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.

I had a high interest in this subject before taking this class and now I have no interest. The class wasn't hard at all it was actually very easy but the teacher just made it such an unpleasant environment that I didn't want to come to class. She was definitely nicer than in previous quarters and a lot of people liked her but I actually got so much anxiety coming to this class because she threatened to call on people and when people volunteered she would flame their answers. It's not a hard class though so if you are willing to participate you should be fine.

I feel such intense hatred for this class I feel compelled to write a review before even completing the course. Needless to say, I had the displeasure of taking Introduction to Political Theory with Professor Piano. Dr. Piano represents a story as old as time: a young professor, newly minted in the world of academia, struggles intensely to teach students for the first time, and therefore adopts an overbearing and thoughtless teaching style. She was just the worst. Taking the class included 4 hours + of reading each week, lectures with useless slides that were not posted, no recordings, purposeless discussion sections, and completely nonsensical tangents and explanations that revealed nothing about the content of the reading. In most lectures, she would just ask questions and make students answer them without providing much clarity, or even teaching anything. The same five people who do all the talking (glazing), and everyone else would sit there thinking, "I have absolutely no idea what is going on in this class.". She just would not explain anything, and when she did, it was done in the most needlessly convoluted way. Do not listen to other reviews that wax poetic about how smart and knowledgeable Dr. Piano is. Part of teaching any subject is knowing how to distill complex topics into something someone without experience in that subject can understand. Dr. Piano was incapable of doing this. Also, she just was mean. Every lecture she would grumble about some grievance or tell us what terrible students we were compared to her University of Chicago undergrads. And of course, she told students late on the first day of class to "come back when you can respect my time" before closing the door on them. What kind of teacher, let alone person behaves like this? This was the worst class and worst professor. Dr. Piano lives Machiavelli's famous adage, "It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.".

People aren't lying when they say she is not a nice professor to the students. The class itself isn't very helpful, i skipped 80% of the lectures and did fine on the exams. TA said that the lectures actually confused him. I did not buy a single book, save your money. Not too hard to do well in but the professor makes it a slog.

This class is OK.

There are issues with Professor Piano. I too was off-put by the policies surrounding electronics, tardiness, and book editions. But, perhaps as a surrender to logistical facts, she did not really enforce these after week one. And while she does indeed demonstrate hints of pride and superiority, I do not think them entirely unfounded. I mean yeah, I suppose we suck compared to a scholar with a doctorate. It might be mean, but there's truth in it—and it is thankfully irrelevant to your final grade.

Even now, in its infancy, I would still vaguely recommend this class. This type of cursory course is quite necessary for your political development, and I compliment Piano on her choices. You will certainly be reading the masterpieces that expand your soul.

These reviews are all over the place! It seems like there is a vendetta to get this Professor fired because the negative reviews are not what I experienced and I took this class during the same quarter as those keyboard warriors. They say the Professor called on the same 5 people, but I believe I counted 10 so maybe something isn't mathing. Even then, when she would ask a question, those students had the knowledge to share with the rest of us whereas the keyboard warriors stayed silent. (you know who you are and probably didn't do the readings until those discussion deadlines came up) The class was structured by giving you the selected chapters to read prior to attending lecture and share what you thought the main idea of these philosophers was. It's plain and simple, but yet these individuals have the gall to complain. Professor came to class and wanted an open discussion about it. Literally a seminar structured class. Is it her fault that only 5-10 people did the reading before class and the other 130 students didn't? You want her to walk you to your individual seat too???? I literally sat next to maybe a couple jocks and would hear them complain about how boring the class was, but would admit to not doing the reading. LMAO. UCLA recheck that admission process please because I know a bunch of brilliant students that would give anything to be in our position and learn from these professors. Some of these students possess soft mindsets, but they are excellent keyboard warriors. I read and cringed, especially reading that poem-like review. Whoever you are, you win clown of the quarter. Future students, her midterm and final were not as bad as these people say they are. You have three hours to complete the final, but have the physical copy of the book to use to answer the prompt of questions. IF YOU DO THE READINGS, EASY A. As a non Poli-sci major, I enjoyed seeing the enthusiasm of Professor Piano and found her lectures to be way more engaging than my major courses. I joined two weeks late and was able to catch up on the work. I felt like sticking up for this Professor because I can't imagine having these reviews early on and having to answer to the board about some negative reviews that my obnoxious peers left. They took the comment about failing in life to heart and I was not even bothered in the slightest when she said it. It was to motivate us to not repeat the same cliche statements and immerse ourselves more into the reading of Du Bois. UCLA board if you're reading this, the quality of this Professor is easily a 4-5, not a 2. If you read into everything, then you are just highly naive.

The only piece of advice I would give Professor Piano is to upload the recordings of class to Canvas. However, I think the attendance turnout would be low if she did so. Other than that, thank you Professor NP!

For the first couple weeks she kicked anyone out who was even a minute late to lecture. After that she started showing up late to lecture and occasionally would keep the students late.

The lectures were very unorganized with no clear direction. She would kind of just ramble about whatever the first question asked was. Her slides were completely unhelpful and she didn't post them anyway. She also often would not get through every slide or make every point she wanted because she would ramble the whole time.

She expects everyone to buy her exact copy of like 8 books (didn't buy a single one) then got marked down on my final because I had incorrect formatting due to having the wrong version of the textbook.

The final also consists of three written responses which you get three hours to complete. She expects you to find quotes for the essays within this time frame and cite them perfectly to the exact format she wants (which was Chicago I believe). This just takes away from the already limited time you get to write the essays.

She also multiple times told the class we were all bad writers (after only reading like three peoples responses) and she didn't have confidence in us for the final.

Also got marked down to a 92 on participation for no clear reason. Attended every discussion and actively spoke and participated in all of them so not really sure how I could've gained more points. Maybe should've gone to office hours but idk. I don't really think office hours should be required for a full participation grade but maybe that's just me.