarter. So you can see he wasn't exactly very quick about turning them in and he never actually gave anything back that was graded so you have no idea on how he is going to grade any of your stuff. Totally useless class, avoid if possible.
I also took this class as a GE and it was totally useless. There was no point in attending class because your whole grade was based on a term paper and summaries that you had to turn in at the end of the quarter. It took the professor until May 3 to turn in the grades for the Winter quarter. So you can see he wasn't exactly very quick about turning them in and he never actually gave anything back that was graded so you have no idea on how he is going to grade any of your stuff. Totally useless class, avoid if possible.
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