Very interesting class, Professor Slyomovics is very knowledgeable about the subject matter and I learned a lot from her. She is not good at all with computers though and will definitely need someone to help her most lectures. The grader, Professor Farley, is a really cool, great guy. His lecture was very enjoyable and interesting. Grading breakdown: 20% oral presentation, 30% midterm, 50% final. The part that scares everyone the most is the oral presentation - It is just a retelling of the part of 1001 Nights that was assigned for the lecture. She randomly picks people every time. This isn't lecture and the stories are easy reads so just do your reading and you should be fine. You aren't really graded on quality of storytelling, just don't go up there and say you don't know it. The papers are doable, they are just two and a half page essays that you can pick the prompt for. 4 essays for the midterm and 6 for the final. Also she doesn't use slides so just write down what's on the board and all the discussion in class to help with the essays.

It was a pretty easy class if you're a good writer. Slyomovics may come off as sometimes unapproachable but she's actually very concerned about her student's learning, and is very smart. The reading is pretty heavy, but the way her exams are structured, you can choose which readings you want to focus on, so you can skim other readings. I believe she is a great professor, and even though I didn't necessarily find the material interesting at first, I was engaged in her lectures because she is a good lecturer. I would definitely suggest taking this class, either if you want to learn more about visual anthropology, or if you're looking for a class that isn't too difficult.

It was a pretty easy class if you're a good writer. Slyomovics may come off as sometimes unapproachable but she's actually very concerned about her student's learning, and is very smart. The reading is pretty heavy, but the way her exams are structured, you can choose which readings you want to focus on, so you can skim other readings. I believe she is a great professor, and even though I didn't necessarily find the material interesting at first, I was engaged in her lectures because she is a good lecturer. I would definitely suggest taking this class, either if you want to learn more about visual anthropology, or if you're looking for a class that isn't too difficult.

I loved her! I got an A- take her you will learn to respect the Muslim culture. This class was split b/w History 108C/ Anthro.../ Arabic..., I am a history major, and as 6/12 Bruin said, yes alot of DOABLE reading. I loved the T.A. he was not harsh to me I got an A- on mid/ B+ paper 5pgs/ A on the final, I saw him after the class was over and he happen to have the grade book so he was able to give me my grades. Ziad is super cool. Not to mention the midterm/ final- yes no study guide was given, but if you watched the assigned movies, read 2 of the books- half way- then you you can totally create an argument.

The only pain for me was the movies are hard to get online and if you don't live on campus-like me, then you got to drive to the media lab to watch them. The midterm/ has a map 20 pts, know Maghrib area, capitals, mountains and berber speaking tribe. The essay part.if you watched the movies you can easily do the essays, and she gives you so many to choose from that your bound to know 3 of them, trust me, the only way you wouldnt is if you missed class, and you wont b/c attendance is taken and 10 percent of your grade.

Professor Slyomovics is very approachable and a good lecturer. She does not use powerpoints, but she writes most of the important points on the board and puts boxes around most of the important key terms. (Emphasis on MOST. Not all.)

She does assign a LOT of reading, and combined with the assigned films it ended up being a lot of work... but the workload was nevertheless doable. The class consisted of a midterm, a paper, a final, and attendance. (The syllabus said participation, but you don't really need to participate. Just come to class every day on time and sign in. She does pass around a sign in sheet.) The paper was cake, I believe it was only 5 pages.

As far as the midterm and the final go, we were given absolutely no instruction. She does not believe in study guides, so mainly what you have to go off of are the things she wrote on the board. She will also use concepts from the reading and the films. The grader was very harsh, at least on the midterm. There are specific points that we were supposed to hit on the essays which was difficult because the essay questions were so vague. I don't know whether this was per Slyomovics' instructions, or whether the grader happened to be very harsh.

I ended up with an A-.