<p>What's the verdict?</p>
<p>Best as in researching? – or as in lecturing?</p>
<p>Best as in teaching? – or as in giving out A’s?</p>
<p>Best as in grade curving? – or as in being in touch with the class?</p>
<p>I’d prefer to learn something, rather than get into debates about political theory. If it helps I am a transfer who was just accepted into ERC, so I’d like to have a nice balance between my major coursework (poli sci) and MMW.</p>
<p>I had Craig Burnett for POLI 10. He was good.</p>
<p>I had Craig Burnett too (POLI 10).</p>
<p>Does he teach any other courses? According to UCSD’s articulation agreement with my community college, I have satisfied the requirements for POLI 10 and 12</p>
<p>I doesn’t have him listed as teaching anything fall quarter and POLI 10 is the only poli sci class I’ve taken so I couldn’t recommend anybody else. Maybe somebody to look out for in the future though.</p>
<p>Okay honestly, Burnett is just okay compared to other polisci professors.</p>
<p>Check out Joel Johnson (comparative politics). He REALLY teaches you how think.</p>
<p>I only had one poli professor, Fisk. He was amazing, but I’m not sure if he teaches any upper div or just lower div.</p>
<p>I have Fisk right now for Poli 138d, and he is pretty good. I have heard Mantagna (sp?) is the best though.</p>
<p>Magagna for anything ‘War and Politics’ related</p>
<p>Come on poli sci majors! Give me some input :)</p>
<p>I liked Mares’ class on drug policy, if you’re into that… Magagna will be the universal answer from most people. I personally didn’t like Johnson too much (had him for a lower div). I have Fisk now, and enjoy his class a lot (138D). Schreiber teaches political psychology, but he’s eccentric and openly very liberal, which you may either love or hate. Out of the three 110 series classes this year I liked Goldman the most, but he’s technically from the sociology dept.</p>
<p>Victor Magagna! He is a world-class lecturer and his teaching style will hold your attention for long periods of time (as long as you are at least slightly interested in the course material). I especially like his class “East Asian Political Thought” which is probably POLI 113A. It’s a highly interesting class (to me at least) on how religion, cultural development, and philosophies have shaped how East Asian political entities act. You’ll learn a lot by just paying attention and taking notes; the guy is a genius. Make sure to take all of his classes. They are all 400+ person classes which ALWAYS end up having something like a 100 person waitlist if you end up signing up too late. Pretty easy A too. </p>
<p>I also particularly liked professor Alan Houston, but the classes he taught seemed to be more political theory. </p>
<p>Do take Thad Kousser; he is the best professor if you’re going to take POLI 30 (political inquiry) or California Politics.</p>
<p>Alan Houston was awesome. His books are great reads, too.</p>
<p>Scott Despotato gave a really interesting jobtalk about formal modeling of mudslinging in Latin American political campaigns.</p>