Professor Cattelino was super nice and always willing to help. The class material was pretty interesting and the books were all weird (but fun) reads. She also showed lots of videos and stuff in class that complemented the class well. The papers were graded kind of tough but that was more the TAs then her. Overall, a solid class.

Professor Cattelino is fantastic. She teaches in a conversational style, often bringing in relevant modern day examples to supplement concepts that she's teaching in class. I took Anthro 9 as a GE. It was relatively easy and I'm not considering minoring in Anthro. Definitely recommend her as a professor. I also went to office hours one time just to talk; she's extremely friendly and welcoming.

Professor Cattelino is a great professor. However this class had a tougher workload than expected and a lot of my fellow classmates agreed with that. Past that the class was an overall enjoyable experience and I felt like this class actually mattered to professor Cattelino even though it was just a GE. Usually GEs aren't high on the professor's list. The essays are graded moderately, don't expect to get an A if you don't work rather hard on them. There is a lot of reading, my TA commented that professor cattelino goes through the readings and changes them each quarter so while it is a lot she cares about what she's teaching us and wants it to something that is relevant to us. The exams weren't too tough they were fair. Review the readings and notes, the concepts are really important. I loved Lives in Limbo, it was a great book and I loved a Latino relevant book being used at UCLA in a non-chicano studies class. Overall if you don't mind a rather heavy workload then take this class, I think it was worth it. I might not have gotten the grade I wanted but I actually really enjoyed a GE for once.

i kind of hated this class. the work load was a bit too much for a GE. professor Cattelino is nice but her lectures are long and boring. she assigned too many readings, and you have to read them because the whole class is based on them. the midterm was pretty easy and multiple choice but i did not like the essays (there were 2) because the TAs were hard graders. overall this wasn't the worst class but definitely not worth all the effort and it is not as interesting as I thought it would be. 4/10 probably would not recommend

I took this class as a GE and thoroughly enjoyed this class. Prof. Cattelino is one of the best professors I've ever had; she is sweet, really concerned about students' learning, and really passionate about anthro (she tries to make it as interesting and relevant to students as she can).

Grades are based on:
Participation (15%)
Midterm - all multiple choice (20%)
Essay #1- 4 pages (20%)
Essay #2- 4 page fieldwork paper (20%)
Final Exam- multiple choice, 2 short answers, 1 essay question (25%)

There is so much reading assigned throughout the quarter and I wasn't able to do most of it. But luckily, her exams test on how well you know your concepts and how well you can apply them. The exams were relatively easy even without doing all the readings. But that's not to say that you can get a good grade without putting in work and ignoring the readings. Skim the readings, know the concepts well, go to lecture (take good notes especially on the examples she gives), know the big ideas in each of the reading, and pay attention in discussion.

The essays are a different story. The first essay wasn't too bad, but the fieldwork paper prompt was difficult because the prompt was confusing and less concrete than the first prompt. Go to your TA for help!

I would say that going to lecture is a huge part of doing well in the class. She's an awesome lecturer- she clearly explains concepts and also keeps it engaging and relevant by relating the concepts to current events. This class is definitely not your easy A GE, but it helped me looked at the world in a different way and also gave me a new appreciation for anthro.

This class was honestly just fine. Cattelino is really sweet, as mentioned below, but I was always distracted in lectures and bored, since the slides were dull and didn't contain info. the readings were interesting but VERY long and a huge workload, so it was tough to keep up. I was never excited to go to this class, and while I feel i did learn some valuable things, it is not a class i would jump to take again

The class was interesting in terms of the topics covered; Reading can get a bit tedious and builds up, but she tests on them, so go to discussion to get a rough summary of the readings and take down the main points. There are two essays, none of which are extremely difficult, but they do require you to get a solid understanding of the topics covered in class and/or the readings. I especially enjoy the field studies essays since I got some more freedom in what I write based on what I observed.

She doesn't take attendance, but she doesn't podcast her lectures, so the only way to actually understand her slides is to attend lecture, though her lectures don't always make sense either, since she ends up just posing a lot of questions that went unanswered.

Tests weren't difficult, but require some memorization - other than that, this is a fairly interesting class. I wouldn't mind taking another class with her again.

Cattelino is such an interesting and respectful lady. I had 0 interest in anthro at the beginning of the year, yet I went to every lecture because she was so soothing and interesting to listen to. The essays are easy, just go to the writing center for help. I would have earned a better grade had it not been my first quarter at UCLA and I knew how to get help on writing. The final was insanely easy, and weekly question responses are due on CCLE but it's really not a lot of work. Highly recommend this class.

First class I took at UCLA. Tons of reading. Although it is really interesting, it is so much and you have to read it because you discuss it in discussion (that are mandatory). Subject area is super interesting. Half of the class is about old civilizations and the second half is all modern. No text book, but articles and books about different people groups. Two essays that are graded pretty hard and a midterm and final that has multiple choice and short answer. A lot of information to grasp and she makes you think in a way that I was not used to. Interesting class, but would not take if you are looking for an easy GE.

Hands down the worst anthro class I've taken at UCLA to date. It's not really Professor Cattelino's fault, but the material is mind-numbingly boring, mostly because it all seemed like common sense, but to be fair I've studied sociocultural anthro a lot before, and my TA (Bianca Romagnoli) was incredibly incompetent. I had students coming to me for help instead of the TA because of how unapproachable and unclear she was because it was mostly freshman and I'm a junior. Not only that, I walked out of every discussion section more confused than I walked in. She clearly had no idea what the readings were saying because she just listed off what the professor had said and had no response to most of our questions.

There are two papers (40% in total), a midterm (20%) and a final (25%), plus participation grade (15%). But don't think you can know the material and get a good grade. I've gotten As in graduate-level sociocultural anthro courses and still ended up with a B in the class because of my TA. I emailed her like 10 times and received a response twice. The only reason I got a B is because I literally aced the midterm and final, and because my professor slightly boosted the grade of one of my papers. The saddest part is, I brought my paper to a different TA (because mine refused to ever answer my emails) and was told it looked fine, so simply having a different TA would've entirely altered my grade.

Long story short, the material isn't particularly interesting, your grade isn't based on mastery of course material but rather the whims of your TA, and despite how kind and approachable Professor Cattelino is, the size of the class makes it impossible to create a meaningful connection with her as a professor. I highly recommend NOT taking this class as a GE, and if you have to for major/minor requirements, be very very wary of your TA and good luck.

Coming back 2 years later just to be extra sure to give a huge shout out to Bianca Romagnoli for being the worst TA, no actually make that educator in general, I have ever had the displeasure of being in a classroom with. Not only was she unprofessional, unhelpful, and uninterested, but she decided that since she was from Canada she was well within her rights to grade all our papers on a Canadian scale (ie 70s for a B). I held back in my original review wondering if maybe I overreacted to how legitimately terrible she was, but after 4 years at UCLA and 16 years in schooling in general, I can honestly say she is the most awful teacher I have ever come across. I’ve had bad TAs before, but all understandably so & eager to get better and just learning the position, none so absolutely terrible & closed off to suggestions or offering any help that I’ve constantly thought back every quarter to how inept they were. It’s two years later and I still wince every time I think back to those discussions. I don’t know if she’ll ever TA this course again but if you come across this review and see her as a TA for a different course AVOID AT ALL COSTS.