Ampson Hagan | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Ampson Hagan ANTH265 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/11/2025	Under no circumstances should you ever take ANTH265 with Dr. Hagan unless it is required. Over the course of the semester, we were given 5 papers to write, and they weren't very short either. It started at 3 pages, but then by the end of the semester the papers worked their way up in length and ranged from 6 to 10 pages on the final one. A vast majority of them we were either given no instruction at all on how to write them or the instructions were incredibly vague and hard to fully grasp. I consistently got 3.5/5 and 4/5 on them. They were only assigned starting at the midpoint of the semester so they were basically due back to back to back. In addition, we were quizzed weekly on the readings. 2 Questions each. If you got a single question wrong, it would drop your entire grade for the course by 2-3%, although they did drop the 2 lowest quiz grades, so at least that's a plus. Past reviews say his exams are easy. There aren't any (Anymore, at least). I genuinely would have rather taken exams than do 5 long papers one after the other. I took this class because I thought it would be an easy elective, but it ended up being one of the WORST classes I have ever taken at UMD. Do not take this.
Ampson Hagan ANTH265 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/11/2025	I don't know why people are giving such high reviews. The professor was nice but he kept increasing the word count on the essays. The syllabus stated the essays are 1000 word maximum but he would release announcements after unlocking the assignments that he actually wanted 1500 words minimum. We ended up having to write four 1500 word essays instead of the four 1000 word essays I was expecting. The final paper also has a minimum word count of 3500 words so don't take this class if you can't write long essays. There's also six 250 word discussion posts you need to write but its pretty short. In terms of readings we usually get 3 to 4 readings a week that are 15-20 pages each. The quizzes are easy though and the lowest two scores out of the ten total quizzes get dropped which is nice I guess, but they're easy enough that you don't really need it.
Ampson Hagan ANTH265 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/18/2024	Ampson Hagan is very passionate about what he teaches. He clearly has a lot of interest in anthropology and his lectures accurately reflect that. The reading was easily the heaviest part of his class, often requiring reading of around 50-70 pages cumulative each week. Reading responses and recitation occurred almost every other week on that week's reading, and were not usually difficult. Participation in recitations is graded relatively heavily, but otherwise, his ANTH265 class is a breeze if you are good at reading and reflections (MCQs were comically easy). He's a great guy who clearly loves what he does.
Ampson Hagan ANTH265 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/16/2024	All we did was attend 2 lectures and submit an essay every other week. I really like Dr. Hagan as a person, but he assigned a very heavy reading-load especially the first half of the semester and made multiple errors on his exams which was stressful for no reason. Otherwise, not a super hard class, just skim the readings and turn in all the work.
Ampson Hagan ANTH265 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/12/2024	Pros: Prof. Hagan is very knowledgeable and does a good job trying to make his lectures engaging. The curriculum is pretty manageable (I'd rather have midterms than group projects) and the TA's were accommodating if you needed to submit the reading responses late. TBH, you don't really need to read all the readings to understand what's going on in the class / complete assignments so even though there are a lot of them it didn't really matter. Cons: The class is not really taught in a unbiased manner. Most of the content is approached / displayed in a liberal worldview which I expected as we're in college but was still disappointing. Prof. Hagan also had issues with incorrect answers on exams which he did correct but were annoying in the moment.
Ampson Hagan ANTH265 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/05/2024	Dr. Hagan is a great professor who is very knowledgeable and well-versed in social justice and anthropologic issues. I found the lectures and course content interesting, topical, and engaging (even as someone not majoring in public health or anthropology). The curriculum is very manageable, so you will do well as long as you keep up with lectures, assignments, and readings. I recommend this course with Dr. Hagan!
Ampson Hagan ANTH265 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/03/2024	Dr. Hagan is very nice and very passionate about Anthropology which makes his lectures interesting and easy to follow. The tests are all online and you have 24 hours to complete them. The reading responses are short and easy. There is a lot of reading assigned but you really just need to skim them and understand the main idea. Dr. Hagan is very understanding and lenient and I highly recommend taking him for this course.

