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

Natasha Piano's class is truly exceptional! Her engaging teaching style and deep knowledge of the subject make every lecture interesting and insightful. She encourages critical thinking and open discussions, making complex political concepts easy to understand. Her dedication to her students' success is evident in her willingness to provide extra help and feedback. She's also incredibly nice and approachable, always ready to listen to students' concerns and offer support. Overall, it's one of the best classes you can take! Also people are doing to much with the reviews she is not like that

I loved this class and Professor Piano, and I spent the quarter recommending her to everyone who would listen. I knew nothing about political theory before taking this class, and by the end of the first lecture, I was entranced. The lectures are fast-paced and full of high level analysis, interesting details, and varied interpretations. I sometimes worried I couldn't take notes fast enough to capture all the material since everything felt so important, but any facet you understand and can clearly explain will allow you to succeed with the assignments. At the end of the quarter, I can say that I learned more than I could have imagined, and that I am aware there is still a lifetime of learning I could pursue in the subject matter of political theory. Taking this class broadened my horizons and changed how I think about government, society, and my identity as an individual.

In this class, assignments consist of biweekly readings and weekly discussion posts, all due before lecture. The readings can be long, but they are absolutely worth the effort to grapple with and try to understand. The readings and lectures mutually reinforce one another -- personally, I would not have understood the readings without the lectures, nor the lectures without the readings. The discussion posts are graded very generously (based on completion, as far as I could tell), but it is still worth the effort to try to do a good job because they will prepare you for the midterm and especially for the final.

Professor Piano is incredibly passionate about the material, which made attending her lectures an amazing experience both intellectually and experientially. She cares deeply about educating her students in a lasting manner and conveying the depth and breadth of both the material we cover in class and the potential for further study. She encourages participation, questions, and discussion in lecture and is very respectful of all the points students bring up in class. She tries her best to encourage as many people to participate as possible, though inevitably there were only a few of us who regularly raised our hands during lecture. It was fun when someone new had something to say because she would get very excited.

Both during and outside of lecture, Professor Piano is very friendly and approachable. She did her best to learn the names of everyone who spoke with her, which I wasn't expecting in such a large class, and she asked us for feedback on the pace of the lectures and whether we had understood her explanations of certain key concepts. When she learned in a conversation with me that something had been unclear, she always followed up in the following lecture. Office hours are part of what is really special about Professor Piano's class. I attended as many of her office hours as I could (available both in person and online, with individual and group sessions), and I highly recommend others do the same. She answered all of my questions thoughtfully and in depth and was genuinely interested in my thoughts and opinions about the material. If you take this class, I urge you to do the reading, participate in lectures, and attend office hours. I'm sure it's possible to skate through and get a decent grade, but the more you participate, the more you'll learn, and the more fun you'll have with the class.

Honest Review:
On the first day of the lecture, I feared I would not like the class as she was talking fast, and hearing her from the back of the lecture hall was pretty difficult. Despite this, for the next class, I decided to sit in the front of the room, which is EXTREMELY helpful, and I recommend it.

I really believe she is a good professor and it's sad to see how so many people give her a bad rating. I found her funny as she SOMETIMES makes relevant jokes that can be compared to current TikTok memes. She is very lively with her lectures and describes the topic and readings in various ways. The only downside to this is that she will ramble off into a topic but she still manages to tie it back to the original topic discussed. She also lets people ask questions and is open to answering them, the only questions she would not answer are the ones that relate to exams. She engages with the class and I THINK she enjoys open conversations as she lets the students answer and respond to one another.

She also is very organized and in BruinLearn under the modules, she puts the assignments and readings that are due along with the slides she shows in the class. Sometimes she inputs the slides at the end of the week but honestly, I don't really use it or care as she describes them in great detail during the lecture. I take notes of everything so maybe this is what made the class easier, but she literally describes the readings to the assignments during lecture and if u don't get it, you're not paying enough attention. She does assign a lot of readings and that I can admit but she explains the book and the author's perspective in such detail that I found myself not reading some of what she assigned. So again, if you don't get a good grade, that is purely because you're not paying attention, taking notes, or doing your part as a student.

Assignments:
She assigned an assignment once a week, 250 words minimum, and it's due 1 hr before the second lecture begins. They were annoying but they did help when it came to the exam/ essays, and during discussion, the other prompts were answered and the TAs explained a lot if you were confused. So hope your peers ask a lot of questions, and if they don't, you should.

Exam/ Midterm:
I got a 90% on the first essay (the midterm)
Her class is my highest grade and the coursework is based on philosophy and old English, which is not my cup of tea. I find these readings so boring but you can get through it. Despite this, I was still able to get a 90% on her midterm which is literally because I took notes of her comments and incorporated her explanations into my essay to support my arguments. Be sure to ask your TA for help on the essay and further explanation of what Professor Piano wants. Obviously, they cannot edit it for you but can give you suggestions on how to make it more concise.

She also dresses cutely. 10/10

Keep in mind I am a first-year student (freshman)

Professor Piano quickly established a bad reputation for herself by not letting late students attend lectures. Fortunately, by the time I had her (Spring ‘24), I think she realized that students weren't really appreciative of it and she never kicked out of my lectures. I never found her to be as bad as the reviews often said. I actually ended up really enjoying the class and it largely inspired my double major.

I really enjoyed the curriculum: Piano would dive deep into the readings she assigned (during my quarter we read various works of Aristotle, Hobbes, Rousseau, Marx, and Dubois) and she explained them very thoroughly in class. She was intense, yes, but she cared. She made a strong effort to remember the students’ names (I think she remembered like 60 students in my class). She is all about class participation so don’t make direct eye contact with her unless you want to speak up.

The class itself wasn’t too much work. When I took it, it was probably 2-3 hours of reading a week and I only recall doing two papers (1300 words was the most I wrote). I think we had to do some discussion posts too, but from what I can recall, they were graded based on participation. It’s not a super easy class, but it really wasn’t that bad. I thought it was interesting and it was honestly one of my favorite classes that I’ve taken at UCLA. If you are Pol Sci, would recommend. If you are just taking it for a GE, maybe explore other options first.

Professor Piano really has a passion for what she teaches and went out of her way to attempt for every student in the class to share the same passion. Her lectures were always engaging, and although some students felt it was a heavy workload -- it was really just one of those stay with the syllabus type of classes. Take this class, it introduces a lot of new ways of thinking especially if you haven't read many political theory books before.

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.