Professor Kapust is very passionate, well-spoken, and involved with his students. His lectures are engaging, and he is very easy to connect with outside of class. I learned a lot from him and appreciated his focus on essays, not tests. But--and this is more on my TA than him--most of my essays weren't graded by the time my final grade was due!

The number one thing to know about Kapust is that he's REALLY funny. His lectures are super engaging. However, the course material is incredibly difficult to read. The class is literally just writing, so if you don't like writing, don't take him. Overall, as somebody who vastly prefers papers to exams, PS160 was incredibly enjoyable to me.

100000/10 recommend Professor Kapust. So funny and charismatic.

1000000/10 recommend. So funny and charismatic!

Professor Kapust is an awesome professor and his lectures were very engaging. In lecture, Professor Kapust will "role play" as the political philosopher and answer questions from the perspective of the philosopher. Very funny and interesting guy. You write 3 papers throughout the semester which are challenging but are graded pretty lightly.

Professor Kapust is awesome! He starts every lecture with good music that relates to the ideas we're discussing at the time. His sense of humor is much appreciated in my first class of the morning. He takes on the persona of whatever political thinker we're reading for the sake of answering questions from the perspective of the philosopher himself.

Prof Kapust is passionate about his content and it really shows in his lectures. He picks great pieces for us to study (which are all available as free PDFs) and he spends all of class acting and speaking as the theorist we are studying to help conceptualize. His midterms are two papers (easy) and the final was two long essay questions.

Prof Kapust is an amazing lecturer, all lectures were very engaging. Texts are boring unless you are very interested in the content but lectures dissect the texts very well. We had weekly discussion posts, peer responses, as well as 2 main essays, and a final essay.

Took this class to fulfill a humanities requirement, but it is boring (unless you like to learn about philosophers). Professor himself is great and easy to approach. However, for papers that are a big part of your grade, directions were not clear. Lots of reading in order to get a good grade in discussion section.

Grading criteria for the essays was super unclear and they didn't really reflect our knowledge of the course content. Lectures weren't super helpful, but discussion sections were.

Prof Kapust is incredibly engaging. His lectures were interesting and really helped me to understand the material. The TA is the one who grades the papers so if your TA is a tough grader the class is a little harder, but the professor is great!

Kapust is a phenomenal teacher - his lectures consisted of him roleplaying as the different authors we read and debating with us to get us to better understand the reading. Most assignments/grading are handled by the TAs in this class though.

Prof Kapust is amazing. Don't be intimidated by all the books assigned, as Prof Kapust's lectures are basically summaries. I would still get the books to use for paper quotations, but I did not end up reading a lot. My TA held engaging discussions and also provide summary sheets of the readings. Try your best and be a good writer and you'll do fine

AMAZING! so fun!!!

The lectures are nice because it's very obvious that he knows what he's talking about, but you really have to pay attention. The readings are super long, and hard to understand. He never responds to emails, which is irritating because if you miss a lecture, there's no way to make it up.

Professor Kapust was an amazing lecturer and honestly a great person overall. There are a lot of assigned readings but if you attend lecture he explains each one extremely well. I got away without reading a lot of the books and still felt like I had a solid grasp on the material. Grading is also very fair.

I liked DJK, however he was a little intimidating outside of class, as his demeanor indicated that he didn't really want to talk to you. In class, however, he is very clear and concise about the specific theorists views are. Class is based off of 2 papers and a final, but I would take this class again. My TA was really good, as well.

I highly doubt I will come across many professors as phenomenal as Kapust again. He managed to make even the most dry topics so insanely engaging that I'd honestly attend some of his lectures just for fun. If you have a chance, take a class with him. You will not regret it.

Fantastic Prof. and class, amazing lectures and fair assignments. Truly one of my best experiences in education, wish he could teach every course at UW. Great guy.

I've taken 3 classes with Kapust and all have been phenomenal. He is engaging and constructs courses in a really interesting way, and manages to create a very productive discussion environment while still being a reasonable grader. These are the types of classes that give you reason to be a social science major.

At first I thought the acting shtick would be gimmicky, but he pulls it off well. The lectures were some of the most interesting and engaging I've had. If you want to do well you'll still have to read, but the workload is not unrealistically difficult. Highly recommend.

Kapust is arguably one of the most engaging lecturers I have had at Madison and really boils down the concepts you need to grasp from the readings. For some of the major texts I would advise reading but the smaller ones you really don't need to. I don't think I would gave enjoyed the class if he weren't the professor.

PS160 with Daniel Kapust was a solid class, the readings are done, but Daniel helps students really understand the key takeaways from the books.

