Aguibou Y Yansane

Professor Yansane inevitably arrives late to class. Once he arrives, his cell phone is sure to go off. His lectures are taken directly from the assigned reading, which may be a relief to some students because Yansane has not ordered the correct books at the SFSU bookstore. This class also includes three "book review" assignments in which the student must choose a book from a list of 50 he has provided. Most of the books on the second reading list are not available at the bookstore and not available at the local Barnes & Noble - often they are not even printed in this country. I finally had to special order the book I was interested in reviewing online.

Once he is done explaining the scientific method and a few 8th grade tips about writing papers (this is a hypothesis! this is a methodology!) Yansane lectures directly from the IPE book. The other reviewers were not kidding when they pointed out his tendency to place emphasis on random words by YELLING THEM AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS. Bring ear plugs. Better yet, sign in at the beginning of class and then leave, which is what three quarters of the class was doing by the third week. If you stay to hear the lecture, you may be tempted to raise your hand and speak up. When Yansane bothers to address a comment made by a student, he usually begins by bellowing, "NOOOOOOOO!" The rest of the answer is rarely enlightening.

If you can put up with Yansane's lack of organization, surreal outbursts, and dictation directly from the textbook, his class is an easy A. He is a notoriously lenient grader, so it is possible to come out of this class having learned nothing and still bolster your GPA. If you're actually interested in learning something about IPE, for the love of God, take this class with another professor.

The reviews from 1999 are spot on. Always comes in late (which is good if you're always late, because he can't say anything about it). Here is a typical day: He strolls in 10-20 minutes late. Doesn't say a word. Spends 4-7 minutes shuffling through papers looking for something. 50% chance he'll leave the room right then to his office for something he forgot. Speaks with hard-to-understand accent and chicken scratch handwriting though he spells very well, as he is very knowledgable and knows a bunch of languages too. Everything else they talk about in the other reviews is true. When he talks, he will literally yell certain words (sometimes with spittle) while walking up and down the rows of seats and talk so slowly it is almost excruciating. In fact, sometimes his thoughts and sentences are so slow, it is hard to remember what he was originally talking about by the time he finishes. He also ends every sentence with a sound that kind of sounds like the frog from the budweiser commercials; wriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. I'm not sure if he's saying "riiiiiiigggghhhhht?" or if it is just a sound.

AND WORST OF ALL HE DOES NOT TEACH ABOUT RICH AND POOR NATIONS IN THE CLASS. He only teaches about poor African countries. If you want an A in the class, all you have to do is write about how Africa is poor because of debt and the developed world. Focus on Africa and don't use any economic logic no matter what!

I have to start off by sayig that i really like Dr. Yansane as a person and that he is obviously very knowledgeable. Unfortunately, those plusses are somewhat offset by his lecture style which is extreamly loud, abrasive, and difficult to follow. he goes way too fast when he's excited (ie on the important things) and way too slow the rest of the time (the stuff you don't really need to write down). Even if he didn't have such a heavy accent he would be a bit hard to follow.

He also assigns far more reading then any other professor i've had at state, and assigns papers on everything you read to make sure you actually read it, which isn't neccessarilly a bad thing; I took him for International Political Economy, a subject I was already pretty knowledgeable on, and having a lot of readings - and a lot of choice about what i wanted to read - meant that i actually learned some interesting new things that i wouldn't have gotten with most teachers.

as other people have mentioned he does show a lot of movies, and he talks about africa far more then any other area of the world. honestly though I'm ok with both of those things. the movie reviews are extra credit - i didn't do any of them and still earned an A in the class - and it's not every day that one has the chance to learn about african politics and economics from someone who grew up in west africa under french colonial rule.

his grading is tough but fair. if you know the material you'll get an A. if you're used too being able to fluff your way through you'll be dissapointed.

and I don't know why or how the previous reviewer thoguht he had a conservative bias, the man was involved in organizing radical student protests at stanford in the 1960's and he was always very respectful towards students of differing opinions in the class i had with him. He makes an effort to teach both sides of the debate on globalization and economics and i think he did a pretty good job. Sure it's anoying to have to memorize all the neo-liberal free market rhetoric, but neoliberals run all the major international institutions so any discussion of international economics requires an understanding of that material, whether one agrees with it or not.

basically, if it wasn't for his hard-to-follow lecture style i'd have given him an A. as is he get's a well-deserved B+

I believe that Prof. Yansane is a valuable asset to S.F. State. His classes have an intensive workload, but this is to the benefit of all students. Be prepared to do a lot of writing. My best hint would be to read your assigned books very early. I am baffled by the previous review, which stated that he only covers Africa. It is true that,in the first half of the course we did concentrate on Africa (it is his specialty, so I found it very informative), but the second half of the course was on Latin America. His reading list (you must read four books), includes all poor nations.I would gladly take another class from this prof.

Dr. Yansane is an unusual teacher. He consistently arrives ten to twenty minutes late to class. He shows films without discussing their significance and yet expects two to three page reports on them. The material is heavily laden with jargon and the schedule is positively baffling. The books are difficult to obtain. Despite drawing the ire of many students, Dr. Yansane is not a particularly tough grader who places emphasis on style rather than content. Progressive students should also be wary of his conservative bent.

"Rich and Poor Nations" should be retitled, "Poor African Nations" The instructor is very brilliant in knowing his material, but he is very difficult to understand when he talks (he has a very heavy accent, not his fault). Plus he only discusses Africa which seems kind of biased on his part (what about Asia,Latin America,Europe, Mid-East, etc, unless the title changes to the above mentioned name, only discussing Africa is extremely biased (what happened to diversity?). Also, his note writing on the board is so sloppy, but when you ask him what it says, you still don't understand because of his accent. The tests are very difficult essay tests and he assigns you to read many dry, boring books,(which half are written by him). Nothing personal but, I would'nt take this class.