Brian Larkin

Honestly such a good class in terms of the readings! Super engaging and we did a lot of small group convos, really bonded as a class. Prof Larkin is a character and is very understanding while also pushing you to critically think

People! Please Please Please read this post before thinking about taking this course!!!!!! DO NOT TAKE IT DO NOT TAKE IT DO NOT TAKE IT. The only question you have for the lecture is " IS THIS PERSON FUCKING SPEAKING ENGLISH?" All the lectures are super super super confusing that you don't understand a word. The readings are boring, long and dense. The finals and midterms and assignments topics are so fucking vague. You will hate anthropology b/c of it. And professor Larkin is not considerate at all!!! He talks a lot before giving us midterms. which take up a lot of our time!

Professor Larkin is very intelligent and loves Indian and Nigerian cinema, which one can clearly tell when listening to his lectures. That being said, sometimes it was difficult to follow his lectures. Not only does he have an accent, he talks quickly and the material isn't the most clear in the first place. But, the redeeming quality was the cinema. The Nigerian films were hilarious but I wasn't in love with them. The Indian films, though, were fantastic. They had me watching a crap load of Indian films on Netflix during the break, and I now plan on taking a Bollywood class next semester. I have to give it to Larkin for his excellent film choices - not typical, boring films that other classes may require us to watch. They -almost- made it worth being in the class from 6 - 10:15 pm. Tuesdays are my earliest and my worst days but I hardly ever fell asleep because all of the films were so entertaining. But be prepared to stay super late when you watch the three-hour Hindi films, because people will talk and talk and talk (like I'm clearly doing right now - except you have a choice in whether or not you read this) like it's not 10 pm on a Tuesday night. And according to Larkin, despite the fact that on the schedule it says that we're only supposed to stay from 6 - 9, we have to "commit to the time"...yeah, okay. He takes attendance too, and decreases your grade if you're absent 2…

Never mind the name: this course is not Africa-in-a-box, codified and prepared for examination by undergrads hungry for a taste of the exotic. As I often explained it to my friends, "We don't really talk about Africa. It's more like talking about how people talk about Africa. And it's amazing." Professor Larkin is brilliant, but perhaps not for everyone. He takes serious time and care to ask (and answer) questions of the class; however, this practice may result in lectures feeling a bit like they start and stop (the class often ended with 5 minutes of frantic lecture-note reading as he ran out of time). The course is colored by Larkin's professional work in Nigeria and interest in media, which offers a good balance to some of the more heavy theory (the course was also a great introduction to some big names in contemporary African scholarship, at least for someone like myself with little-to-no background in African Studies). You'll *learn* stuff about Africa, no doubt, but more importantly, if you're as enraptured by Professor Larkin's eloquence (okay, okay, and piercing blue eyes...) as I was, you'll learn how to ask better questions - about anthropology, about history, about modernity, about urbanization, about corruption, about development, and well, yeah, about Africa in a contemporary, global context. Ever have one of those "THIS is why I'm at Columbia (or Barnard, sorry!)…

At some point in college, every student should get to have a professor like Brian Larkin. Every week, I have walked out of anthro of media arguing ideas with at least one of my classmates. Run like a true seminar, reading is fairly heavy and often rather dense, but almost all of the readings are interesting and bring something to the class. Larkin is also flexible enough to allow students to bring theory from other classes into the discussion. At the beginning of the semester, everyone is assigned a group and every couple of weeks the group is in charge of presenting that week's readings. In the rare event that discussion gets boring, Prof. Larkin's colorful sock choice and British accent prove to be adequate distractions The overarching goal of the class is to undertake an ethnographic project relating to media. The product is a 15 page paper and a brief presentation the final week of class. Larkin is incredibly approachable and a most enthusiastic and helpful guide both within class and for individual research.

Not that much work in terms of assessments I think there were 2 in class essays and 1 take-home?

DO NOT TAKE IT!!! The lecture is super confusing, long and boring. No one understands what he is saying in class!!!!

Weekly 1-2 pg. film analyses (25%), one easy 3 pg. shot analysis of a film (10%), one verbal film term quiz (not graded), one midterm and one final (only 2 four pg. essays). Readings range from 5 - 60+ pages - some are interesting, some not so much if at all. For the verbal quiz, we got a list of terms that we had to memorize in the beginning of the semester. During the beginning of the second or third class, he called on people from the attendance list to define some of the terms, and that was that. Do the readings - if no one participates, he will go through the attendance list and call on people. He usually gives a warning beforehand but you should always be prepared.

READING (c'mon, it's anthro, what did you expect?) some of it pretty heavy and theoretical. 2 5-page papers; in-class final exam: 3 essays in 3 hours (!). Open book, but you'll probably want to have, um, read the books. Quote well.

series of movie screenings, two 4 page papers, one 15 page paper based on original research (and five minute presentation), group presentations of readings ever four weeks.