Professor Lesure is very friendly, always cracking jokes during lecture. Sometimes his speaking style can be a bit hard to follow during lectures, but he makes efforts so that we understand the readings, which he himself admits can be a bit dense to get through. He holds review sessions where he will go over all the readings, along with a handy list of reading questions for each week. The workload was very manageable. We had a short reading reflection every week (graded on completion), plus a midterm paper and final paper. Attendance is not taken but strongly recommended since we do cover a lot in the lectures that aren't listed in his slides. I found course content really interesting, but I know that archaeology might not be everyone's cup of tea. Even if you don't enjoy the topic, though, this is a chill course with a great professor!

Professor Lesure is the best! He is approachable, clear in what he wants, organized, and all around delightful! This subject and class is pretty dense with a lot of required readings, but as someone who is not an Anthro major, they were actually pretty interesting. I was kind of lost in the first 3 weeks of class, because I've never taken a class like this, but Professor Lesure made it very enjoyable. He interacts with students and is very open to opinions about everything! The class grade mainly consists of 3 papers, and while that might seem formidable, he is SO clear about what he wants in them in the class right before he assigns the prompt. I did record every lecture on my phone because the slides aren't too helpful and that was a good move because he mainly lectures about the really important stuff. I actually liked this class a lot, and I'm betting it's because Professor Lesure was teaching it!

Let me start off by saying Professor Lesure has a great presence as a lecturer. He has a witty sense of humor and is always very engaging. With that being said the subject matter for this class is a bit dull. The title of the class says it all, it’s a class about the history of archaeological thinking which can be boring but I’ve found that there has been a lot of overlap from other upper div anthro classes. This class is definitely doable if you attend lecture and comprehend the readings. Grading for this class consists of 3 main components: participation/attendance, quizzes, and essays. He does not take role everyday but usually does when it is labeled as a discussion class, which there are about 6 of during the quarter. The quizzes are on ccle and pertain to grammar and proper citations, not the readings. Those are extremely easy. For the three essays he gives you about a 72 hour window to read the two prompts, choose one, and then write a 5 page paper. While his grading can be a bit harsh, he dedicates the class before he post the prompts to having a discussion about the readings where he basically tells you what to write in the paper. He holds office hours as well which are very useful to understand what exactly he is looking for. Overall, Professor Lesure is an entertaining lecturer and this class is definitely doable if you stay on top of the material and complete the assignments accordingly.

VERY HARD GRADER. Unrealistic expectations for students. Reading load is HEAVY. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS if you are looking for an easy or enjoyable course.

Great Professor, plain & simple. Has a great sense of humor during class and truly loves the material he is teaching. His lectures are straight forward and provide a great background to the material you read, as well as expand on the material and connect it to present day times.

The exams (essentially 3 midterms) are 1 short answer and 1 essay that are usually based on the readings, but ask you to incorporate lecture material into them for a full, complete answer.

The readings can be a little bit boring at times, but the overall topics are quite fascinating.

Absolutely do all the readings and go to every class, he does a random sign up sheet that accounts for 10% of your grade. Oh, and make sure you meet with him outside of class, that dude knows so much on this stuff that he can't possibly convey it solely during lecture (really helps get you that A on the tests).