I took this as a GE my first quarter of freshman year. The class setup made it so that you really don't need to attend class. But I attended almost all lectures and found them fairly interesting. Professor Aciksoz is super passionate about his field and has experience on the very subject we were learning about. The papers that make up most of your grade are really self explanatory and I believe all TAs graded these really leniently. Discussions were also chill and fairly interesting. The final exam was super straightforward as well. I recommend this class as an easy GE.

Do the readings for your own sake! So interesting.

I took this class as a GE, and I really enjoyed it! This was by far my favorite class. He is an extremely thorough and engaging lecturer and applies the information we learn in class in real life as well. He's also quite animated, which makes lectures enjoyable. The course does not require a textbook, just some weekly readings. There's also no homework. Your grade is determined by your participation in discussions, mini ethnography, a media analysis (watching a movie and analyzing it), and the final (in-person, composed of 3 short answers and 1 essay question). The final will make you draw back to information from the reading but he gives a study guide. If you know the concepts in the study guide and know the general idea from all the readings you're pretty much set. I think TA you have will either make you love or hate the class though. I had a wonderful TA and it was okay to not completely do the readings in time. The discussion was comprehensive and went through concepts from lecture and helped me understand the readings more. Don't be afraid to ask questions too! Asking questions and doing a little debrief on my plan for the mini ethnography and media analysis really helped me get a good grade. I wasn't aware, but you can also see comments after the assignments are graded, so be sure to look at those comments to improve on the next one.

tl;dr: amazing and super easy GE

This was one of the last classes I needed to take in order to graduate with the Anthropology BA, so I already was very well-versed in anthro and what it's all about, and I am also very passionate about it–I love anthro. This professor, however, would have uninspired me to choose anthro as a degree had I taken this class earlier in my academic career. His lectures are absolutely useless, and often say a lot without meaning anything. He tries to make claims about society using overly generalized arguments that fall flat because he uses circular reasoning. Essentially, this class (at least taught by Prof. Aciksoz) can be summed up as "everything is a social construct, the world is evil, and nothing is truly real." While I do understand that many of the concepts taught in this class are heavily supported in academia and have valid applications in the real world, Aciksoz fails to give meaning to anything he teaches–in that the only truly adoptable concepts are those embedded in readings, separate from the professor.
If Aciksoz is teaching the class:
–If you plan on majoring in Anthro, wait until a different professor is teaching it. You can take pre-req classes at any point in your academic career for this major.
–If this is simply a GE requirement, do not take this class; your perception of what Anthro actually is will be tainted.

Overall, very disappointed with this class because I know what it could've/should've been. In spite of all this, Prof. Aciksoz is a very kind person with great intentions, and it was a pleasure to get to know him. This is not a critique of Prof. Aciksoz, it is a critique of how this class is taught.

I really enjoyed this class! Although it was online due to covid, I still really liked Professor Aliksoz and his lectures. He also taught us about his own research into disabled veterans in Turkey, which was really interesting! This class was a really fun and easy ge!

The class consisted of three papers and participation. The readings were a bit much depending on the week, but if you can find your way around them you should be fine. Discussions just went over the readings. The professor gave us enough time to write the papers and the prompts were pretty interesting.

The class was simple and consisted of three main essays. Ended up with an A but the TA graded my two essays quite harsher compared to other people. Consisted of a media analysis (which was interesting), pandemic diaries (super simple and straightforward, and an ethnography.

The grade for this class consists of 3 papers
Mini-ethnography (4 pages, 30%)
Media Analysis (4 pages, 30%), my personal favorite
Pandemic Diary (7 pages total, 1 page journal entry everyday for one week, 30%)
Participation in discussion (10%)

Overall this class is pretty easy, coming from someone who does not like writing at all. The discussions were based off of weekly readings which were manageable. Some were more boring than others. The lectures were honestly pretty useless. The first few lectures were necessary in understanding what anthropology actually is, but afterwards I would say you did not need any of the information from lecture. The ethnography paper was based on your own observations and analysis at an outside place of choice. The media analysis paper was based on a film that we watched for class and watching another movie that connected to that film. The pandemic diary was pretty open ended, where we wrote about our day while connecting it to the pandemic as well as general concepts of the readings/lectures. While the topics were pretty eye-opening, I did not feel the need/want to sit through lecture due to it being useless in the actual assignments itself.

I really liked Professor Aciksoz. He had engaging lectures with powerpoint slides and the material isn't hard to grasp at all, while also being interesting at the same time. However, your grade in this class is very dependent on your TA, and I got stuck with a TA that graded my midterm and paper (called a "mini-ethnography") extremely harshly where friends in other sections got graded very easily. The midterm was not difficult if you pay attention in class, but it is entirely up to your TA as to how nitpicky they want to grade. Overall, this class was interesting and I would take a class again with Aciksoz but just make sure I get a reasonable TA!