ANTH 2270

Professor Fraser is a nice human being. However, that does not translate into her being a good professor. From the start, this class seems like an easy-ish A, but she fails to provide consistent grading and feedback necessary to help students grow. The instructions on her assignments also do not include any grading rubric. For more than half of the semester, we were basically left in the dark about our grades. Further, Professor Fraser is the most disorganized professional I have interacted with. All of the documents she posts are drastically inconsistent in font type, color, and size. Additionally, her lecturing skills are boring and useless. Often, she forgot to record lectures, and the terminology she used was inaccessible to non-anthropologists despite the readings being redundant and simple. It was also difficult to hear her in class because she mumbled or spoke to herself 90% of the time. To make things even worse, the exams were a lot harder than she put them out to be because her study guides did not help at all. To say the least, Professor Fraser is very kind, but I would rather have any professor other than her.

Professor Fraser's reviews dating back years state the same point I will make, which is that she is extremely disorganized. It is obvious she is extremely knowledgable, however, not all knowledgable people serve as good teachers. She frequently changed the syllabus and we often did not know what was going on. It took a while for a class routine to be established. This may have been because lectures were Monday Friday and discussions were in between on Tues/Weds/Thurs, so it made the layout a bit confusing. Essentially, we had a reading at the end of every week going in to the next, which was usually not highlighted until discussion section (whereas Monday's lecture was usually to reflect on the previous week's reading, if I remember correctly). Before discussion, we had a group assignment due about the reading. This was easy and could be done in a google doc. Then, in discussion and in lecture on Friday, the reading was discussed. However, the topic of lectures still varied. For instance, the lecture after the midterm, we spent the 50 minutes discussing how the class felt about the midterm. It was nice in that Professor Fraser listened to some of our requests, such as making the final open note, however, it provides an example of how random the class can be. We had another lecture where the 50 minutes were spent discussing the changes to the syllabus. Overall, the class ended up being 10 points for a group assignment at the very beginning of the semester with people from our discussion groups, 15 points for the midterm, 35 points for a written project, 20 points for the final, 20 points for participation, and 5 points for an optional extra credit assignment. The first half of the semester before spring break focused more on the racial medicine aspect of the class, and that was what was covered on the midterm. The second half of the semester focused more on the gender-based medicine aspect of the class, and that was what was covered on the final, so the final was not cumulative. I enjoyed the class content as a prospective anthropology major, however, it was incredibly disorganized.

I do not recommend taking this class. Her grammar and numerous typos show a lack of care and respect. Her instructions and expectations are always unclear, her study guides are almost impossible to read, and her lectures are very hard to follow. She did not seem to proofread anything, she showed up to class late numerous times, there were nearly no grades in the grade book by the end of the semester, and the syllabus was constantly changing. I was very excited to take this class as the material seemed interesting, however I would have gained the same amount of knowledge if I had just read the articles on my own time instead. Overall, this class felt very unorganized and sometimes a waste of time.

Do NOT take this class under any circumstance. While the introduced topics appear interesting at surface level, assigned readings are very lengthy, dry, and repetitive. Lectures are completely useless since the midterm and final are just based on the readings. Professor Fraser rambles on for the entire class while saying very little things of substance or meaning and you will walk out of class confused. She loves to use big words in contexts that make no sense and don't even get me started on the study guides she gives us. They are practically illegible due to the immense amount of run on sentences, spelling errors, and the worst grammar I've ever seen. To make things worse, the midterm and final are surprisingly difficult. While this class sounds like a good class for a pre med student, several of the readings quite literally disregard science and it feels much more like a gender studies class especially towards the end.

I thought this course was really interesting, but the lectures and discussions could get a little dry. Professor Fraser is really passionate and makes herself very available to her students. She really tries to help us succeed, and put together very comprehensive study guides before our midterm and final. The course is pretty reading-based (one reading per week, ~1 hour), and the tests and assignments are heavily centered on them. There is some group work for discussion, but overall the course is not that much work, and with the exception of some larger writing assignments I probably spent an hour on it per week. The syllabus was not very helpful and changed a few times throughout the year, but like I said Prof Fraser and the TAs were very accommodating.

I did not enjoy this class at all. The information we covered was interesting but the class was so unorganized I felt like I was wasting my time by going. It was easy enough, but heavy on group work (which I did not enjoy.) Would not recommend if you are looking to get something out of a class, would recommend if you are looking for an easy-ish A.

Professor Fraser is a sweetheart and so intelligent, but the class is very disorganized and does not really follow the syllabus. It's a relatively easy A but a large portion of the class is group work and writing, and the readings can be very redundant.