Lila Abu-Lughod

I took this class during the semester where everything transferred online. I had no idea what Lila was talking about most of the time, but the material was interesting. I have an intellectual crush on that woman though, so I dealt with it.

Professor Abu-Lughod does not deserve bad reviews. She is a sweet woman with extension knowledge. She is forgiving, accepting, and overall willing to speak with us all about questions we may have. It seems the anthropology department has changed up how they are teaching intro's by means of rotation of the professors. Which ultimately leads to well-regarded Columbia professors who are usually teaching seminars at graduate levels to teach us undergrads. It's actually pretty cool to get that opportunity, and I am grateful for it. Lila does indeed have disjointed lectures, but by the end of the class she does get out what she's trying to say. You just actually* have to listen. Workload is very light because she claims to understand college life through her new experience as a kids-in-college mother. As such, it means heavy workload at the beginning of semesters (2 3-pagers, 1 write up, a class assignment) and thins it out toward the end of semester. It's perfect when your other courses demand so much of you. If you haven't noticed, I would take a course with her again.

It makes me sad that Abu-Lughod has such bad reviews - I honestly enjoyed this class, even if the lectures didn't always connect seamlessly to each other. They were internally followable, definitely, and she obviously knows her stuff and gets excited about her subjects. She doesn't use powerpoints (if you're a science major, you may not be expecting this), so go to the lectures - they're worth it. She has a lot to say and is quite articulate, able to string together concepts in a way that makes you think. This class is heavy on the reading, but the readings make the class. They're absolutely great. I feel as though much of what I've taken from this class comes from the readings; Abu-Lughod herself says that the class is mostly "a guide to the readings."

This was a graduate course and not likely to be repeated, but I just want to echo the comments made by folks in her other, older classes. Abu-Lughod is well respected in her field and influential in her application of media theory to Middle Eastern contexts, but she does not know how to run a seminar. Her assignment of team in-class presentations meant that at least a third of the class was devoted to drowning, self-important graduate jargon that was often completely off target. Abu-Lughod was always too polite to shut them off, and would immediately attempt to redirect conversation to whatever topics she had outlined in her mind as important to begin with. She assigned mammoth amounts of reading but never gave pointers as to how to approach it, and she favored the few students in class who she had worked with in other contexts. The other difficult thing is that it was clear that she was using the course to formulate her own thoughts on the topic of gender and sexuality rights in illiberal contexts. I know this is a common thing for professors to do, but she often seemed to be unprepared for the depth and seriousness of the issues at hand.

I went into this class know Professer Abu-Lughod doesn't have the best reviews, and I hoped she might be better in a seminar setting. She wasn't. I had a hard time getting valuable information from each book we read--she didn't try to build from one week to the next. Workload was rather easy...you don't really need to read the books except for the week you present. It is past the final deadline for grades, and she still has not turned ours in.

The articles and topics are incredibly interesting. If you skip a few lectures, don't worry about it- I hardly took notes in them and did fine. However, be sure to read at least a few of the assigned readings each week. You HAVE TO participate in the discussion section for her to like you.. if you do that, you'll for sure get an A. Be warned, she's a bit out there. Her "frazzledness" drove me crazy at times! But just deal, it's an easy and really really good course.

I figured that Dr. Abu-Lughod's reviews needed a more recent posting. I took her Women and Gender Politics in the Muslim World Class for a global core, and it was a really good decision. Lila is extremely sweet and receptive, and if you make the effort to go to her office hours she is very helpful in answering questions. Yes, her lectures can sort of ramble, but she usually comes back to a main point at the end. Beware - she uses almost no digital aids, so attendance is highly recommended to keep updated on the class content. This class was a great survey of women and gender issues in muslim communities, countries, and beyond. Do not take it if you aren't at least somewhat interested in these topics.

Assigns books at a time, but class isn't necessarily based off them as much as what they stand for. Women's studies heavy, which is fine for me! Entire semester was 3 2-page response papers, 1 2-page ethnography, 3 in class assignments that are linked together at the end.

She is a horrible lecturer. Totally disorganized, kind of an airhead. The readings she assigned were great, but sometimes irrelevant. We had to buy some books that were expensive that she should have just photocopied 3 pages out of because that is all we really got out of the entire book. The TAs were pretty good. Lecture was painful because she was such a flake and had no notes, no points to make...The syllabus was very, very structured, but you would never know this from hearing her lectures. Good books in general, the work load was weird. Two out of 3 little papers...on strict topics that were RIDICULOUSLY DUMB. Then midterm/takehome final that were basically silly. She graded easily but her TAs graded harshly. the assignments were up in the air...you never knew how you would do. Good topics, good readings....bad class.

1 book a week, 1 presentation, 1 paper on the book you presented, 15 page final research paper