Professor Florin Curta Reviews
Class Ratings
Professor Rating
Prof: Florin Curta / Fall 2021
Dec 17, 2021
To be specific I took History of Medieval France. This class is tough and very open-ended, for people who want to some of their own thinking for sure. In my opinion, a super worthwhile pursuit as the material is interesting and sets a basis of knowledge in medieval history.
This class covers a fairly large time period, it is taught through in-class lectures. Lots on the French monarchs of every great dynasty, informative of trends in the church at this time and the role it played in medieval history. Talks about (perhaps a bit less) the society and economy at different key times. Each lecture is a bit different, was never boring to me.
Dr. Curta's lectures are pretty interesting and it's obvious he's passionate about history. He definitely sets his class up as a challenge to his students but offers extra credit and fairly clear guidelines.
I would recommend taking detailed notes and doing the readings if you can, the quizzes are surprise quizzes (though I often guessed when they were going to be, you kinda just get a sense.) These quizzes often have questions based on the primary sources in the readings that he also does discuss in class. Try to get the bigger picture of what he's saying rather than just the specific details as well, he won't give the big picture or any kind of summary, your left to do that part on your own. Maybe lecture summaries could help? There's also extra credit to be had if you discuss it with him!