My first ever Bruinwalk review to the professor who I aspire to be like:

Professor Piano is incredibly passionate about political philosophy and extremely intelligent overall. I highly recommend talking to her after class or in office hours, she's super sweet and it's helpful if you have any questions about any of the texts. Throughout the course, she was always open to input and criticism, and it's clear she applied some of the criticism from class quarter. Her enthusiam in lecture and clear passion for political theory directly led to many other students, including myself, choosing to concentrate in political theory because of her. I believe political philosophy is a field that could easily be taught in a boring way, but she teaches it in a way that goes beyond the text. She's simply an amazing teacher and you truly would be lucky to get to learn from her.

My overall sentiments are that if you are willing to put in the work of actually doing the reading and paying attention in class, you will enjoy this class and get to learn a lot from Professor Piano. If you know you are not going to do the readings, then don't take this class because honestly Professor Piano deserves better than you. I don't think it's possible to overstate that what you put into this class is what you are going to get out of it.

Grades are split up by participation, discussion posts (which are relatively easy if you do the reading), a midterm paper, and a final. For the midterm, I highly recommend running your ideas for the midterm with your TA beforehand. My TA, Stephen, was really chill and an easier grader than other TAs.

In regards to other criticism, she does now allow laptops and starts class a few minutes late so that late people aren't interrupting (which in my opinion isn't fair to her or the students who came on time). I don't think the reviews are really fair to her with the late policy -- I know other professors who are much harsher, won't let you in the room, dock your participation, etc. Also if you have a class beforehand that's all the way on the other side of campus, just communicate that to her.

Her slideshows are pretty minimal, so you do have to pay attention in class (aka the bare minimum). She doesn't record the lectures, which after hearing her explanation I understand why that's the case. She just doesn't want people to feel self-conscious about answering questions if it's recorded.

If you do the reading, it won't be that hard to keep up. It only seems unorganized to the people who didn't do the reading. I loved the structure of her lectures because it allows you to truly think about and interrogate the texts. It is very helpful though to note down the signposted part at the beginning to keep track. There are times when she ends up repeating herself when trying to explain concepts but that's because she's trying to think of different ways to explain it since students who don't do the reading are confused in class and don't understand what she's talking about (obviously just, I don't know, do the readings?). The only thing I don't like about the lectures is that a lot of students kept asking dumb questions. Why are people wasting her and my time asking when the final is for over 20 minutes? People say she shows favoritism, but it's hard not to when only the same 20-30 people are consistently showing up to office hours and participating in lecture. If you do the same, you will also be one of her favorites. She never actually cold called on any one as far as I remember so you don't have to worry about that. Those who consider this class difficult or hard to keep up with clearly didn't do the reading or don't care about the class. There is a decent amount of reading, so don't take this class if you're not willing to put in the work and read the texts. If you are, you will find them incredibly interesting regardless of if you are a political science major or not. I feel bad for her because she's such a genuine professor and cares about both her students and political philosophy yet she has to deal with students who don't care and then come on bruinwalk and write bad reviews because they didn't do the reading, participate, or even pay attention.

Dr. Piano was definitely an interesting professor to have this quarter. She is extremely knowledgeable on the course materials, and it is clear she cares a lot about what she is teaching; but perhaps she does not care as much about the actual students. There were moments where Dr. Piano was quite harsh; she once or twice remarked that we were all “horrible writers” and, in the first few days of the course, went as far as to deny entrance to the classroom to students when they arrived at 2 o’clock or 2:01 (lecture began at 2). She was extremely adamant on no technology (which some people still used), requested that we buy the physical textbooks, and loved taking questions (to a fault—we would not get through all of the lecture material because she let too many people ask questions). The course itself is not difficult—yes, readings were quite long but that was not really her fault. She did only have 10 weeks to cover 8-9 authors who wrote about wildly different concepts, and to her respect, she did a great job. If you can sign up for a PLF session, please do so! It helped so much during the quarter! “Homework” was a weekly discussion post that was very simple to complete and the midterm was a paper. The TA’s were very supportive and also eased the material’s understanding. Overall, Piano honestly did have a great mastery on the topics, but this sometimes made it easier for her to exert her sense of superiority over us. She wasn’t the worst, so don’t get scared off by the reviews. If you can handle lengthy readings and a professor like her, you’ll be fine!

