| Information | Review |
|---|---|
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Jayson Porter
HIST338R Expecting an A Anonymous 04/29/2026 |
Professor Porter is one of the nicest professors I've had while at UMD. His real life experience with the course content makes it significantly more interesting to read and interact with. While there is a good amount of reading, I've found him to be generous with his grading- most class averages on assignments are high B's. The structure of the course is also very student driven, not a lot of in depth rubrics or specific instructions on the larger assignments, but as long as you put effort into the work you'll do get a good grade. You also definitely do not have to finish every reading assigned in class, and he was very conscious of this later in the semester when he made our weekly readings optional. He's a great person who genuinely wants to see his students succeed and learn. If you're a history major looking for a 300 level course I would highly recommend his class, and if you're at all interested in Environmental Justice or have a correlating major I would say this course (or any course by him) is almost a necessity. |
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Jayson Porter
HIST338L Expecting an A- Anonymous 09/25/2025 |
Professor Porter as a person is a KING. Genuinely such a cool, grounded guy. He is really passionate about the material he's teaching and it shows. I also really enjoyed his lectures as he is really able to tell a good story. However, my one big issue with his teaching style is his reliance on readings to teach the content. He expects you to have read + taken notes on one-two readings before every class. This typically amounts to 60-70ish pages of reading per week. And these readings are DENSE. They're mostly academic papers so they're not necessarily easy reads. He does a reading quiz once a week which takes up almost half the class. And also the content of these readings comes up in the exams as well. So in large part you are graded on your understanding of these readings. Because of the quantity of readings expected, I personally struggled to engage with and really synthesize all of it. I also think Professor Porter is genuinely such a talented teacher so I wish he would teach more of the content himself, rather than relying so heavily on the readings to do the teaching. This way, students would be able to engage more with the content, ergo learn more! |