Kapust is an interesting and engaging lecturer. 160 is by far my favorite poli sci class I have taken so far. I did not do any of the readings. I solely used the books to look up page numbers for papers and discussions.

Prof. Kapust is incredibly engaging, funny, & knowledgeable. Wasn't expecting to enjoy political theory, but his teaching methods & personality really made the class my favorite to go to. Never read any of the books in their entirety, but you will need to use direct text evidence in papers. 2 papers, 1 midterm, discussion homework, and final exam.

Professor Kapust is a phenomenal professor and you can tell he not only is passionate about what he teaches, but cares about his students as well. He cares about how much his students learn as well as that they're interested in the material. Hilarious, great guy. Would recommend.

Professor Kapust lives up to his reviews. His lectures are funny and engaging. I would disagree with reviews that say you don't need to do the reading, you need to do some of it for the papers/discussion/exams. As long as you take notes, you can lean heavily on those. Poli sci kids know how great Kapust is, I think other majors would enjoy him too

There are a TON of "required" books for this class, but I never read any of them because prof Kapust goes over all the content so well in class. The grade is based off of two papers, a midterm, and an exam. The content of the class isn't all that interesting unless you're into philosophy, but he's super funny and managed to keep me engaged in class

I don't care what the subject is just take his class. HIs lecture style is odd at first but so incredibly engaging. He is funny, passionate, and loves when students participate. Also, he talks about his son a lot and it is the cutest thing! Not necessarily an easy A, but definitely attainable if you put in the work.

Kapust has amazing lectures that can make the most boring topics exciting. I would recommend any class with him solely for his lecturing style. This class was reading heavy.

Kapust delivered some of the most engaging lectures I've every heard on this campus. Great professor, great material, great class.

Dr. Kapust has such a great charisma that makes lecture so interesting. He made lectures likable. I never wanted to miss lectures because I learned so much at every lecture. Would recomend having him.

Dr. Kapust gives AMAZING lectures and while they aren't required, I went to every single one of them because they are that engaging. There are a lot of books to read but honestly, I skimmed them and still got an A because of how great the lectures were. He is funny and makes class engaging.

Kapust brings all forms of political theory to life. He is a fantastic lecturer-the best I've had at UW. Everyone who has the opportunity to should take one of his classes.

I have Kapust for Political Theory, and he is easily the best teacher I've had this semester.

Professor Kapust is a funny guy that will make political science enjoyable, even if you don't like the subject. There is a lot of reading, but you can get by without doing it all. He also does a great job at giving unbiased lectures.

Have you ever thought you were eating an oatmeal raisin cookie and then realize it's actually chocolate chip? Yeah, he's that good. Take any and all of his classes!!!

Hilarious and a genius. Really changed the way I thought about political philosophy.

A kind and approachable professor. Had him for both a seminar in the fall and POLS 209 in the spring. His papers are challenging, but are fairly graded and he's incredibly helpful if you reach out to him.

Kapust is the professor that inspired me to major in Political Science. He's incredibly knowledgable in the content, and has a passion for what he teaches. Kapust has a way of explain difficult concepts in a way anyone can understand. Best professor ever.

Amazing lecturer, kind person, and hilarious guy all-around. Must-have professor. Kapust is the man.

Kapust is a fantastic lecturer. He makes the often dense readings clearer and gives great examples that help keep concepts in the mind. Readings are long and not all of the sections are necessarily so go to lecture to know what he is talking about. He is always there for students and is well worth the applause at the end of the semester.

Kapust is THE MAN. Not only is he super knowledgable but he can explain ideas in ways that undergrads understand and relates theoretical concepts with pop culture and contemporary ideas. Very helpful; he'll answer any question you want to ask him and will make you feel like it's a valid question regardless of how stupid it is. Must-have prof at UW

I'm not super into PoliSci, but Kapust made this my favorite class of the semester. He's EXTREMELY smart but very humble about it. He validates everyone's ideas no matter how dumb you sound. Such a sweetie.

I really liked Professor Kapust. He tells adorable stories about his son that relate to what we're learning. He's just really smart and knows what he's talking about.

He is extremely helpful when you are having problems with papers and projects. He is also really funny and makes the class interesting. His class is basically the only class I actually like going to, and he also memorizes your name.

Instruction in this class was always on point and properly paced. Kapust enjoys and understands pop culture too, so there's references and assignments that have you apply political theory concepts to things you normally wouldn't think to but which still work very well conceptually. Bar for an A is high (93.5) but very doable if you attend and try.

Lecture was always interesting and seemed to fly by. The papers are not difficult, but the final exam is cumulative and asks very specific questions. I did all of the readings and did well on the papers, but I ended up with an AB because of the difficult final.

He's engaging and very knowledgable.