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C
Claire WENDLAND
WENDLAND,CLAIRE L
Email
Position

Professor

Department

Anthropology

Credentials

PHD 1994 Univ of Massachusetts Amherst

Grade Point Average
3.27
Completion Rate
97.38%
A Rate
43.44%
Students
4889
Rating
3.3
Difficulty
2.6
Would Take Again
73.9%
Attendance
Unknown

75.0% of students reported.

Comments

Dr. Wendland was great! Lectures are very interesting because of her background in the medical field, although you could probably get by skipping lectures. Discussions are mandatory but can be fun if you have a good TA. The class is super easy with 3 big projects and the tests are all open note over a couple day period, plus you get two attempts!

Anthro 104 is a very easy class, since the exams are online, open-note/book, and available over a multiple day period. Attendance of lectures is not mandatory if you do the textbook reading, but Prof. Wendland's explanations of her own research complement the info in the textbook. Discussion attendance is graded and mandatory.

Do not bother going to any of the Anthro104 lectures. You will do just fine in this class as long as you participate in discussions. The tests are super easy and online, open notes, and you can take them twice. Barley any work outside of class except for a few readings. Definitely recommend taking this class if you want a easy A class.

I think Professor Wendland is under-graded. The lectures are very similar to the textbook but that just means you can pick one and avoid the other. Tests are just questions pulled from lecture/discussion or what is in the textbook. HW is busy work but easy. If you give a minimal amount of care and effort, this class should be an easy A for you.

The class is a TON of reading. Her lectures seemed very rehearsed at times, and it can be difficult to take notes on everything that is important. She doesn't post the slides, but they don't have much information on them anyway, you need to go to lecture to learn the material. Dr. Wendland definitely cares about students though and was very nice.

Read two whole books and many technical papers/articles. So much reading. Average 60 pages every week of required readings. Very hard to make yourself read everything when only a summary of one article/chapter is required. Good discussions in class. No recordings. Slides posted but by themselves are basically useless; you have to go to lecture.

It's hard to be critical of her because she is likable and very knowledgeable about anthropology, but the lectures are hard to follow sometimes and there is wayyy too much reading for a 3 credit class. Exams are very difficult, but there are enough assignments that there are many ways to bring your grade up. Be prepared to put in a lot of hours.

Just do not take this course. The lectures are rehearsed, almost to the point that they are off a script, but you essentially have to go since the posted slides are just pictures. Very hard to take notes and listen at the same time. Readings are too much. Exams are near impossible, WAY too specific. JUST NO!!

She is a good professor in the sense she is really thorough with her lectures (which you basically HAVE to go to since the slides are posted, but have very little information). She cut down the reading a lot for my semester but it is still A LOT of readings. Exams are very difficult because it sometimes refers to specific parts of million readings.

Do yourself a favor and take a different professor. THERE ARE SO MANY READINGS. "3 credit" class with 6-9 hours of just reading . She is VERY rehearsed and dry when lecturing so it's impossible to take notes since she goes off on random tangents. She had the most unhelpful slides and didn't know how to use technology. THE TESTS ARE NEAR IMPOSSIBLE!

As long as you pay attention to the content of the InQuizitives and the discussions with your TA you are guaranteed to pass. Wendland was super interesting to listen to and seemed to really care about her students well being all throughout the course. I recommend this as an easy course to fulfill your ethnic studies requirement.

She was nice and the material was interesting because of her background in medical anthropology. There is quite a bit of required reading whether it's the textbook or fieldwork resources, but most of it was interesting. The lectures take up a lot of time and aren't super intriguing, but other than that this is a perfectly fine intro course!

Wendland would always talk about how she is also an OB/GYN and would relate so much stuff from the anthropology class to that. It got annoying after a while. Her lectures were super lengthy and she would go off topic during them a lot, but in order to succeed in the class, you have to watch the lectures. Great content, but it was not relayed well.

Professor Wendland is great! I found that I didnt need to watch lectures to get an A in the class, but from those I did watch, I really enjoyed her teaching. Read the textbook and youre golden.

She's a fantastic teacher, and I adored her lectures. Very knowledgeable, and very in-depth. I learned a lot from her class. You do need to watch the lectures. I read about half the textbook... Not really needed, but it's helpful for understanding.

very nice, she really cares about her students. her lectures are SUPER boring though, just her talking to a black screen with a green text. never did any of the readings and I did fine. very easy ethnic studies class. easy class, the only downside is the boring lectures.

Though a lot of work is done through weekly reading and lectures, it's very easy to do well in this class. You are graded by participation, three tests, weekly quizzes on readings, and 4 reading responses. Lectures are very helpful and easy to follow, but the class is a lot of work--mostly busy work but heavy reading and writing.

There are a LOT of asynchronous lectures, but you can get away with skipping some of them, and grading is pretty easy. I didn't interact with her much, but when I forgot to do an asynchronous exam, she let me still get half credit, which seemed fair to me. (I took this class virtually during the pandemic, so my experience might be unique.)

Professor Wendland had great, interesting lectures. She is very approachable and respectful towards her students. The readings were lengthy sometimes, but still interesting. I wish I could retake this class, or even just have her as a professor again. This course should be necessary for pre-health students, totally relevant and practical.

What an inspirational and insightful professor! Her background as an OB/GYN and an anthropologist as well as her super interesting research in Malawi makes this class engaging and insightful in every lecture. Readings are heavy, but always interesting and truly mind-opening. Everyone should take a class with Dr. Wendland if they get a chance.

Claire is a wonderful person and great professor. She is very specific in what she asks for, but if you can create an argument against what she believes you will get an A. She is very kind and wants her students to do well.

Just dont, she is terrible

Professor Wendland is about as sweet and caring as they come!! The class is very heavy in readings and you HAVE to come prepared or she will know right away. Discussions get very long but she does her best to keep them rolling. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I have learned in this class.

She has a dry sense of humor. The lectures are terribly boring. It's an easy A, though and takes care of the Ethics credit. Some interesting readings and videos. I had an awesome TA which kind of saved the class for me.

This class was horrible. There was tons of reading every week and the lectures were painfully boring. Professor Wendland read straight off what seemed to be a script with few pauses for further explanation. The content of the class was all over the place, there was not a clear point to what she was talking about. Some cool videos though

I just randomly chose to take this class and I loved it. Prof Wendland related cult. Antrho. to what she personally does and I found the class very interesting. