ANTH 3240

Jeez I don't know what is going on with that other person's review but this class did not deserve such a vicious review. Dr. Jernigan was the most kind, thoughtful, and accommodating professor I have had in my 4 years at UVA. I will say that the class did at times feel a bit unorganized but that has never bothered me as a student. If you so desperately crave structure like the other reviewer, this class is not for you. We did have a few cancellations (weird thing to complain about) but they were always by/before 9am (and this class was at 11am). This was our first semester back fully in person and I genuinely appreciated the flexibility of this class. If for any reason I couldn't make it, Dr. Jernigan always had a zoom link or class recording ready to go for us. She was my only professor to do any of that this semester. We all most likely had a strange semester and it was hard to adjust for which I think we need to cut everyone a little slack. Also UVA tech is so unpredictable that something is almost always bound to go wrong and there's only so much anyone can do about that. Dr. Jernigan did a wonderful job this semester and I learned so much and got an A with very little effort needed from me. This class is 100% an easy A even if you don't always do the readings (which could be long at times). The lectures can be a bit dry sometimes but the material is very interesting. I loved this class and could not recommend it more.

This was a really fun and interesting course! It definitely made me think more about my food habits and choices as a consumer. The class was low-stress in general, with only 3 assignments that I believe are graded on completion and a take-home midterm and final. There were readings/videos for every class, but they weren't dense and she reviews many of the concepts in class. However, I definitely recommend doing the readings because the midterm relied heavily on them. We also needed to post one discussion/test question every week based on the lecture/readings.

While the midterm was take-home and open-note it was a little more challenging than I expected, with some combination of MC, true/false, short answer, and short essay questions (around 30-35 total questions). Also, she took an extremely long time to grade them so you kind of had no idea of how well you were doing in the course. We took the midterm at the end of September and she gave our grades back at the beginning of December. Moreover, we didn't get to see what questions we missed so I'm not really sure how to prepare for the final.

In addition to lectures, there are also weekly discussion sections. I had Caroline at a TA and she was awesome. I couldn't attend class in person, but she was very accommodating and allowed people to Zoom in. As long as we participated somehow, we got full credit.

Professor Jernigan is an extremely nice lady, but a little disorganized as a professor. She would often be late posting the readings or opening the discussion forum for the week, and as I said earlier, it took a long time to get our midterms back. However, other than that, she was a great lecturer and very knowledgeable. She comes from an indigenous background and her research is focused on Native American studies so she would often tie the material into that. I enjoyed learning more about indigenous communities and I think it's a topic more people should be aware of, so I recommend taking any class with her!

#tCFfall2021

This class was an absolute mess, which is such a shame because the material itself was so interesting. I wanted to enjoy this class but the complete lack of planning, boring ways of presenting the material, and constant technology issues (how have we not figured out presenting a powerpoint or showing a video by now...) were frustrating. By the end of the semester pretty much every week something would go wrong. Don't get me wrong: THIS CLASS IS EASY. If you need a class you can count on to get cancelled all the time, this is a great class for you. I don't know what Professor Jernigan was going through this semester, but even when she did show up she seemed extremely overwhelmed and nervous every class. I tried so hard to extend her the benefit of the doubt regarding whatever she might be going through but at some point you actually have to show up to class to do your job--- all I could think of is if she was working a minimum wage job she'd have been fired by week 3. I also don't know how she managed to make a subject with this much potential to be interesting so hard to sit through. It was extremely frustrating because this class was so full of people who were enthusiastic and wanted to learn about the subject, and by the end of the year there were only about 10 people sitting in person for her lectures because we knew odds were that she would show up late with a dry read-from-her-notes lecture, she wouldn't be able to bring up the powerpoint/video, or she'd send us an email <1 hour before saying class was cancelled.

On the bright side, it's 3 credits for almost 0 work! Plus the readings are interesting if you ever feel like doing them on your own time. All i'm saying is that there are way better easy classes at this school if all you want is credits. Prof Jernigan if you are reading this I'm sorry because I do really like you as a person haha

Professor Jernigan is my favorite professor at UVA hands down. She herself is so warm, welcoming, and well-spoken, and she translates that into her classroom. Anthropology of Food is probably hands-down the most interesting class I have taken at UVA. I loved learning about Indigenous food practices, how curry powder is a product of colonization, how LGBT families divide food labor, and the gender politics of Food Network. The readings, while sometimes lengthy, are all very interesting and she will go over the more important concepts during lecture if you do not get to all of them. The exams were open note, and there were short writing assignments throughout the semester like a family recipe and a food autoethnography. I would recommend both Professor Jernigan and Anthropology of Food to anyone regardless of their field of study. I am an anthropology major myself and so it was refreshing to learn about Indigenous traditions and ontology and epistemology from Professor Jernigan who is Indigenous herself and would talk about her own food traditions.

I agree with the other commenter. It's such an easy A, Kasey (Prof) and Jeff (TA) are both such sweethearts. It requires little to no work and is virtually impossible to not get an A. It's interesting too!

The professor: Oh my god, where do I start about professor Jernigan!? To me, she's like the mother of the anthropology department. I knew on the first day, when she mentioned we could bring kids to our class during emergencies (even though most of us didn't have kids to begin with), something that I've never heard any other professor say, that she was special. She is a new hire and focuses on both anthropological studies as well as Native American studies. She, herself, is a citizen Native American. She is so loving, so kind, and her lectures are great! Honestly, this class is small now, but I suspect it will grow in popularity and easily become one of those famous/top UVA classes like Dracula. Go to her office hours and get to know her!! She is always willing to help you, not just with the class but with life in general. I was devastated that our lectures got cut short due to covid. The lectures were fun and refreshing but also very critical and made you think of things you probably never noticed before... all through food! The class: attendance wasn't required, but the lectures were often fun. We discussed different topics, such as how the Japanese Government uses bento boxes (yes, those cute lunch boxes) to control women and children, to how breastfeeding should be considered "work" since it's so intensive, to forcing us to think about the differences in cultures and what they define to be food. The readings for this class were often short, and they were written like stories. They didn't contain any weird jargon, and it just felt like you were reading a normal conversation/story. She does go over the readings in class, but not really. It's good to have a general idea of what the readings consist of, since the mid term relies heavily on it. The mid term itself was very easy. As a part of our grade, we had to submit a question that could be answered from the readings assigned for that day or the lecture and we pretty much created our own mid term. The mid term is open note, with the answers coming directly from the readings, her lectures, or the movies we saw! This is probably the hardest assignment of this semester, but overall it was VERY easy to do. We also have other mini ethnographical writing assignments, such as writing a recipe or describing our own selves through a food dish. If you do the assignment on time (by the way, she has an automatic 24 hour extension period for ALL assignments, no need to email and no questions asked), and you put enough thought into it, you're bound to get an A. In fact, I would be surprised if everyone in my class didn't get an A this semester. If you get anything below an A, yes even an A-, then it's really on you and not her. There are discussion periods, but they are fun and rely more on narrating your experiences with food. The final is just like the mid term, open note/book multiple choice and true or false questions (no essays in the final), but she may change this. She isn't focused on grading you harshly. She's focused on teaching you, and that's something that I love. This is probably one of the best classes I've taken during my undergraduate career. Easily a top 3 course. She is a life changing professor; a real gem to the anthropology department for sure.