Antoine Borrut

This professor has taught: HIST120, HIST329M, HIST428R, HIST429M, HIST429Y, HIST607, HIST639M, HIST639N, HIST639Y, HIST779E, RELS120, RELS419A, RELS419C, RELS429M

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Antoine Borrut HIST329M Anonymous 04/02/2024	Very engaging professor who is very knowledgeable and excited to instruct. Exam was an essay written in class where you choose between 2 prompts. One qualm I do have is the amount of reading, he regularly assigns ~100 pages per week.
Antoine Borrut HIST120 Anonymous 12/26/2021	This class is SUPER interesting. I think the structure of the class with prerecorded lecture videos taking the place of one class was effective, and I enjoyed that in-person classes only reviewed material from readings and videos. With all of that said, there is quite a lot of reading assigned each week. You definitely do not have to do all of it to get As on every assignment, but the less reading you do as it is assigned, the harder the assignments become. I would not recommend taking this for the Gen-ed (as I did) unless you are very interested in the subject (like I am). There are two quizzes, one paper, and three essays throughout the semester. I highly recommend going to discussions because you get points for participating, and the TA will go over the important parts of the primary sources during this time and you can just skim them in advance.
Antoine Borrut HIST120 Expecting a B+ cubswin 12/27/2012	Borrut is a solid professor. He is very knowledgeable, is easy to talk to, and is good about communicating with the class via elms/email. However, he can be hard to understand, due to his accent and constant voice cracks, and expects too much from his students in a lower level, lecture hall class.
Antoine Borrut HIST120 Expecting an A RedBaron 09/24/2012	One of the best (if not the best) history professors at UMD. Keeps you engaged in lecture and is very helpful during office hours. He is invested in seeing his students do well and has a good sense of humor. HIST120 has a good bit of reading and a lot of dates. Building a chronology is pretty much essential to doing well in the class. However, the material is incredibly interesting and I learned a significant amount about Islamic culture because of it. Easily my favorite class so far at Maryland and highly recommended.
Antoine Borrut HIST120 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/21/2012	I took HIST120 my freshman year and fell in love with Islamic history all because of Professor Borrut. He is one of the top professors at Maryland. Not only does he know what he's talking about, but he passes on that knowledge in an interesting and clear way. He wants you to learn, and it shows. He is extremely available and helping his students excel is his main priority. HIST120 is a basic introduction to early Islamic history, and is not too hard. There are 3 essay exams, but you review in discussion, so you have no reason to be unprepared for the questions. Discussion is mandatory, and you discuss certain readings. You can guess which reading is going to be discussed so you do not need to read them all. I loved Professor Borrut's class so much that I decided to take HIST429Y with him. This class was much more difficult than 120, but it was very interesting and we were able to discuss topics in depth which was great. The readings can be hard to keep up with, but as long as you do 2 of them or are good at bs-ing in class you'll be fine. The papers are only based on that week's readings so don't worry about keeping up with each article in depth. The papers are long but not so difficult. I would recommend giving in a rough draft beforehand for him to look at so you can edit to make it what he is looking for. I'm a business major, and got A's on all of my papers. Overall, if you don't want to work, don't take his class. But if you're looking to learn a lot from an intelligent and attentive professor then I would highly recommend taking a class with Professor Borrut.
Antoine Borrut HIST429Y Expecting a B- Anonymous 01/25/2012	Well, Hist429Y: "Islamic Memory," was a seminar class I took with Professor Borrut in Fall '11. In all honesty, I think I learned more in this class than any class that I've ever taken and I looked forward to it very much; and I'm a senior in History. That being said, however, it was second only to my SENIOR THESIS class in difficulty: two 10pg papers and a final 12pg. Like the other reviews say, he is a nice guy and is very helpful and available, but the level of work required in this class was astounding; also don't be an idiot and plagiarize, a number of people were hit for it. If you're looking for a class where you will profoundly learn something from an expert and aren't afraid of 6-10 readings per week, this is your class; if you are looking for a gimmie class however, do not even waste your time.
Antoine Borrut HIST120 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/15/2011	You can tell he loves the subject. He presents all of the information really clearly and is as balanced as possible. He's also really easy to talk to and is always willing to answer any questions.
Antoine Borrut HIST120 Anonymous 11/05/2009	He is an awesome professor. He is also very approachable, responds back to emails quickly and is always there to help during his office hours.