SOC 2320

Bair is awesome and keeps the lecture relevant and interesting but the TAs are pretty tough. Bailey Troia is super nice and asks probing questions in discussion but is kind of a hardo grader.

I'm a stem major and took this class as a college req. since I did not get into my spanish class for this semester - I am so glad it worked out that way! Prof. Bair was amazing, she was funny, intriguing, engaging, and easy to approach/talk to. Both of the TA's are great, my session was with Abigail and we had great discussions on course topics every week. Content-wise I was familiar with most of the main ideas throughout the course, but there is a decent amount of reading you do, almost all of it interesting though. The readings are really only important for the tests (specific questions regarding readings) and because you have to write a few short reading memos. Overall great class, easy, fun, low stress.

This sociology course is a good mix if you do not want to take an introductory course but also don't have a large background in sociology/social science knowledge in general. Professor Bair is a good lecturer and generally chooses interesting topics to discuss. The first half of the course focuses mostly on understanding work-family, jobs, and gender relations, while the second half focuses on a variety of things, ranging from sociological studies to beer commericals. The premise of the course, in my opinion, is more interesting than the course at times. The lectures can be dry and the readings can be extremely long; however, Bair's explanations usually cover the key points efficiently so in terms of learning the information, the course is fine. I do dislike several aspects of the course though:
1) The grading. The scale for grading reading memos (four in total amount to 20% of your grade), papers (two which are also 20% in total), and short answers on the midterm and final (both of which comprise 50%) is super vague, making it difficult to understand why the TAs took off points for specific sections. They are very specific in terms of what you should put in your paper and how to write it, but neither Professor Bair nor the TA's made those expectations explicitly clear; I even went to office hours and got very little help.
2) The discussion sections are not long enough for the content the TAs and Professor Bair want to cover. They are only 50 minutes long and the TA's sometimes want to cover two big topics, maybe PMS and Sports coverage, into one 50 minute block. Time always flies by and its nearly impossible to get any clarity or new information from the discussion sections that was not already mentioned in lecture. Group work doesn't really help either because there is very little time to discuss anything.
3) Putting grades in Collab. The TAs are very inconsistent in terms of putting up grades or returning work. It is difficult to grade papers or memos, which I completely understand, but they do not give back memos in enough time to make improvements on future ones. My TA also failed to put up any grades on Collab besides my midterm grade, and though this complaint is pretty small compared to the others, I do want to know how I am doing in a course, especially as I approach finals.
Those were just a few things I wanted to mention, and as always, my experience with the course might not be yours! If you truly want to take this class, you should, but just keep these concerns in mind.

I enjoyed this class with Professor Bair. It really speaks on a lot of issues regarding gender and society, and I felt like I learned a lot more about things I was already somewhat aware of. There can be a decent amount of reading, but most weeks it is reasonable. It is very important that you attend lecture and read as the tests can be somewhat tricky. She would ask a true/false question about an act and would change the year, so it is definitely important to study and know the information pretty well. There is a midterm, two papers, the final, and four reading memos over the course of the semester. The papers are on topics that were discussed heavily in class and the TAs offer to read a rough draft, so they are one of the easier aspects of the class. Section actually felt useful for this course which is shocking because normally they are pretty useless. I had Abbie as a TA and she was extremely helpful, whether it was through her office hours or by email. Overall, this course is very worthwhile and you do not need to have an understanding of sociology to take it. Professor Bair is a good lecturer and gets the important information across. Make sure you read or things will be really hard when it comes time for the tests!

F**king loved this class. I'm an econ/ stat major so not that often I'll get to take classes like this. Every lecture is a new topic (sometimes they bleed together), but they all connect to the idea of the social construction of gender-- a topic I never thought about until this class.

Grading:
20% of your grade are 4 reading memos (5% each) that just ask you to respond to the lecture's assigned readings. These are pretty easy to do well on if you summarize the main points well.
20% of your grade are 2 essays (10% each) that are pretty straightforward topics to write on. HUGE BONUS is that there is no need of outside sources-- just class material. The essays are graded pretty fairly, but don't put them off.
20% of your grade is Midterm 1. I wanna say the average was somewhere around a B+? The midterm consisted of T/F, MC, short answer, and 1 essay. Some of the questions can be pretty specific-- not all of it comes directly from the lecture slides (which she posts). I recommend writing down everything she says during lecture (especially dates/ percents) since they appear in some contexts on both the midterm and the final. Overall though, they aren't really that bad, just review your notes the night before the midterm and you'll be good.
10% of your grade is discussion. Just show up and talk once are twice and you'll be fine. (I had it Friday morning so I didn't have the best attendance, so try to take it any time but that or just get out of bed no matter how hungover you are).
30% of your grade is the final exam. Super similar to the midterm with an emphasis on material covered in the second half of the course. I studies for like 6 hours and it was very doable.