Natasha Piano is a very accommodating professor. She allows people to enter the classroom late, she speaks slowly so that students can understand what she's saying, and she always posts lecture recordings (and slides of course). She never rambles about random topics, and her lecture slides are always very informative. She doesn't come across as condescending, doesn't assign much reading, and believes in partial credit for late work. Would highly recommend. I wish that I could take it again!!

Edit: These mfs after me are her cronies. Don't listen to them. Wait to take the class with Bransetter, where it's literally impossible to get anything less than a B+. All my homies hate Natasha

Grade Distribution:
Weekly Reading Assignments: 25%
Attendance and Participation: 20%
Midterm Paper: 25%
Final exam: 30%
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Dr. Piano lectures the class in a Socratic method where she asks questions to the class and then builds off the students answer. I personally found it hard to learn through that method, so I recommend reading the SparkNotes for all the books she assigns instead. She also has some strict tendencies in class such as not sitting in the back or entering late, but I think its because she just really wants students to engage in the discussion. Overall there are 6 books required from the class but I highly recommend checking them out from the library or finding them online as you typically only read a few sections from each book. Each week you have to write a discussion post about the reading assignment, but as long as you have a few citations and answer the question the TAs grade easily. For the midterm, you have to write an essay about Plato which they do grade harsher but if you talk to your TA beforehand about your topic they tend to grade easier. Also the TAs (especially Stephen Cucharo) really like when you go to office hours and that can really help your participation grade as well. I was lucky that the TAs went on strike because my final exam became fully online and open-note. It was essentially similar to the weekly discussion post except longer and graded more harshly. Overall, while I really enjoyed the content of the class I do wish the class was taught more in the traditional lecture style (but that just may be my preference).
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GEs fulfilled by this class:
Foundations of Society and Culture: Social Analysis

My favorite professor so far. If you don't go to class you're missing out. I wasn't able to keep up with all the required readings, but she went so thoroughly into them during class that I was able to manage just by taking really good notes and then going back into the books afterward and reading the most important parts. The class was often structured as a whole class discussion which I loved, so make sure to participate and come to class prepared.

I was pleasantly surprised by this class! I ended up enjoying our class discussions, and I think Professor Piano is an engaging lecturer who cares about her students.

What I liked:
1. Professor Piano is so passionate about the subject matter! Her energy and enthusiasm made me more excited about learning the content and helped me better understand why political theory is important.

2. I enjoyed the Socratic seminar style of this class. This lecture style is challenging to execute with 100ish people, but it is worth it. I liked hearing my classmates’ perspectives on the texts and thought this class felt much more engaging and enjoyable than typical lectures.

3. I really appreciated how much Professor Piano cared about her students. She read all of our discussion posts, tried to learn everyone's names, frequently asked for our feedback on the class, and gave ample time to address any questions or concerns in each lecture. I felt like she genuinely valued getting to know us, which was nice!

What could be improved:
1. My main issue with this class was the lack of organization. Professor Piano jumped from topic to topic quickly, and the connections between these topics were not always apparent. It felt like we didn’t approach the texts in the most organized manner, which, at least for me, occasionally created confusion regarding the components of the texts and how these components fit within the broader perspective of the authors' arguments.

2. Professor Piano talks quite fast, and it was sometimes hard to process what she’s saying as a result. She’s super passionate about the topic, which is a huge selling point of this class in my opinion. But, the downside of this is that she can talk quickly and occasionally assume that we understand certain concepts she has yet to fully explain.

Overall, I would still really recommend this class! It’s not perfect, but is still an enjoyable experience that I learned a lot from.

Assignment breakdown in case it's helpful:

Section participation - TAs grade not only on participation, but also on the quality of what you say.

