Guntram Herb

Prof. Herb is a great person and clearly passionate about the subject and caring for his students. It's clear he wants us to succeed and doesn't put much pressure on students exam-wise. The course was comprised of 2 very small midterm essays (essay is a strong word), 2 group presentations, and one group paper. All of the assignments were pretty enjoyable, but I personally wouldn't take the course again because of a lack of interest in the material. It was a lot of theoretical geography, which I did not expect, as I didn't really understand how geography classes worked. During class, it was super obvious who didn't do the readings, as the course is fully discussion-based and you were expected to speak essentially every class. I would honestly say attending the class is arguably the most stressful thing about the course, but in all it could have been much worse.

Prof. Herb is a great person and clearly passionate about the subject and caring for his students. It's clear he wants us to succeed and doesn't put much pressure on students exam-wise. The course was comprised of 2 very small midterm essays (essay is a strong word), 2 group presentations, and one group paper. All of the assignments …Read more

Prof. Lee and Prof. Herb were actually some of the best professors I have had all year. It is very clear that they were knowledgeable and extremely passionate about what they were teaching. I was extremely happy to go to class most times because I knew that I would most likely laugh at least one each class. I also gained so much knowledge. Highly recommend!

This class has some aspects which make it very valuable, and in my opinion, very interesting, but a huge portion of the class relies on understanding the jargon which comes with it. That being said though, I found myself referencing what I learned in this class a ton in other classes, namely the fact that borders are everywhere and effect everything, so if you're actually interested in this stuff, you'll take a lot away from this class. I personally am glad I took this class because of this, but I would hate to do it again because of just how much time and effort this class took, so really be sure you know what you're getting yourself into. There are at least 2 hours of readings per class, and while you can sometimes get away with not reading everything, for the midterm essays you really need to understand what was assigned (they're also often dense and not skimmable). The best assignment of the class is when you can choose to make a storymap presentation on any border of your choice, and then later an essay on a related topic. An extra comment I want to give is the irony between the standpoint of the class and its structure. The class highlights the ever presence of borders, and takes a viewpoint that they're bad in a lot of cases (which I'm not disagreeing with), and yet, this class has such a "heavily defended border" (barrier to entry) in learning the jargon that is associated with understanding the course content.

This class has some aspects which make it very valuable, and in my opinion, very interesting, but a huge portion of the class relies on understanding the jargon which comes with it. That being said though, I found myself referencing what I learned in this class a ton in other classes, namely the fact that borders are everywhere and e …Read more