Maxine Weisgrau

I took this course in the summer session and I will say, the last hour of that block can be rough as the material is a bit dense, especially if you don't have previous Anthropology knowledge. Professor Weisgrau is great though. I know some people in the class were a bit frustrated as she can seem a bit vague at times, but she's incredibly supportive and to be honest, quite a generous grader as well. I won't say it's an easy A, but if you try at all, she notices. She appreciates your interest and your ideas and I found it to be a very supportive environment. I tend to find the students who didn't like her, or didn't like her approach were the egos in the room who thought they were smarter than her. Which is always funny to me coming from undergrads and dealing the PhDs, but that's just me.

You either like her, or you don't. By the end of the semester my class was pretty set on hating her because recently she'd started interrupting people during discussions and rather than respectfully disagreeing with things, saying someone was wrong as if it were a fact when we were all stating opinions. She lectures during discussions, but at least she admits it. She knows she doesn't and if she's got the energy and she's in the mood she tries her hardest to avoid it. Getting advice from her on a paper is pretty confusing. She doesn't make much sense and she sometimes talks in circles. You leave the room certain she didn't like your idea but clueless as to what to write about. She's a pretty easy grader-- no one in the class got less than a B, but only a few got A- and even less got As. Sometimes it was obvious what you'd done wrong, and other times it was totally confusing and she did not clear it up. The material and the readings are interesting, and the discussions were usually interesting. The papers were tough and sometimes a hassle but other times enjoyable.

While she had her faults, Professor Weisgrau was caring, interested, and involved in her class. We had incredibly varied and interesting readings and open-ended essays so that we could take our own view on whatever readings we decided to use. She talks too much (especially when she's specifically assigned someone to lead the class) and she does have a habit of searching for the "right" answer. Still, it was a great class. I'd recommend it to anyone who's not too judgemental--she's very politically correct, but keep and open mind and you'll enjoy her.

Well I enjoyed this professor. The material can be a bit dry but Weisgrau enjoys what she does and personally that is better than a professor just teaching for the money. If you are a big anthro buff... or if you are just interested I would recommend going to the first class to scope it out

Super helpful as a freshman. It meets just once a week and is only one credit-- but it definitely helped me decide what classes i wanted to take and also which professors i wanted to take as well. Because it is so informal, you can ask anything. It is very helpful if you think you are interested in the social sciences, but don't know much about them. Also great to learn about columbia and barnard's resources in general. interesting discussions as well.

Prof. Weisgrau was awful, awful, awful. The reading, on the other hand, was fascinating... If only this class were taught by another professor! She runs her seminars like lectures, droning on and on about the same three points. Count on endless repetition, redundancy, and slow, over-enunciated speech. Quite frankly, it was insulting.

I know alot of people find Professor Weisgrau boring, and I have to admit that when I first read reviews of her class I was nervous to take it. However, I really like Professor Weisgrau and loved her class. I personally liked the subject matter and thought many of the readings were truly interesting. I have to admit that some of the readings in the course packet were too dense and I ended up giving up on them a few pages in. She tends to go on tangents in class, but they are almost always related to the subject material. In general, if you pay attention, you should get alot of out of the class. It is what you put into it that you get out of it.

This was an easy first-year seminar. The readings, for the most part, were interesting and were not time-consuming. The class was entirely discussion. Weisgrau would go off on tangets a lot, so class was often on random thoughts that sometimes would pertain to the readings and sometimes would not. As a whole, though, I enjoyed the class and her, and I found that I learned a lot from this seminar.

she is horrid. please, if you value the money you spend for your college career, DO NOT take any of her classes. The reading for this class is so interesting, and dense, but it class discussions inevitabely lead to Weisgrau's favorite Friends episode.. like when rachel is looking at her sonogram.. Sadly this is where discussions on 300 pages of reading leads to. She's just a bad teacher and is socially awkward. Its okay to talk about friends or even movies in class and to joke about it.. but not when youre not funny, arrogant, and generally difficult to like. She's socially awkward, and theoreticallly speaking, an anthropological dinosaur. She is uninterested in your paper making a point. RIghtly so, she is fed up with students probelmatizing everything that an anthropologist says. But she does this, i feel, to everyone, no matter how convincing the argument, no matter the student. She just likes to disagree with everything, and to hear herself give recommendations, advisories, etc. Its a bit maternal, very unprofessional.. generally bad professor ettiquette. Shes kinda of the nagging annoyign mother that you're glad you never had. In essence she likes to hear herself talk.. which is sad because seh never has anything substantioal to say. She is horrid... please, dont take this class.

no homework except for two easy "reflection" style 2-3 pg papers the entire semester.