Weekly response posts - Graded on completion as long as you follow all the guidelines.

Midterm essay - DEFINITELY meet with the TA to go over the assignment because mine had very specific guidelines about what he wanted to see in the papers that differed from what many of my past classes expected!

Final exam - Ours was a short close reading on a passage from one of the texts we covered in class.

I have pretty mixed opinions about this class. On one hand, the professor is very passionate about the course's content and tries in lecture to educate her students. The workload, while quite tedious, is also manageable in my opinion if you space everything out. She definitely is a lot more chill since last quarter which was her first quarter here. It's not hard to get an A/A- in her class but the work is very annoying which brings me to the cons of the class. I thought the readings were very boring and dense, although I personally don't like political theory which is close to philosophy. I like IR, not theory, so maybe this class was not for me. I feel like the class is just a bunch of busy work. Additionally, the lectures aren't recorded although if you understand the readings you don't really need to go to them. The lectures themselves are quite tedious and hard to follow as her slides have very little content on them and the lecture feels like a seminar/group conversation. Overall, I would try to avoid this class as a GE or even as a pre-major class for all the poli sci majors out there, but know that it is not impossible.

READ THIS!!!!!!!!!! Don't consider the reviews from Winter 2024 because she does not do all that crazy stuff anymore. You can tell she truly took the criticism from winter and applied them to her teaching this quarter! Prof Piano is such a passionate lecturer and truly knows the material she is teaching. The class is super interesting if you choose to do the reading but you can get away with not doing it too. The readings can be a little hard to digest but she spends the class going over the reading and basically breaking it down for you. This is why you can get away with not doing the reading because as I mentioned, she goes over it in class. Just hope you have a couple kids who like to participate because she likes class to be a discussion sometimes. The material is super mind opening though and really makes you rethink everything around you. The only assignments are a weekly discussion post about the readings (TAs usually help you brainstorm what to write), an essay for the midterm, then for the final it is a couple of short answer questions (this may change for future classes as there was a TA strike happening).

Addressing all her previous reviews about her not letting you in for being late. You can tell she was aware of the criticism for this from last quarter so she now starts class 5 minutes later just to allow for people to come in and does not mind late people (still don't do it Lol). She is always actively asking for our input on how she can improve and cater to our learning and understanding. I really ended up loving Prof Piano and am hoping to take another class with her !! Highly recommend!!!

Dr. Piano is a great professor! She is extremely knowledgeable about the subject of political theory and this passion rubs off on her students. I enjoyed every piece of literature in this class. I wish we had an entire semester of this class instead of the way too short 10 weeks. Despite Bruinwalk review Prof. Piano has toned down her strictness and is very approachable. I liked how a lot of the class was made up of discussion. The one downfall of the course is not her fault, but it is so hard to demonstrate one's knowledge of political thought through just one essay and barely a final. I wish we had Socratic seminars that we could get some sort of a grade on or projects that spanned the entire quarter because tests cannot possibly be used to exemplify one's knowledge on these subjects. The readings are challenging, but if you try your best you can take away great concepts from them. This class has sparked my love for political theory and I would recommend it. Some TAs can be harsh graders which feels unfair, but that is kind of the nature of any course. The weekly assignments are great because they are basically graded on completion and keep everyone engaged in the text. Overall, this is a wonderful course!

Professor Piano was an excellent professor this year. I honestly came into the class with apprehensions due to her BruinWalk ratings, but she quickly disproved the negative comments. From the very beginning, she made it very clear that this class and space was open and welcome to all thoughts and ideas and questions we had. She never ever made us feel dumb, even though a lot of the time the readings could present to be difficult. Making sure we understood the content was always her first priority. It was very clear that political theory is something which Professor Piano is passionate about and that translated to her lectures and how she engaged with the content; her passion undoubtedly had an immense effect on me and this has truly been one of my favorite classes, if not the favorite, which I have taken all year. She is a phenomenal professor and I hope to take another one of her classes in my remaining time here at UCLA.