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However, his lectures are quite boring. He is very willing to help outside of class, which I appreciated very much. This class wasn't time consuming at all, we just had 2 midterms and a final essay. If you want a general synopsis of Africa, take this class!","source_url":"https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/1428110","quality_rating":4,"difficulty_rating":2},{"observed_at":"2026-09-07 16:14:21.131290+00:00","run_id":"20260907T155543-ce3781c4","source_review_id":"UmF0aW5nLTM1NjU1MTU1","source_instructor_id":"rmp:1428110","instructor_name":"Neil Kodesh","course_label":"HIS277","course_id":null,"course_uid":null,"review_date":"2021-12-26 03:49:05 +0000 UTC","comment":"Neil Kodesh is a very knowledgeable about African history - however, he is a very boring lecturer. He has weekly quizzes of varying levels of difficulty, and there are weekly readings (a lot of them). There are two essays which are graded difficultly but fairly.","source_url":"https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/1428110","quality_rating":4,"difficulty_rating":4},{"observed_at":"2026-09-07 16:14:21.131290+00:00","run_id":"20260907T155543-ce3781c4","source_review_id":"UmF0aW5nLTM0MTk2NzI5","source_instructor_id":"rmp:1428110","instructor_name":"Neil Kodesh","course_label":"HIST277","course_id":null,"course_uid":null,"review_date":"2020-12-25 07:04:03 +0000 UTC","comment":"Prof. Kodesh is a fine professor and definitely knowledgeable, but I felt that the class was not worth it. Half the lectures were given by guest lecturers (other profs in the department) and the class, while interesting, wasnt memorable compared to others. Your grade came down to your TA (mine was horrible), so Ill give Neil an average rating.","source_url":"https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/1428110","quality_rating":3,"difficulty_rating":3},{"observed_at":"2026-09-07 16:14:21.131290+00:00","run_id":"20260907T155543-ce3781c4","source_review_id":"UmF0aW5nLTMyNzE5NjI2","source_instructor_id":"rmp:1428110","instructor_name":"Neil Kodesh","course_label":"AFRICAN277","course_id":"AFRICAN/AFROAMER/ANTHRO/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SOC 277","course_uid":"course_8631503d4d0f27878d0e43c9","review_date":"2019-12-19 17:46:55 +0000 UTC","comment":"Neil is an amazing professor and I learned so much about Africa in general from this course, definitely recommend; however, a 75 minute lecture with him talking the whole class period is TERRIBLE. 30 minutes in, I begin falling asleep. You have to attend lecture in order to do good on the assignments, but great course.","source_url":"https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/1428110","quality_rating":5,"difficulty_rating":2},{"observed_at":"2026-09-07 16:14:21.131290+00:00","run_id":"20260907T155543-ce3781c4","source_review_id":"UmF0aW5nLTMyNjUzMjU0","source_instructor_id":"rmp:1428110","instructor_name":"Neil Kodesh","course_label":"HIST277","course_id":null,"course_uid":null,"review_date":"2019-12-14 02:30:03 +0000 UTC","comment":"Note that all of Neil's classes with the 277 tag are the same one, it's crosslisted as several different things. His lectures are incredibly informational (if a bit dry), so though attendance isn't mandatory you'll struggle a lot if you don't go. Lots of reading, but it's fairly easy and you can get away with skipping it fairly often.","source_url":"https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/1428110","quality_rating":4,"difficulty_rating":3},{"observed_at":"2026-09-07 16:14:21.131290+00:00","run_id":"20260907T155543-ce3781c4","source_review_id":"UmF0aW5nLTMxMjEwMTg4","source_instructor_id":"rmp:1428110","instructor_name":"Neil Kodesh","course_label":"AFRICA277","course_id":null,"course_uid":null,"review_date":"2019-01-06 22:00:29 +0000 UTC","comment":"This was probably the most boring class I've ever taken. He doesn't post slides at all, so it's pretty necessary to go to lecture to gather information for the essays. The whole class is graded on three essays and participation, so no final, which was probably the best part of the class. The class wasn't really difficult overall, just really boring","source_url":"https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/1428110","quality_rating":2,"difficulty_rating":2}],"total":24,"page":1,"courses":[{"course_uid":"course_8631503d4d0f27878d0e43c9","course_id":"AFRICAN/AFROAMER/ANTHRO/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SOC 277"},{"course_uid":"course_f58a2befed3ba544f80bedc5","course_id":"HISTORY 283"}],"matched":true},"socialImage":false}}