GSGS 2000

Prof Farmer is nice and approachable. Her slides are pretty unhelpful though. They're often just pictures and don't explicitly state and outline information necessary. She records her lectures though so it's not too bad if you wanna review information after or if you miss class. Lectures were very boring and kind of all over the place. I felt like she didn't explain topics very well and would use words people didn't know and brush over topics without giving us a good understanding. She has poll everywheres for attendance so just do those from home if you miss class.

That being said, exams were pretty fair, just sometimes hard to prepare for since you didn't really know what exactly to study. True or false questions, a couple short answer/free response questions, and I believe 2 essays. I felt like there were a lot of topics covered in each exam so I struggled making an effective index card that had all the information needed. It was inevitable to not be able to fit everything covered. She doesn't provide any practice exam questions so I never knew what to expect. For one exam (I think it was the final), she did have some sort of study guide where she put a bunch of terms to know on a spreadsheet and we filled it out collaboratively as a class. I believe she curves/gives grade bumps sometimes though.

I wasn't a fan of the structure of the class in terms of outside work. Nothing too hard, just tedious, time consuming, and annoying. She split us into two groups, one group does annotations for the one of the weekly readings/video/material and the others reply to the annotations and we switch. Readings were extensive and sometimes difficult to read and comprehend fully. Not really necessary to read in depth about in my opinion, would focus more on whatever she ends up talking about in lecture and going back to the reading if you want more information.

I took this as a pre-req for Global Public Health. Warning to the pre-health GPH people-- there is barely any actual public health stuff in this course and you probably will not enjoy it very much if you aren't interested in global studies. But most of GPH stuff isn't actually science-related and focused more on systems/policies anyway. Pre-health people who want an easier major than bio, I would look into Human Bio. It's much more focused on the body and medical-related topics with social/public health aspects, and I think it would be a much more helpful major for pre-health people or people interested in research over GPH, since the basis of GPH is Global Studies.

Not too bad of a class, definitely not a favorite though.

Professor Farmer has a very confusing way of explaining things, it feels like she speaks just to seem smart and not to genuinely teach course concepts. A lot of terms taught cannot be found online and are contradictory of each other which is pretty rough if you happen to miss a class. The quizzes aren't very hard and the readings aren't really essential, it's just a hard class to sit through.

Look. If you are a humanities or global studies person. Take this course. If you're a math/science guy like me... I'd be careful. Prof Farmer uploads slides to Canvas, but they are not content-filled, and most of the content you will be tested on, she says in lecture, verbally. She does not record lectures; she allows you 3 missed absence days. Don't try to email saying you are sick; she doesn't care unless it is "documented". When she speaks, it is fast, and it is hard to understand. She uses big, hard words, like PhD-level words. You have to be very attentive in class. You can not procrastinate. 3 quizzes (exams really), and 1 cumulative final. The quizzes are around 20 mc, 2 t/f, and 2-4 short-answer questions. I find the quizzes to be rushed and, honestly, pretty difficult. She is not the grader, but the TA's are. The TA's tryhard, and are ruthless when it comes to grading short answers. The final was 4 essay prompts in which you could choose 2 to reply to, each response being 500-750 words, in 1 hour 15. For the final, she gave a list of all the concepts we should know, it was around 50 concepts. Each prompt mentioned 2 concepts....so that was a little annoying. If you attend lecture, take active notes, and review your notes every week, you will get a good grade. If you are like me, a procrastinator who doesn't like to write, read, or study. Be wary. I took notes, studied for around 10 hours before each exam, and earned around a B-, hopefully (grades haven't been released). Prof Farmer makes herself available and isn't necessarily a bad instructor, but it's just hard to follow her and the concepts. Unless you want to major in some type of global studies, I do not recommend this course (and i wanted to study GPH...not anymore).

Awful class, tessa made the content hard to follow and it was difficult to do well in her class if you weren't attentively listening to her monotone voice for an hour and 15 minutes. The graders are extremely harsh and will penalize you if you forget even a word in the long definitions you are given to memorize. This course is the reason why I am not applying to GPH anymore.

Genuinely the worst class I have ever taken. If you have little to no interest in global studies, stay far away. If you are like me and plan on applying to a major in the global studies track, expect to be frustrated most of the time (and pray that the class will get better from how it was this semester).

The class was broken up into 6 parts - an intro unit, and then 5 other units that focused on each track of the global studies program, with each of these units lasting 2-3 weeks. There would be a "quiz" (basically an exam) every 2 units, and then a cumulative final a week after the last quiz. There are 2-3 readings (that were very long and complicated) that you are expected to read prior to class (she does end up going over these, but it is still a good idea to do the readings as you have to reference them on the exams). The readings would only discuss perspectives that Professor Farmer agreed with. She would lecture for most of class, with a few opportunities to talk with your neighbors thrown in throughout the lecture. The readings and exams/quizzes are all the work that is to be done for this class, and there are 2 extra credit opportunities that involve attending an event on grounds and writing a 500-word essay connecting it to class.

As for the units, most of the lectures felt like a waste of time. This class somehow failed to be an effective overview of the global studies program, as all we did was dive into complicated topics that often left the whole class confused. Professor Farmer would use language and terms that would fit with a class that is higher than an intro-level class. I don't have much interest in any of the tracks besides GPH, but I feel as though none of the units provided a good idea of what each track looks like - we got super deep into topics that I had a hard time connecting back to the unit as a whole.

The quizzes were unnecessarily hard, and whenever I would talk with fellow students about the class, there seemed to be a general consensus that we have no idea what is going on, despite paying attention and taking good notes. We were allowed a 3x5 index card as a "cheat sheet" on each quiz, but each unit went through so much material that it was a struggle to squeeze it all onto a tiny notecard. The quizzes were a mix of T/F, multiple choice, and short answer questions. The final was just two long essay questions, with each question covering two concepts from a random unit, so you can imagine how much of a struggle it was to try to write an entire essay out of random details from class (we were also given a notecard for this exam, but since it was cumulative, it was hard to cover everything).

While the structure of the class was bad, the worst part is the class environment that Professor Farmer created. She made it very clear what her personal opinions are, often making comments that made me feel uncomfortable because of my religious and political views, as my opinions would often differ from her's. Midway through the class she introduced a section where we would offer "multiple perspectives" on a topic or reading, bringing up what we hear about it in the news or world today. It very quickly turned into a time where students criticized people of certain political beliefs. I often felt uncomfortable, refusing to speak up, because I didn't want to be criticized or have my grade unfairly punished. I ended up sharing my opinion in one of the classes, but it was clear that Professor Farmer did not like what I had to say, very quickly moving on to the next person instead of her usual agreement and discussion of the perspective that is brought up. Professor Farmer made a variety of inappropriate comments throughout the class that made me and other students feel uncomfortable. This included dismissing the murder of innocent Christians, misrepresenting the beliefs of those that she disagrees with, and not wanting to comply with certain university rules.

If you take good notes and are proactive about studying for the exams, you will be okay - I managed to eke out an A, but at what cost? Hours of work and frustration that honestly made me want to rip my hair out at times. All that being said, I would be wary about taking this class.