Burden is genuinely one of my favorite professors at UW. He is so smart and very genuine. He really cares about the subject matter and his students, and not to mention, is super well respected in his field. He cracks a few jokes here and there, and they're pretty funny. Overall, just a great guy with cool dad energy. TAKE HIS CLASS! HES THE BEST!Rate My Professors ↗
Current instructor
Barry Burden
What students say
Original student reviews · all captured dates
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
Professor Burden is great. He makes the issues of elections clear in a digestible and fairly non-partisan format and feels more down-to-earth than most professors. His intelligence is also very clear, but he never felt like he talked down to us. His lectures were quite topical and focused with room for questions/participation. Light readings.Rate My Professors ↗
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
Dr. Burden is probably one of favorite professors at this school. He knows everything about American politics and often does panel talks for the University related to that field. The lectures are interesting and focus on concepts you would cover in a civics class. However, I never opened the textbook, and I'm not even sure why he assigns one.Rate My Professors ↗
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
I took two classes with Professor Burden, and both were great. Exams are most of your grade & draw on readings/lectures, so making sure that you do the readings and know main ideas is really important. Lectures were amazing and taught me a lot, and going over them before exams helps you figure out what the key terms for short ID are going to be.Rate My Professors ↗
Quality 2/5Difficulty 3/5
I enjoyed this class and all of the discussions. This is such an interesting field of study. My only issue with Barry Burden is his lack of staying non bias. While it is clear that he tries to stay non partisan, many times throughout the semester his political side would show which did not help when trying to form your own opinion.Rate My Professors ↗
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
Prof Burden has been the best professor I have had at this school. He is great to talk to and great to listen to. He knows what he is talking about and conveys his knowledge in interesting ways. His research is very interesting and definitely worth a read. I would 100% recommend any of his classes to any student.Rate My Professors ↗
Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.
Classes with Barry Burden
POLISCI 990
Research and Thesis
1–3 creditsResearch and Thesis course taken under the direction of faculty.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
No recorded grade history
POLISCI 999
Independent Work
2–3 creditsIndependent work conducted under the direction of a staff member.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
No recorded grade history
Recorded teaching history
Distinct courses recorded per term
Explore courses taught by this instructor →Browse recorded courses
| Term | Course | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Spring 2027 | POLISCI 990 | Research and Thesis |
| Spring 2027 | POLISCI 999 | Independent Work |
| Fall 2026 | POLISCI 305 | Elections and Voting Behavior |
| Fall 2026 | POLISCI 601 | Proseminar: Topics in Political Science |
| Fall 2026 | POLISCI 699 | Directed Study |
| Fall 2026 | POLISCI 990 | Research and Thesis |
Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.
Instructor identity & provenance
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