ANTH 1050

I did not enjoy this class. It lacks structure and the grading is very subjective. I would get between 88-92 on every assignment regardless of the amount of work I put in, and when I asked what I could do better my TA told me I did a good job and couldn't offer any constructive criticism. The readings are long, a few are interesting but not the majority. If you're looking for an easy B+, this class is fine.

I loved this class! Everything was really interesting, and Bashkow always brought cool outside sources into class! He clearly loved what he was teaching, and that made me get excited about it! The readings were carefully selected by page, so they focused on exactly what you needed to know, which kept them short and to the point, which I really appreciated. I really enjoyed coming to these lectures, and would definitely recommend Bashkow / this class!

Whoever has commented below to say that Ira Bashkow is a bad professor is flat-out wrong. I went to every single one of his lectures (it's not even hard to show up for 50 minutes twice a week...) and loved it. He is enthusiastic about the material and really explains the underlying significance of all of the readings and how they apply to the real world. I've learned more about gaining perspective in my life and of the world in this class than I have in any other class or moment in my life. I highly recommend this course and Professor Bashkow. He is an entertaining lecturer, engaged with his students, and really strives to help answer questions and prepare you for exactly what he wants on assignments and quizzes. I felt that his lectures were very organized because he outlines exactly what you'll go through during the class period on the board and points out when he is moving to the next section. To all of the people who don't recommend him or this class: you are fools who clearly don't know how to listen to a lecture and do readings. This class is awesome and so is the professor.

His brain his as empty as his scalp.

DO NOT TAKE. This class was the most unorganized and truly obnoxious class I have taken at UVA. Bashcow never seems to have material prepared for lecture and his lectures are a waste of time - often spent discussing the assignments we are about to do or have already done. The readings are interesting; however, Bashcow's inability to elaborate on the material disallowed further discussion and dissection.

This class would have been a lot better if there was more structure. Altogether, the course wasn't hard, but I didn't end up getting the grade I thought I deserved because it was oftentimes tough to do exactly what the TAs wanted you to do on the assignments. Also, lectures were basically pointless as it consisted of Professor Bashkow talking about random things that rarely had anything to do with the content assigned outside of class.

I took this class because I had to and would never have done so otherwise. Bashkow is nice, but crazy. I never knew what we were learning at any point in the semester. There is either a paper or a ppt every week, but the papers are worth more, even though the powerpoints require the same amount of work. Michael Wenzel was phenomenal and was the reason I made it through the class.

This class was very unstructured, both in the lecture and the discussion sections. I enjoyed the material assigned for class, but it was not always tied cohesively together by either Professor Bashkow or the TAs. Discussion sections in particular seemed unnecessary; most were spent discussing the upcoming assignments rather than the reading, and it seemed like there was not much communication between the professor and the TAs about expectations on assignments. I feel like the subject had potential and was not done justice by the way the course was structured.

This class was incredibly easy if you put in the work. While there are 5 writing assignments (2 pages single-spaced) and 5 mini presentations (5-7 slides), they don't require a huge amount of effort. The final is take home and only 12% of your grade. Bashkow is incredibly sweet and knowledgeable, but I will say this was his first semester teaching this class and there was absolutely no structure to the lecture, so they are pretty unnecessary besides the fact that you get participation points for coming. Do the assignments and attend section and you will be fine.