Jill Shapiro

My first time taking a seminar and it was a very fun experience. Professor Shapiro was receptive to feedback and the grading seemed more lenient compared to HO&E. That being said, the course is a lot of work and reading but it is rewarding. Not an easy A but doable. I would recommend it to anyone and it was a fascinating class for such a niche subject.

Fascinating course that covers evolution from primates to humans. Professor Shapiro’s enthusiasm for the subject is clear, and she presents the material very effectively. The course is well-organized, with all lecture notes/powerpoint, recordings and handouts easily accessible. Previous concerns about the exams being heavily memorization-based are no longer accurate (she had given out sheets w/ all the names/dates/region that used to be memorized on exams; repeatedly hints at final exam questions, and nothing on the exam will take you by surprise.). Took zero notes and know nothing about hominins by the end of semester. Crammed through the materials two days before exam and walk away with an A. Very generous grading + options to opt out exams for special projects.

This was A LOT of fun! Basically, we got to play with bones all the time, lectures were awesome, and the readings were carefully chosen -- nothing short of fascinating, just like the whole course. You also have complete freedom to research what you want for the term paper and she reads them closely, providing EXTENSIVE feedback. Everything describing Shapiro in previous classes/reviews held true here -- insanely enthusiastic and willing to help, brilliant, amusing, and exceptionally fair. Toward the end of the semester she talked about adding lab time onto lecture in the future -- this would be helpful as we often just needed more time to actually handle specimens and apply what we were learning in lecture. All in all, a wonderful experience.

The best professor at Columbia University! This is the most controversial class on campus... and if that isn't enough to get you to class, her well thought out class notes that lead to phenomenal lectures will!!! Her enthusiasm is like no other professor here - she never loses a listener.

I would honestly recommend this course to people who are not just in the bio anthro field, but to archaeologists, anthropologists, and art historians more generally cause I found that actually working with the bones and engaging in conversations about ethics gave me a much better understanding of the foundations of the field and what it actually means to work with human remains. 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Fall 2024 Course: EEEBUN3997_001_2024_3-INDEPENDENTSTUDY : EEEBUN3997_001_2024_3 - INDEPENDENT STUDY Instructor: Jill Shapiro

For a student taking the class, I would definitely recommend attending the lab. 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Fall 2022 Course: EEEBUN1110_001_2022_3-HUMANORIGINS&EVOLUTION-DISC : EEEBUN1110_001_2022_3 - HUMAN ORIGINS & EVOLUTION-DISC Instructor: Jill Shapiro

This was a phenomenal class. The Human Species course was more than enough preparation - most of the information that I had forgotten came back naturally over the span of this class. Dr. Shapiro is excellent, as usual, and this class is as easy as it is educational. Yes, I just said educational. It feels weird to use that word when referring to one of my classes. I learned an enormous about of information about both Neandertals and modern humans. This class covered everything from the nitty gritty science (dentition and bones) to the intangibles like culture, religion, and logic. If you pulled this course up because it sounded even mildly interesting to you, then you owe it to yourself to sign up and do it. You won't regret it.

Professor Shapiro is incredibly clear and concise about what she expects and how to pass her class. She is accommodating and more than willing to support students who are struggling. She also has an option for students to pass the class even if they fail both exams. Additionally if you show drastic improvement for the midterm to the final she might scale your grade up. In terms of the class itself it is a STEM class and not a particularly easy subject. There is quite a bit of technical knowledge you have to be familiar with to be successful. However you can be if you do the study questions and review the sides. Also the exams are straight forward.

God bless Jill Shapiro. She is everything a professor should be, and she genuinely cares about her students and about the subjects she teaches. I've found that her advanced courses require a lot of dedication and interest on the part of the student, but if you put time into learning the facts then you will be just fine. Explorations in Primate Anatomy is a wonderful course which focuses mainly on the skeletal system of extant primates. It is structured like a guided bone lab with intermittent lectures throughout, which I found was the perfect mix of hands-on and theoretical learning needed for an anatomy course. I actually found this to be the most challenging class I had taken with Professor Shapiro due to the amount of memorization required, but by the end we had all learned an immense amount about comparative primate anatomy, and had an awesome time doing it. The Biology, Systematics, and Evolutionary History of the Apes (or Apes, Apes, Apes as everyone calls it) is a mix between a small seminar and a lecture. While it requires a thorough breadth of knowledge, I found it a bit easier to handle in terms of studying than Primate Anatomy. Of course, Professor Shapiro's passion for the subject (and particularly Orangutans!) shines bright in this course, making the learning experience that much more worth it. The workload was completely manageable, but be aware that you can not…

This is a graduate course - I took it as an undergrad - so there is heavy reading, but the information you are learning and the lectures make it all worthwhile.