Anyone who's had Simon before knows he's a very chill prof. Attendance is almost always optional. Textbook is highly recommended for this course as it's research-based and you'll want to have a solid background on how to do your final research project. Mandatory course for soci majors, so not sure if a recommendation will help. Take the course with Simon if possible, you get lots of freedom to explore your research interests, and he's around to help with your methodology. I think in addition to the final project there was a midterm about different methods/methodology. It was a take-home, so marked pretty harsh.

Take it with Simon! Buy your books used lol