This class was definitely an easy, relaxed GE. You got 10% of your grade given to you just for showing up to discussion, and then you had 3 papers the whole quarter, 30% of your grade each. My TA, Naomi Ellis, was great and met for office hours before the papers were due and was very helpful with answering questions related to the paper. Basically, show up once a week, have 3 nights you stay up writing the whole quarter, and you'll be fine.

I liked this class and would recommend it! Panagia had funny commentary and is an engaging professor. He can ramble a bit and has a lack of slides while also keeping the lights in the lecture hall dim that make staying awake difficult, but sit in the front and have some caffeine before hand and there shouldn't be an issue. Theory definitely isn't for everyone and wasn't for me, especially when they are all from old dead white men, but Panagia is probably the best professor for this course. Really fun final assignments too that involve watching movies and relating them to political theory!

From all of the concentrations in the Political Science department, Political Theory is the one that comes the easiest to me. That said, there will be some bias or a differing of experiences from my part.

Panagia is chill, sometimes sarcastic in class (but with good intentions) and at times engaging. If you do not like Political Theory, the class will be boring.

Panagia for one counts lecture attendance as a grade. Go to lecture. Period. If you need the points then go to lecture. Every week (with the exception of two weeks in the quarter due to a holiday weekend as well as the first week of lecture) he assigns you a 300-400 word essay answering a prompt on the reading he gives you. He goes into detail about the reading in class. Some weeks his lecture really focuses on the prompt topic; other times it does not, so make sure to do the readings or research them. All essays are Pass/No Pass, and the more essays you pass, the higher your grade. If you pass all of them (as well as attend all the lectures and discussions) you are guaranteed an A+.

I ended up with an A+ with little effort from my part (I didn't do all of the readings, I went to lecture, took notes, took notes during discussion and relied on summaries of the texts online), and I primarily give credit to my previous exposure taking philosophy courses that helped me condense my thoughts and avoid adding fluff in my essays.

If you need help with your essays, go to your TA. They will be extremely helpful in guiding you. My TA, Kye, was awesome in discussion, and from talking to some classmates in there, they said that Kye was really helpful during office hours.

If Political Theory is easy for you, then this class will be a breeze. If not, then the extra help from the TAs or the professor will do you well.

This class could have been very interesting but the professor made it super, super confusing and complicated. To start with, his style of lecturing was very hard to follow and take notes to. He had no clear idea of where he was going when teaching so he would just start talking and ramble on. He would go on tangents, jump between ideas, and just make no sense at all. It made learning very difficult. It was like solving a puzzle every time he started talking. The papers he assigned actually weren't too bad. They weren't too long and usually based on a movie you have to watch. They were graded kind of harshly but you can definitely pull them off pretty well (even if you aren't a poli sci major). They were the least bad part of the class. The reading that he assigned was first, way too long and second, pretty confusing. It's normally okay to assign confusing readings if the professor explains it well, which he did not. So, take this class if you feel that you can make out the content without additional help from the professor because he just made everything more confusing than necessary. TA's weren't helpful either.

I was able to learn very much about philosophy, improve my ability to read antiquated works, and discover the origins of many political ideas by taking this course. However, attendance was taken far too seriously.

This was the first class that I took at UCLA an I straight up loved it. Panagia made the material (which I previously thought would be boring) very intriguing and accessible. Lectures were helpful, but honestly where I got most of my fodder for essays was in my discussions with him during office hours. I went to office hours almost every week, and because of that, the essays were exponentially easier for me. The readers were sometimes dry, but Panagia made sure to make them at least a little more clear.

I passed all 8 essays and got an A in the class.

I really enjoyed having Professor Panagia. He always came to lecture with a great sense of humor and was overall enjoyable to listen to (and had great outfits). The readings were extensive but going to discussion definitely helped and your grade was based on 8 essays (300-500 words) and participation in discussion. It was overall a relatively easy class but if you failed anymore than 2 of the essays your grade would seriously suffer. I recommend going to office hours in order to gauge what your TA is looking for in the essays. Personally, I passed all 8 essays and did not find it difficult to write on the prompts given, but I also went to office hours almost every week.

This class was very manageable. I received an A, but I went to every office hour my TA had, The grade consists of 8 essays and thats it, and the TAs grade it with a rubric from Panagia, so go to office hours and they will help you. I didn't go to lecture, I just read the 5 pages of the book that mattered (out of the 60 that were assigned) and then went to office hours and I passed the writing assignments. Good way to start off Poli. Sci.

Final grade: A

As PoliSci major, I enjoyed the class. The professor's an engaging lecturer, and he brings a lot of clarity to the readings, which can be tough to understand at times, especially what their relevance is to political science. The assignments consist of four papers, which have fairly challenging prompts, so it helps to go to lecture to really get the material. There are also some other small grades, like him randomly taking attendance once, a participation grade in discussion, and small pop quizzes in discussion which are easy to ace if you've done the reading. Anyway, I'd recommend taking the class if you have an interest the subject, as Panagia is a very capable professor, and the class has definitely increased my interest in political theory.

This class consists of 4 essays and participation in discussion. Don't be fooled it's a challenging class and Is more of a philosophy class than political science. I would definitely not take it if it is your first class in poly sci. With the grade only being 4 essays it's challenging to get a good grade if you don't do well on one, but having the right TA can make all the difference. I had Aerick and he was great so if you do take the class try to get him