This class is worth taking for the first half alone, but there is a steep drop-off in quality in the second half (i.e., once you pass the 1930's). You start the semester learning about the folklore, mythology, and historical events that inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula, and the professor clearly knows what he's talking about. Towards the end of the semester, however, lectures become more like storytime for the professor to talk about his personal life and whatever he's into at the time; you're mostly watching long anime clips, "analyzing" dozens of images of highly sexualized female cartoon/comic characters, and watching him play a video game. That said, if you're just looking for a fun and easy class, this one has a super light workload of weekly TopHat assignments and two graded outlines. As long as you turn everything in on time, it's an easy A.

Going into this course i had no idea what to expect. Dracula? how can someone make an actual course about a lousy old book?
this course however was fantastic. it was essentially an interdisciplinary approach to how the vampire became a symbol of humanity. The book that is required reading for the course is genuinely very good and the lectures are engaging with a lot of questions sprinkled in. the professor is very forgiving when it comes to course work and needing help though sometimes he'll take sides on an issue when it doesn't matter for the lecture (polyamory for instance). But overall he's a very nice person with a very passable class.
there are a few issues namely with the website used called tophat so prepared to be frustrated from time to time with tophat. he generally fixes those rather quickly though so i don't feel like that counts against him or the class just a mild frustration from time to time.
be prepared for gore of course the class is called dracula so it should be obvious but some of those things were more gorey than my expectations so be prepared.
overall very good class take it if you can!

What else is there to say - this class was an absolute blast. During J-term, you would attend lectures, complete online modules, and participate in a LARP (live action role playing) game at the end that you could get extra credit for if you dressed up. This class also included a trip to a comic book store to explore vampires in media, where the Professor ended up paying for our lunch. Professor Stepanic is wild from start to finish - fully engaging and captivating in his lectures and personal stories, and very effective in teaching the history and folklore behind the topic at hand. I think this class is a must-take if you're a student at UVA.

Prof Stepanic is honestly super weird and one of the least academic professors at UVA. The class itself is really easy and you can basically zone out during class. He requires you to answer questions occasionally through TopHat so pay enough attention to be able to do those during class. The weekly readings are a reiteration of everything he says in class and are more tedious than anything else. It's a mix of watching Youtube clips, matching things up, and searching through texts to fill in the blank. Take it for the easy A. #tCFS25

As some people have already said, this class was honestly really overhyped and I wouldn’t really recommend it. There were a few interesting lectures but overall the content is pretty boring unless ur somehow REALLY interested in how vampires became popularized in media. Homeworks aren’t hard but u can’t miss a single one otherwise you won’t get a good grade in the class. They are pretty repetitive from lecture content too so it felt like more like annoying busywork than anything. The analysis papers we did were also pointless ngl as he requires u to only use scholarly references and connecting those to a plotless game (we analyzed Vampire Survivors this semester which is a pretty recent game too) requires pretty far fetched conclusions to be drawn. Professor Stepanic can be entertaining during class but I don’t think he cares or tries to be understanding or helpful towards his students and is pretty inflexible. I’m pretty sure he just does whatever is easiest for him. Overall, I’ve taken easier, more fun classes and have had way better professors. If you don’t need this class for a requirement, I would just save the time and effort and skip it.

Professor Stepanic is very funny and entertaining, and there were many interesting moments in his class. The first part of the course was more interesting because he'd talk about Salvic folklore and Decadence and such, but the second part was often quite boring, since the lecture would just be about a bunch of different random video games or movies. It was certainly a nice break to be able to go to Dracula, but I wish there had been more flavor towards the end of the year. Also, the in-class questions and textbook questions were uninteresting and not engaging, for the most part.

As someone in the E-School, this class was a really nice break from my more technical classes. When Prof Stepanic teaches, it's almost like listening to an interesting podcast, which makes the time fly a lot faster. The class is structured in a way where if you put in effort, you should get an A. I learned a lot of little things here and there that I hadn't known before and found all the content interesting for the most part, except for the more early history centered content. Prof Stepanic is strict when it comes to using tech during his lectures if you're not taking notes, as he mentions dropping your grade by a letter if you're caught, but I think since the class is so straightforward, easy, and interesting, it's not too much to ask to pay attention for the time being in class. #tCFS24

This class was fun! A little overhyped but wasn't bad at all. Didn't have that much work other than a couple of assignments from TopHat each week and two analyses, which we went over the answers during class. The only negative thing I'd say is that the content was pretty boring up until the last few weeks of the semester. Professor Stepanic was a pretty entertaining lecturer though, so that made it a little bit more interesting. We mainly focused on history for most of the semester, but the class itself was not difficult by any means. I also hated using TopHat. I had so many issues with it throughout lectures and would frequently miss at least one question in almost every class due to connectivity issues or the software itself. That could just be a me problem, but it was really frustrating and bothersome. Other than that, it's a great elective to take. #tCFF23

Easiest class I've taken at UVA and second best, it deserves the hype. Stepanic is chaotic/hilarious, good at responding to emails, lenient with grades and other stuff, and also emphasizes the importance of mental health. There are in-class question you answer through TopHat (he usually tells you the answers), homework questions in the online textbook (v easy questions, just takes like 30-60 mins per chapter), and two analyses, which are basically a list of questions that you answer about a piece of vampire media. Lectures were entertaining (I was never bored) and we learned a lot of cool stuff about the origins of vampires in Slavic folklore and how they turned into what we see on TV today. Take this class!!! #tCFfall22

This class is great! The lectures are weird and interesting, and Professor Stepanic is super funny and a knowledgable person. The only downside is that attendance is mandatory (counted through Top Hat), and there are readings that come with homework questions for credit each week. The class is worth going to though and the homework is not difficult, just feels like a little bit of busy work.