Historical instructor

MICHAEL LIGHT

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.47/5 from 19 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
I'll start off by saying that the reviews talking about his ego were not exaggerated. If you ignore that, overall he's a pretty great professor. Super knowledgeable, expectations for assignments and exams are typically quite clear, also he's pretty funny. I'd recommend you take the class, the topic is super interesting and he teaches it well.
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Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
He is super intense but actually so fun in lecture I really like him. His papers are pretty easy but the tests are so detailed so make sure you know your stuff. So many graphs to remember which is hard but the content is interesting.
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Quality 3/5Difficulty 2/5
I could never tell if I liked light or not, dude has an ego on him and it comes out during lecture. I did appreciate how much he made us think and reflect on issues, and the assignments and exams were pretty straightforward.
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LEGST440 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
This class is incredibly fascinating and presents information unlike any college class I've taken before. Light presents on his own research and is clearly passionate about his work. The class is only graded on 2 exams and 2 papers, which are all decently challenging, but what you would expect from a class on such complex and dense topic matter.
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LEGST440 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
This class with Light is one of the best classes I have ever taken at this university. The content truly changed my ability to critically think about material and what is going on in the world. There's a fair amount of reading, but the exams are fair. Only two essays throughout the semester. Highly recommend this class!
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with MICHAEL LIGHT

LEGALST 682 is an individual study course for majors writing theses for an honors degree.

No offering record · Spring 2026

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sample

Recorded teaching history

Distinct courses recorded per term

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Spring 2026LEGALST 682Senior Honors Thesis
Fall 2025LEGALST 681Senior Honors Thesis
Spring 2025C&ESOC/SOC 875Special Topics
Spring 2025CHICLA/LEGALST/SOC 443Immigration, Crime, and Enforcement
Fall 2024CHICLA/LEGALST/SOC 440Ethnicity, Race, and Justice
Fall 2024SOC 700Introductory Proseminar for Graduate Students
Spring 2024CHICLA/LEGALST/SOC 443Immigration, Crime, and Enforcement
Fall 2023C&ESOC/SOC 875Special Topics
Fall 2023CHICLA/LEGALST/SOC 440Ethnicity, Race, and Justice
Fall 2023SOC 700Introductory Proseminar for Graduate Students
Spring 2023CHICLA/LEGALST/SOC 443Immigration, Crime, and Enforcement
Fall 2022C&ESOC/SOC 875Special Topics
Fall 2022CHICLA/LEGALST/SOC 440Ethnicity, Race, and Justice
Fall 2022SOC 700Introductory Proseminar for Graduate Students
Spring 2022CHICLA/LEGALST/SOC 443Immigration, Crime, and Enforcement
Spring 2022SOC 441Criminology
Fall 2021C&ESOC/SOC 875Special Topics
Fall 2021CHICLA/LEGALST/SOC 440Ethnicity, Race, and Justice
Fall 2020CHICLA/LEGALST/SOC 440Ethnicity, Race, and Justice
Fall 2020LEGALST 681Senior Honors Thesis
Spring 2020C&ESOC/SOC 875Special Topics
Spring 2020CHICLA/LEGALST/SOC 440Ethnicity, Race, and Justice
Spring 2020CHICLA/LEGALST/SOC 443Immigration, Crime, and Enforcement
Fall 2019C&ESOC/SOC 875Special Topics
Fall 2019CHICLA/LEGALST/SOC 440Ethnicity, Race, and Justice
Fall 2019SOC 441Criminology
Fall 2019SOC 699Directed Study
Spring 2019CHICLA/LEGALST/SOC 443Immigration, Crime, and Enforcement
Fall 2018CHICLA 530Advanced Topics in Chicanx/e and Latinx/e Studies
Fall 2018LEGALST 699Directed Study
Fall 2018SOC 441Criminology
Fall 2018SOC 496Topics in Sociology
Spring 2018CHICLA 530Advanced Topics in Chicanx/e and Latinx/e Studies
Spring 2018CHICLA 699Directed Study
Spring 2018LEGALST 400Topics in Legal Studies and the Social Sciences
Spring 2018SOC 496Topics in Sociology
Spring 2018SOC 699Directed Study

Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.

Instructor identity & provenance
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