Gold[POLS W3921] American Politics Seminar: First Amendment and Censorship
Departments: Political Science
Professors: Robert Amdur
June 03, 2011
Amdur, Robert 
[POLS W3921] American Politics Seminar: First Amendment and Censorship
There's a lot of good material in this class, interesting cases, etc. Almost all the readings are cases.
You'll enjoy the course if you can pay attention, which is sometimes tough because Amdur is a boring speaker. (If very smart, and decidedly not boring, outside of class.) And--this is a blessing and a curse--he doesn't really care if you participate in class. I suppose it helps to talk, but he's never going to make you say (or read) anything.
So his readings were always the first chunks of my homework load I skipped, and you might skip them too. This is somewhere in between a relief and a disappointment. You'll never get tested on them, though.
The course then reduces to the final paper, which was actually a blast to write. It's long (20-25 pp.) and requires you to dig through case law and scholarship. But he'll give you leeway in picking the topic so that you might find something which really interests you.
So, weirdly enough, if you don't do the reading and don't participate in class, you'll still have a worthwhile independent research project to do. Maybe he designed it that way.
50-60 pp. of reading per week (light!), no writing aside from giant term paper, which comprises all of your grade. He'll grade them tough, but he'll give you any extension you want to work on them.
April 21, 2004
Amdur, Robert
[POLS W3921] American Politics Seminar: First Amendment and Censorship
Please keep in mind that this review is more than 5 years old.
Lovely man, very very smart, terrific knowledge of the texts, interested to learn from his students. Does a remarkable job of directing the seminar while allowing it to go wherever students want to take it - but that place is always interesting. Also constantly available and responsive outside of class. Plus, cool baseball memorabilia in his office.
Standard seminar paper - 20-25 pages. Happy to let students write on basically whatever they want, and it's true that you can turn in the paper basically whenever. Always prepared for class, covers the readings, but isn't going to be terribly upset if you are occasionally unprepared or don't show up.
January 26, 2003
Amdur, Robert
[POLS W3921] American Politics Seminar: First Amendment and Censorship
Please keep in mind that this review is more than 5 years old.
At first, he seems like he'll be strict and somber, but Professor Amdur is actually a very dryly funny guy, who is always glad to talk to ou outside of class and who has a very warm way of running a class discussion. Manages to let stronger personalities indulge themselves without destroying the class, and gives the students a lot of say in what they study-- which is good, because it's a seminar. clearly has a lot of scholarship backing up whatever he says, but his opinions are not set and his mind is open, so you can still surprise him and have a good conversation that won't necessarily turn into a debate. He has wide familiarity with different legal texts, which he uses to produce great readers for the class.
normal 20-25 page seminar paper, topic of your choice. he's very good at giving help and guidance for your research. Grade almost completely based on the paper. Gives massive extensions, but then takes inordinately long time to grade the papers. it's the beginning of the second week of spring semester and he hasn't posted the grades yet.
Directory Data
| Dept/Subj | Directory Course | Professor | Year | Semester | Time | Section |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| POLS / POLS | POLS POLS W3921: American Politics Seminar: First Amendment | Robert Amdur | 2006 | Fall | R / 2:10- 4:00 PM | 5 |