When registering for classes, incoming freshman may be able to read a course description to find out what the class is like. But that description does not give any insight into how good the professor of the class is.
Many students say the professor makes or breaks a class. A great professor makes a bad class good and a bad professor can make a good class bad. This guide will point out some of GW’s most well-known and popular professors.
For an expert background in an intro level course, students highly recommend professor Sayyed Nasr, who teaches Islam and Mysticism in East and West, both of which are open to freshmen. Hailed as one of the world’s leading experts on Islam, Nasr brings real world experience as well as a lengthy background as a scholar to the classroom.
Nasr spent years as a professor of philosophy and history of science at Tehran University before the Iranian Revolution. Students love his real-world stories that often begin with such phrases as “So, I was saying to the Shah…,” but remark that his prestige as a worldly scholar does not overshadow his classes.
“He’s really modest about his studies,” said junior Chris McLaurin. “Very relaxed, composed and sharp.”
For those students coming to GW to utilize political contacts in D.C., look no further than professor Mark Croatti’s Introduction to Comparative Politics class. A common favorite among students, Croatti’s discussion-based class gives students a look into the real world of comparative politics by visiting embassies in the area and teaching concepts by using current events.
Croatti offers to exchange writing a paper for participating in an internship in the city and his extensive contacts offer many students a gateway to internship positions. Taught on the Mount Vernon campus, Croatti’s classes are capped at 40 students.
Named Washington D.C.’s Professor of the Year in 2006 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement Support of Education, Professor Matthew O’Gara teaches Introduction to Comparative Politics, International Affairs and American Politics.
Students comment that he often finds ways to relate his classes to popular culture, such as explaining how a concept ties in to an episode of South Park or why “Team America” is his favorite movie. O’Gara teaches the popular course Mass Movements and Global Terrorism as an upper-level elective class.
Associate professor Janet Steele uses her real world experience to teach her School of Media and Public Affairs classes. Steele was in Southeast Asia during the tsunami of 2005 and reported from the frontlines as news was breaking. She will be returning from her second stint as a Fulbright Scholar to teach this fall.
One of the most sought-after classes at GW is Steve Roberts’ Media, Politics and Government class in SMPA. Along with the reputation of being a leading Washington political commentator, Roberts brings to the classroom over 35 years of reporting experience covering such events as the antiwar movement and student protests of the 1960s to the presidential campaigns of nine candidates while working at the New York Times.
Roberts is a contributing editor to U.S. News & World Report, and word is that his wife, Cokie Roberts, occasionally teaches his class when he is away. Students interested in Roberts’ class must sign up on a waiting list that is sometimes more than a year long to get into his class.
In addition to large lecture classes, students in their freshman year will be taking a University Writing course featuring an intensive writing and revision process on specific topics in the environment of a small discussion class. Class topics range from “Serious Comics: Graphic Novels and Anim? as History?” to “Food Fights: The Culture Politics of What We Eat.”
Sophomore Danny Barrow recommended assistant professor of University Writing Emily Bliss, citing her class as an interesting introduction-level writing course. Bliss’ UW20 course utilizes literature to focus on questions of race and how it factors into our modern experience of public and private conversations.