Ampson Hagan
ANTH265

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/11/2025

Under no circumstances should you ever take ANTH265 with Dr. Hagan unless it is required. Over the course of the semester, we were given 5 papers to write, and they weren't very short either. It started at 3 pages, but then by the end of the semester the papers worked their way up in length and ranged from 6 to 10 pages on the final one. A vast majority of them we were either given no instruction at all on how to write them or the instructions were incredibly vague and hard to fully grasp. I consistently got 3.5/5 and 4/5 on them. They were only assigned starting at the midpoint of the semester so they were basically due back to back to back. In addition, we were quizzed weekly on the readings. 2 Questions each. If you got a single question wrong, it would drop your entire grade for the course by 2-3%, although they did drop the 2 lowest quiz grades, so at least that's a plus. Past reviews say his exams are easy. There aren't any (Anymore, at least). I genuinely would have rather taken exams than do 5 long papers one after the other. I took this class because I thought it would be an easy elective, but it ended up being one of the WORST classes I have ever taken at UMD. Do not take this.

Ampson Hagan
ANTH265

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/11/2025

I don't know why people are giving such high reviews. The professor was nice but he kept increasing the word count on the essays. The syllabus stated the essays are 1000 word maximum but he would release announcements after unlocking the assignments that he actually wanted 1500 words minimum. We ended up having to write four 1500 word essays instead of the four 1000 word essays I was expecting. The final paper also has a minimum word count of 3500 words so don't take this class if you can't write long essays. There's also six 250 word discussion posts you need to write but its pretty short. In terms of readings we usually get 3 to 4 readings a week that are 15-20 pages each. The quizzes are easy though and the lowest two scores out of the ten total quizzes get dropped which is nice I guess, but they're easy enough that you don't really need it.

Ampson Hagan
ANTH265

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/18/2024

Ampson Hagan is very passionate about what he teaches. He clearly has a lot of interest in anthropology and his lectures accurately reflect that. The reading was easily the heaviest part of his class, often requiring reading of around 50-70 pages cumulative each week. Reading responses and recitation occurred almost every other week on that week's reading, and were not usually difficult. Participation in recitations is graded relatively heavily, but otherwise, his ANTH265 class is a breeze if you are good at reading and reflections (MCQs were comically easy). He's a great guy who clearly loves what he does.

Ampson Hagan
ANTH265

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/16/2024

All we did was attend 2 lectures and submit an essay every other week. I really like Dr. Hagan as a person, but he assigned a very heavy reading-load especially the first half of the semester and made multiple errors on his exams which was stressful for no reason. Otherwise, not a super hard class, just skim the readings and turn in all the work.

Ampson Hagan
ANTH265

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/12/2024

Pros: Prof. Hagan is very knowledgeable and does a good job trying to make his lectures engaging. The curriculum is pretty manageable (I'd rather have midterms than group projects) and the TA's were accommodating if you needed to submit the reading responses late. TBH, you don't really need to read all the readings to understand what's going on in the class / complete assignments so even though there are a lot of them it didn't really matter. Cons: The class is not really taught in a unbiased manner. Most of the content is approached / displayed in a liberal worldview which I expected as we're in college but was still disappointing. Prof. Hagan also had issues with incorrect answers on exams which he did correct but were annoying in the moment.

Ampson Hagan
ANTH265

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/05/2024

Dr. Hagan is a great professor who is very knowledgeable and well-versed in social justice and anthropologic issues. I found the lectures and course content interesting, topical, and engaging (even as someone not majoring in public health or anthropology). The curriculum is very manageable, so you will do well as long as you keep up with lectures, assignments, and readings. I recommend this course with Dr. Hagan!

Ampson Hagan
ANTH265

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/03/2024

Dr. Hagan is very nice and very passionate about Anthropology which makes his lectures interesting and easy to follow. The tests are all online and you have 24 hours to complete them. The reading responses are short and easy. There is a lot of reading assigned but you really just need to skim them and understand the main idea. Dr. Hagan is very understanding and lenient and I highly recommend taking him for this course.