William Nash

The course material is engaging, and the professor is clearly passionate and highly knowledgeable about country music, which makes lectures enjoyable and informative. However, the workload is quite heavy. The course requires 11 essays, each 3–5 pages long, plus a final 7–10 page research paper. Writing that much on a single subject can become repetitive, and by the later essays (especially around essay #9), it can feel like a real slog to come up with new material or angles. Another drawback is the course organization. The Canvas page isn’t well-maintained—readings are often uploaded quite late (sometimes the night before class), and assignment prompts or expectations are not always clearly outlined, which can leave students guessing. That said, the professor is approachable and very supportive. They genuinely encourage students to attend office hours and are open to clarifying assignments or discussing ideas, which helps offset some of the organizational shortcomings.

The course material is engaging, and the professor is clearly passionate and highly knowledgeable about country music, which makes lectures enjoyable and informative. However, the workload is quite heavy. The course requires 11 essays, each 3–5 pages long, plus a final 7–10 page research paper. Writing that much on a single subject c …Read more

Nash is super passionate about the topic and lectures were always interesting- class mostly graded by big assignments that could sneak up since Nash rarely talked about them in class- if you space it out tho, the work was manageable

We read a book almost every week, but the discussions always felt pretty engaging. He was also pretty accommodating to the class and would adjust the reading and give extra time if it was clear people weren't keeping up.