[ANTH V3011] Living in Society

Well I enjoyed this professor. The material can be a bit dry but Weisgrau enjoys what she does and personally that is better than a professor just teaching for the money. If you are a big anthro buff... or if you are just interested I would recommend going to the first class to scope it out

she is horrid. please, if you value the money you spend for your college career, DO NOT take any of her classes. The reading for this class is so interesting, and dense, but it class discussions inevitabely lead to Weisgrau's favorite Friends episode.. like when rachel is looking at her sonogram.. Sadly this is where discussions on 300 pages of reading leads to.
She's just a bad teacher and is socially awkward. Its okay to talk about friends or even movies in class and to joke about it.. but not when youre not funny, arrogant, and generally difficult to like. She's socially awkward, and theoreticallly speaking, an anthropological dinosaur. She is uninterested in your paper making a point. RIghtly so, she is fed up with students probelmatizing everything that an anthropologist says. But she does this, i feel, to everyone, no matter how convincing the argument, no matter the student. She just likes to disagree with everything, and to hear herself give recommendations, advisories, etc. Its a bit maternal, very unprofessional.. generally bad professor ettiquette. Shes kinda of the nagging annoyign mother that you're glad you never had. In essence she likes to hear herself talk.. which is sad because seh never has anything substantioal to say. She is horrid... please, dont take this class.

Prof weisgrau's class is exhaustively uninspiring. Not only are you bored, but you are also frustrated by how much money she makes to stand in front of the class to say absolutely nothing important. I tried day after day to try and appreciate her class.. i really tried.

Oh, and she also has bad professor etiquette in that she is condescending and has to disagree with, or qualify, everything anyone says in class, ever. And the sad thing is that whatever she says is either so obvious that it implied, or just plain off topic.

She also speaks toe slowly, meditates on ideas/words, too long, and after this extended silence, never says anything profound.

she;s also an anthropological dinosaur. I feel like shetries really hard to connect with progressive anthropoloigcal (esp cultural anthro) ideas but you can tell that it doenst entirley resonate with her, excite her, the way that it does other professors.

And if you want to develop as a writer, this is not the class for you either. She expects straightforward, uncreative papers.

Lectures tend to be dull, and Prof. Weisgrau's slow, monotone voice doesn't help much... but the class itself was hardly demanding. Reading assignments were dense at first but gradually got more and more interesting and controversial (in vitro fertilization, lesbian step families, female circumcision, etc)... class discussion is what you put into it, so be sure to participate and offer your opinion. Weisgrau herself seems stuffy and distant at first but you'll find that she's extremely understanding and not a bad person at all (and an extremely generous grader, too).

I strongly disagree with the previous reviews. Prof Weisgrau is an extremely knowledgable, fascinating, and enthusiastic professor- maybe one of the best profs I've had! I took the intro course with her and was so happy that I had her again for Living in Society. This lady knows her stuff! She is very enthusiastic about what she teaches, is very clear, and gets her students engaged in what she is talking about. Anthropology itself is a theoretical discipline and some people can't really handle that aspect of it, but Prof Weisgrau makes anthro fun. In Living In Society, she discussed each of the readings clearly, in depth, and was excited to teach the material. The course was more like a discussion in which everyone could contribute their ideas. I totally disagree with the last review, Prof Weisgrau addressed all questions and showed true concern when someone did not understand. On top of the fun dynamic of the course, many students agreed that the reading material was extemely fascinating, and that the prof is very intelligent and approachable. She really wants you to understand. We coud listen to her speak for hours. There is a decent amount of reading, you don't have to do it all for the exams, but you know you're missing out if you don't as the class discussion on the readings get really interesting.
My only minor complaint would be the over emphasis on 'kinship' and 'kinship and biology', (something that she really loves to discuss), but besides that the other topics she discusses with the class are very interesting (i.e new reproductive technologies, new family structures, race/economy/blood and family). You'll learn a lot in this class and can definitely earn an A. A great course, and a wonderful much recommended Professor.

This was, hands down, the worst class of my college career. The professor did not seem to know anything about anthropology, aside from the one basic statement, "kinship is not about biology" which we discussed EVERY DAY OF CLASS. Literally, we never touched on any other topics. The professor lectured at the class as though we were thirteen, even though the majority of the class were anthro majors. Her lectures were rambling and often incoherent, and she wouldn't clarify statements when students asked direct questions. She blows off any intelligent comments that were not directly quoted from the readings, as it appears she does not understand the theories behind the readings she assigns. The readings were interesting, but at a very basic level, unsuitable for an upper level class. All in all, the professor's apparent lack of knowledge about the discipline, her disintrest in intelligent comments, and preference for direct regurgitation on assignments made for the dullest, most uninspiring class offered at Barnard or Columbia. If it weren't required for the Barnard major, I can guarantee no one would ever take it. Stay away at all costs, I actually feel dumber after sitting through a semester of this class. I thought I would get an "A" but since her grading system consists of randomly putting letters on assignments without reading them, I have no idea what to expect. DON'T TAKE THIS CLASS WHATEVER YOU DO!!!