I just read all the postings about Professor Garro. She must really have improved her style over the last few years. I took her final today (so I dont know my grade yet) and I believe that she is an excellent professor. Sometimes her lectures jump around and it can get pretty confusing. Luckily, she gave out a ton of handouts with everything you need to know. The downside to that was having to review them all for tests and she would give information you didnt need. If you're one of those people who likes to learn just to learn, then these handouts are great and so beneficial. If you just want to get a grade and move on, the handouts will drive you crazy. The assignments were vital to learning methodology. There were absolutely no surprises on either the midterm or final -- they were very fair. She would literally say "know this for the test." The questions were well thought out and very understandable (as they should be since she does write interviews and ethnographies for a living). She repeats important concepts a lot which is great because you know exactly what she wants you to know and it makes studying easier. Her TA was one of the best I've had in this department. She made discussion fun, was very knowledgable and obviously had great communication with the professor. Garros fieldwork is interesting and she chooses readings that are very relevant and helpful. If you are interested in doing fieldwork one day, think you could ever be interested in it, or are trying to decide if anthropology is right for you, I highly recommend taking her class. If I had taken this class during my first year at UCLA rather than my last year, I probably would have understood other anthropology courses better and probably would have attempted to do fieldwork each summer. I'm expecting a B in the class, only because I didn't try as hard as I should have. But she makes getting an A in her class very possible.

In almost four years at UCLA I have never had such a bad class as this one. Her lectures are extremely dry and boring. It felt like each lecture was five hours long. If you are a student who likes to go to office hours, you can count on being rushed out of her office as soon as possible. She is more interested in her own outside research than the class she teaches. The assignments she assigns are a complete waste of time, and so are the discussions with the T.A. Nothing was learned in the discussions. All of this is coming from an A student. If you do take her class you better agree with her opinions and write them on your midterm, or else...

Garro is a good teacher who gives a fair amount of reading, relevant assignments, and fair exams. If you go to class, do the readings, and do some studying before the exams you'll do just fine. Anthro 139 is definately more interesting if you're an anthro major. If you're planning on doing research or plan on grad school, I think this class is worth taking.