So unbelievably condescending. Why become a professor if your goal is to bring students down and obliterate all interest in political theory. There were 5-6 kids who would glaze her constantly and the rest of the class would just sit in silence and try to figure out what tf she was talking about. She’s obviously intelligent and passionate but not at all a likable person. Did not talk to a single person who liked her or the material.
She doesn’t post slides (and her slides are unclear and full of typos anyway). Readings are hella long and she spends so long rambling that we don’t even get through half of the content that we’re supposed to. The only reason the majority of people didn’t drop is because the TAs are incredibly chill.
Class itself is easy but the professor is so bad it’s not worth taking.

Though Piano is very passionate about political theory and her lectures are interesting, her approach in speaking to students at times is harsh. She is very particular over certain things like no technology(she doesn't like the typing noise the computers make), or no walking in late and taking it as far as kicking people out and embarrassing them in front of everyone. She also is not the most encouraging as she told us multiple times how horrible our midterms were and our discussion posts. That being said her class is not super difficult there is a lottttt of readings required in total we had to buy 5 books and she wanted us to have the physical copies as she doesn't let us have electronics out. The actual material of the readings is interesting and while it can be a lot it does help with understanding the main themes of the course. Piano did get a little less intimidating as the quarter went on and would often joke with us, she was sweet just snappy at times.

Dr. Piano is extremely knowledgable and passionate about her work. However, as a professor she does not translate this properly to students. I know that she wants us to understand the material like her, but she doesn't make class discussions feel very welcoming to students. Most of the time, her responses to us are very condescending and she is always telling us that "we suck" or "we did very poorly on our papers, and if she were grading them that she would fail us all -- and the reason we have 'ok' grades is because of our too-nice TAs". She would say a lot of out of pocket things that made us very uncomfortable and make us question whether we are doing well in the course or not. I had a particularly bad interaction with her the first day of class. I had walked in at 2:00 when the class started, and she put her hand in my face and kicked me out of class, telling me to "come back when you're ready to be on time". I had never felt more disrespected by a teacher at UCLA. Considering I pay for these classes, I should not be already having to catch up on work week 1. Week 1 was stressful enough trying to get off of waitlists and join classes I wasn't in, so when she kicked me out of class this made me very anxious and unwilling to want to come back to class. This was how I, and most people in the class, felt most of the time during lecture. Although she is very smart, and I learned a lot from her, her presence as a professor is daunting and unwelcoming. To this day, I never went to her office hours because I was afraid she would lash out at me or make condescending remarks. I am usually the type of student who regularly goes to office hours and engages in class lecture discussions, but I did not in this class. Her tone in class made me feel unwelcome to participate and I think this hindered my learning. My thoughts about this class, however, is completely different. The course was very manageable, the readings were thought provoking and interesting, and I knowledge about political philosophy skyrocketed during this course. However, my feelings towards Dr. Piano are mixed. Although I can tell she wants us to know the material very well, her tone as a professor prevents us from wanting to engage in lecture and feel very unwelcome in class. Additionally, she would tell us that she would make her slides for class the morning of, and the slides would be minimal, straight up unhelpful, with lots of typos. This made it extremely difficult to write down the material. Because of this, she made most of the class was discussion based, but it made it more difficult to jot down the information. This, as well as Dr. Piano's presence as a professor, are the biggest weaknesses about the class that I think if worked on, could make the class much more enjoyable.

Dr. Piano is extremely knowledgable and passionate about her work. However, as a professor she does not translate this properly to students. I know that she wants us to understand the material like her, but she doesn't make class discussions feel very welcoming to students. Most of the time, her responses to us are very condescending and she is always telling us that "we suck" or "we did very poorly on our papers, and if she were grading them that she would fail us all -- and the reason we have 'ok' grades is because of our too-nice TAs". She would say a lot of out of pocket things that made us very uncomfortable and make us question whether we are doing well in the course or not. I had a particularly bad interaction with her the first day of class. I had walked in at 2:00 when the class started, and she put her hand in my face and kicked me out of class, telling me to "come back when you're ready to be on time". I had never felt more disrespected by a teacher at UCLA. Considering I pay for these classes, I should not be already having to catch up on work week 1. Week 1 was stressful enough trying to get off of waitlists and join classes I wasn't in, so when she kicked me out of class this made me very anxious and unwilling to want to come back to class. This was how I, and most people in the class, felt most of the time during lecture. Although she is very smart, and I learned a lot from her, her presence as a professor is daunting and unwelcoming. To this day, I never went to her office hours because I was afraid she would lash out at me or make condescending remarks. I am usually the type of student who regularly goes to office hours and engages in class lecture discussions, but I did not in this class. Her tone in class made me feel unwelcome to participate and I think this hindered my learning. My thoughts about this class, however, is completely different. The course was very manageable, the readings were thought provoking and interesting, and I knowledge about political philosophy skyrocketed during this course. However, my feelings towards Dr. Piano are mixed. Although I can tell she wants us to know the material very well, her tone as a professor prevents us from wanting to engage in lecture and feel very unwelcome in class. Additionally, she would tell us that she would make her slides for class the morning of, and the slides would be minimal, straight up unhelpful, with lots of typos. This made it extremely difficult to write down the material. Because of this, she made most of the class was discussion based, but it made it more difficult to jot down the information. This, as well as Dr. Piano's presence as a professor, are the biggest weaknesses about the class that I think if worked on, could make the class much more enjoyable.

I took this course seeing another professor (Branstetter) teaching this course and having a high rating on Bruinwalk. I assumed that that meant this class would be a rather easy lower div Poli Sci class. I also had a fair amount of interest in political theory and philosophy, so I decided to take this class to wrap up the four required lower division Poli Sci courses. I was wrong. This class was arguably one of the most confusing and difficult courses I have taken in my short time at UCLA. It's safe to assume that this will remain my least favorite class of all time throughout my entire time at UCLA, maybe even my entire time in school. She carries the attitude of someone who believes is superior to her students, she emphasizes that this course is meant to be difficult yet belittles the class for falling short of her extremely high standards. This is supposed to be an introductory class, yet she expects to write and understand political theory at an extremely high scholarly level. The assigned readings may not seem like much at first, but they catch on quickly and get overwhelmingly fast. Her lectures seemed to be organized at first, but after the first two weeks, I realized that her class was the opposite of organized. No recorded lectures, no slides on Canvas (her slides don't contain any useful info anyway just artwork she says she likes), and her lecturing method is quite confusing as she tries to incorporate student discussion which often leads to a tangent that is confusing for the rest of the students and extremely difficult to follow and take notes about. Because her slides didn't contain any useful info you needed to pay close attention to her speaking, but that itself was difficult due to her fast-talking speed, her tendency to go on tangents, and the mic cutting out/crackling at the worst moments. No recordings meant missing lectures would set you back immensely and I doubt that fellow classmates would even have useful notes that you could follow and learn the material from. This class and professor require you to focus 100% every minute which is just impossible for almost if not all students. She called the class stupid and tried to backtrack her statement and turn it into something less rude and direct, but the message was already received by all the students present. She is not a good teacher or a good speaker. If you're thinking of taking this class with her, JUST DON'T DO IT, IT IS NOT WORTH BELITTLEMENT, CONFUSION, AND STRESS! To Professor Piano, Thank you for reminding to do my course eval, as I was actually able to put some effort into it just for you :)