Paige West

I took this class in spring 2020, when the pandemic was happening, so the contents were not the same as normal. That being said, Prof. West handled this change like a champ. She told us that we would all pass the course no matter what, made all the rest of the semester readings optional, and pulled in guest speakers for all of our Wednesday classes for a change of pace. She's such an amazing teacher that despite essentially making class optional, almost the entire class showed up to her Zoom lectures, and the class was still relatively engaged despite the fact that we had no obligation whatsoever to do so. Paige West is an amazing teacher who ultimately just wants to see her students succeed. She gave us her phone number to contact her if we had any concerns or just needed someone to talk to about the pandemic, and she plays music to dance to at the beginning and end of every class. Her positive energy is contagious. Please take this class with Paige! Workload (pre-pandemic, of course) was pretty reasonable. Pretty reading-heavy class: 30-50 pages usually per class. She didn't have a set predetermined length for papers ("write as much or as little as you need to get your point across"), but told us to shoot for around 4 pages since she said that she knows Columbia students like guidelines. Very enjoyable class, especially when you take it with Paige. Would highly recommend whe…

A brilliant thinker and a phenomenal role model for young women like me. You can see by some of the reviews how scary a strong woman can be for misogynists and the like, whose bad reviews are substantiated by judgements about how she dresses.

As awesome as everybody says, though a lot of it depends on the rest of your classmates. My seminar last fall was filled with really bright people, and so discussion was something you looked forward to each week.She starts out trying to be intense (she says she refuses e-mail, etc. etc) but it's all a pose. This class is always full, so she winds up kicking out non-anthro/non-seniors the first day. Readings were great, but don't buy the books - she changes the syllabus OFTEN.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS!!!!!! Paige West is by far the worst professor I have had in my four years at college. She is incredibly unprofessional to the point where students outright laugh at her during lecture. I took this class because I was interested in taking an anthropology course, and had read relatively good reviews on CULPA, however I am incredibly dissapointed in the class. First, Professor West is constantly changing the syllabus and assignments. Most recently she pushed back the due date on an assignment, so that it fell during midterms-no thank you. In addition, because she is constantly changing the syllabus around (we've received two revised syllabii so far), towards the end of the semester the reading load is incredibly heavy-roughly 300 pages a week--completely absurd for an intro-level class. Second, she takes forever to grade assignments--we received our first graded assignment the week after the p/f/d deadline. Third, she teaches with a clear agenda-if you disagree with her extreme Marxist rantings, like myself, you will find her completely one-sided lectures unfulfilling. Also, be warned-Professor West does not allow you to use a computer in her class-if she sees you with a computer she will make you put it away. Professor West is incredibly scatter-brained in lecture, and often goes on lengthy tangents on completely unrelated subjects to anthropolgy. Our TA…

Excellent class - one of the best, if not the best I have had at Columbia. West forces you to think about the reading, the subject, and the state of the world in new ways. She is smart and is a good professor- enough said. Other reviews seem to be obsessed with her personality, style, and youth. This seems silly to me - I'm paying to learn and to think, not to find a new best pal or a "role model" One review says that she does not give good feedback - perhaps it was the class they took. West commented, extensively, on my reaction papers and we had several long discussions about the class outside of class. I recommend the class for serious students who like to think new thoughts.

As another reviewer said, this was the first year Paige taught this course. And it shows. The amount of reading was ridiculous and although she realized that and tried to cut it back, it was still heavy duty especially considering most anthropologists really can't write coherently. Paige is extremely passionate and to a certain extent that is wonderful and engaging, however it does at times go over board and become almost unprofessional. She is very open to students' ideas both in class discussion and in formatting projects which is good but hard for a non-anthro major with no background. It would be better to take this course with anthro experience, something it would be nice if the course book said. However, it is entirely possible to get an A in this course by bullshiting, or at least it felt like bullshit to me. And Paige does seem lazy in ways, particularly the in returning a draft of a paper with a perfect grade and absolutely no comments and the corner of the paper by the staple was not even crinkled. It's always nice to get good grades but...comments would be nice too. She is nice, but I completely agree with the other reviewer's point that a truly, confidently nice person doens't have to point out how nice she is every lecture! There are certainly good aspects to this course and Paige, but I would recommend it only with many, many reservations.

While most students found Prof. West to be "cool & hip," as well as an "incredible dresser in vintage clothes with pink cowgirl boots," I was not impressed with her constant projection of her political views during almost every class. My goal was to learn something about culture and anthropology - not hear an endless diatribe on the horrors of capitalism (from a woman so concerned with her appearance this seemed somewhat ridiculous & less than honest) and the greatness of Marx. Overall I would recommend taking this class from someone more interested in teaching the subject than in making sure the "correct" moral/political projection is being made.

I seem to be in the minority, but I really don't see why people love this course so much. Prof West is intelligent and funny--yes--but it takes more than that to make a good class. Her teaching essentially consisted of assigning pretty dense economic texts to a bunch of social science majors and then letting them present on the texts themselves with little interference from her. Of course, most people didn't understand (or read) the texts, so this led absolutely nowhere, and inevitably half an hour into every class we'd start talking about OUR consumption patterns: i.e. the consumption and struggles of privileged Columbia students, as if that's what matters on a global scale. We addressed pressing questions like, "Why do we seek 'authentic' ethnic food?" and "Why is it girls can't order whiskey at bars and guys can't order cosmos?" and "Is it wrong to buy products because you like the advertising story behind them, even if they cost more?" An utter waste of time--and, worse (?), I felt like Prof West kind of knew that.

Paige is an engaging and intellectually challenging professor. But apparently her critics on CULPA only care to comment on her fashion habits and their supposed contradiction with her Marxist orientation. Perhaps this criticism reflects more on their own superficiality than hers. I had Paige for many classes, and she was not "lazy" - rather she was quite dedicated to the materials. Yes, her lectures are a bit unorganized - all the more reason to take the seminars. For those who complain about her "politics", they should consider the responsibility of all scolars to wed academics and politics. She is engaging and actually challenges her students to consider their responsibility for their place in the world. No wonder Columbia/Barnard students are uncomfortable!

This is the best class I have taken here at Columbia. West is brilliant, the material is fascinating, and the discussions will blow your mind. She assigns too much reading, but it is so interesting that you want to do it all.