Tips:
Do all the readings, since that is basically where the majority of the test questions come from. You can definitely get away with not doing them for lecture/ discussion, but you don't want to be in the dark on the main idea of a certain article.
Take notes of what she draws on the board or emphasizes-- they will appear on exams.
Go to office hours. Prof. Bair is literally the chillest professor I know. She's down to earth and serious about sociology. Just a fun to talk to person. Both the TAs are great. I had Bailey and she was super approachable and extremely passionate.

Overall, I highly recommend this course. It opened my eyes to the field of sociology and complicated some very taken-for-granted norms. Not an easy A (tests are 50% of your grade) but if you put in consistent work, you'll be good.

This was an amazing course - probably the best course I've taken so far at UVA. The topics we cover are relevant and important, and the class has been very eyeopening. I was looking for a relatively easy course that wouldn't be very demanding but would still be worthwhile. Dr. Bair is an incredibly engaging, funny and knowledgeable lecturer, and she makes the material very easy to follow. All of her powerpoints are also posted online for reference. The class grade is comprised of 2 short essays, 4 reading memos on assigned articles of our choice, and a midterm and a final. Overall, this is my most highly recommended class. I believe everyone should take at least one sociology class, and Dr. Bair is the best person to take it with. Although it was fun and easy, I'd consider this course an easy B+/A- course. I worked extremely hard at the end of the semester to pull the A.

Professor Bair is very engaging and a great lecturer. The readings she assigns are a little long sometimes, but super interesting. Abbie Moore is a great TA who leads really interesting discussions and is very understanding.

One, if not the best class I have taken at UVA so far. Professor Bair is an incredible professor and lecturer. The lectures were very straightforward (outline format) and easy to follow, and Professor Bair made them available online before class so you could print out the slides. The discussion section was a great opportunity to ask the TA for clarification on any readings or exams. The readings were easy to complete and were actually interesting. There are 4 (one-page) reading memos, 2 (four-page) papers, and a midterm and final, all of which were not difficult. I would also highly recommend attending Professor Bair's office hours to get clarification on anything and also just to hear anything she has to say - she is hilarious!

One of my favorite classes this semester!! The subject itself was so so interesting and relevant. Professor Bair made sure that she explained everything thoroughly and was a very good and entertaining lecturer. She and the TAs made themselves available at more times whenever we had an essay or a test coming up which was really nice because not a lot of other professors do that. The workload was super manageable and grading was more than fair. I highly recommend this class!

Wonderful class and amazing professor! Professor Bair is seriously the coolest, both in class and outside of class. She's hilarious (will never forget her shouting "a shit ton of sperm" in class) during lectures and her teaching style keeps you engaged. She works hard to make sure you have a good understanding of things, and she's very approachable if you have questions. Go to her office hours because she's awesome. Right after the election, she offered office hours to anybody who wanted to talk things out. It felt like having a conversation with a mom or a friend. I was on the verge of tears when I walked in to talk, but by the end, I felt so much better. Really grateful to her for that. She's the ideal professor and the class itself is actually really interesting. I had no interest in Gender and Society before I took the class (it was a requirement) but now I think it's pretty cool. It makes you notice and think about things you've never paid attention to before. And it's also relevant to college kids and the things we see and experience. I've learned so much from it and would definitely recommend it.

This was an awesome class. Professor Bair is the light of my life. I was not quick to take this class because it is her first year here, but after doing some research, I discovered that she was well-loved by students she taught at Yale and Colorado. She made the subject very understandable and the reading was not too extra or too long. I cannot wait until she teaches an upper-level course so that I can enroll in it as well!

I had no idea how this class would go because Professor Bair was new to UVA but she turned out to be awesome! I looked forward to going to this class because Bair's lectures were fun, entertaining, and interesting. Bair is lighthearted and doesn't just go on on in lecture. There's two not so hard or long papers, 4 one page reading memos whenever you want in the semester, and article readings for homework. Would definitely recommend!

Professor Bair is perfect. She is entertaining, and you can tell she knows and cares about the subject. Nothing in her class is too hard to understand, and the material and assigned readings are all very interesting. Each day we go through a power point explaining the readings that were assigned for that day, which makes the material very clear if you did the reading, and understandable if you skipped it.
There are four one page reading memos, and two short papers (4 pages). The midterm isn't too hard and the grading isn't tough either. Would recommend.