The professor is an engaging lecturer, and nice enough on a personal level. I've never loathed a class like this one, though. I've experienced my fair share of ideologues in the classroom, but her dogmatism was on another level.

If learning about social justice movements, the "global south", etc., is your thing, then this class is for you (I'm serious: you won't find someone better). Considering many of the students were borderline sycophantic, most people evidently got the memo before enrolling - unfortunately for my sanity, I wasn't one of them. If you have illusions about studying urban planning, as I did, best go elsewhere: other than a handful of swipes at Robert Moses, Le Corbusier, and Haussmann (which is standard practice at UCLA anyway) this class had nothing to do with planning.

Exams were straightforward, and the TA was great. Course reader was laughably expensive, especially for a class that often touched on the "neoliberalization of the university", but I digress.

Update: Book still available as of 03/16/17

Selling Course Reader for Urban Planning/Social Welfare M110
$60
If interested please contact me at jsifuentes.bruin@gmail.com