I took this in Winter 21 so covid time. She recorded and posted a lecture for Tuesdays, and then on Thursdays we met live for a QnA, work on our group projects, and project presentations. The guidelines for the group project are incredibly vague, but she grades easy.

We had a midterm and a final, both with about 4 questions, and 5 quizzes throughout the quarter of about 6 questions each. The quizzes were really easy. For the midterm and final, she released a question about 3-4 days early so we can work on it and it had the same due date as the rest of the exam. So in the 1.5 hours we had for the exam, we were only answering 3 questions. The MT and final were graded by the TA and he was pretty lenient. All of it was open note and open book.

The readings are a LOT, I'm talking a few weeks we had over 100 pages total. Most students didn't even read half of it. It was interesting but really dense and professor Levine doesn't really go over it too well in the lecture. The TA went over it more in depth but there's only so much you can go over in 50 minutes.

Overall, I think this is a pretty easy class to do well in if you really take advantage of posted resources, but it is a time consuming class.

The material for this class is very interesting, but her voice made me sleepy during lectures so drink coffee. She has a lot of knowledge about many societies in Central Asia, but she lacks empathy for students during these difficult times.

The course material was very engaging but she is a tough grader. I took this class remotely online during the Covid outbreak. She had no midterm or final but she assigned weekly readings which consisted of 500 word count essays. She also assigns lots of readings (anywhere between 40-90 pages a week, give or take). The weekly writings made up your overall final grade and she graded them with scrutiny! What was challenging in the weekly writing was she prompted you to cover a lot of material in those writings, but with a limited word count. In other words, there was no room to use examples or sources to back up your argument. I did all the readings, assignments, and I showed up to every lecture and I still got B+. If you're really intrigued by Central Asian studies then take this class. But if you're looking for a upper div course to fill, maybe consider other options

This professor is one of the worst I have experienced on the UCLA campus. She needs to retire as her passion for teaching has dwindled.

Pros:
*Very intelligent, answers questions really well
*Tests are usually straightforward
*Has few extraneous assignments
*Gives good, interesting, relevant readings
*Podcasts, but it's worth going to lecture

Cons:
*Pretty monotonous
*Tests can be surprisingly difficult

Overall, she's a good professor. It's not too difficult to get a good grade. She's not very rigorous. The tests are usually multiple choice. I've taken two classes with her.

I wouldn't recommend her Central Asian Studies class, the first problem is the subject is so broad so this anthro class turns into a History course which isn't the same thing. But if you like history with little tidbits about how people make tents out of yak hair, then by all means. Also, I love reading and I always do it for my classes, as I did for her course and this is the first course ever where I think the amount of reading she gives is absurd. And I love reading, I'm not lazy but the amount she gives is insane and she doesn't really tell you which topics to focus while you're reading so you're literally reading hundreds and hundreds of pages THE WHOLE 800 page text book, and you have no idea what you're supposed to be taking note of PLUS A NOVEL, and the questions she ends up asking are ridiculous because they don't check if you did the reading or not, they check if you can chronologically summarize the reading in the way she asks you too, which isn't very fair when you have to read an entire text book and novel. And I don't think she shows near enough films for an ethnographic class.

Professor Levine is very concerned with student learning and certainly goes out of her way to make sure every bit of information regarding the course is readily available. She even created a review sheet with summaries of all the readings for the midterm and final. She's very passionate about her fieldwork in Tibet and it shows in her lectures - much of the class was focused on the history and current circumstances in Tibet.
I found her to be friendly, approachable, and a great professor over all. I would definitely recommend taking a class with her!

Her tests are pretty difficult but she curves them very leniently. She requires a lot of reading and I am guilty of reading hardly any after the midterm. I still got an A. You probably should do the reading, since there is no guarantee the other students won't.

This is my first Anthropology class in my life and it's also an upper division class related to my major. I was so afraid that I might not do well as I heard from many students's complaints about Anthropology classes. However, Prof. Levine is a nice professor and a fair grader. There's a midterm and a final. Nothing's tricky. The materials are drawn from lectures and reading (although there're quite a lot to read for each lecture). She's patient too - repeats materials covered in the previous lectures and makes sure that we understand them. There's no way of not getting what she has said unless students can't be bothered to show up in class. I recommend Prof. Levine as an anthropology teacher.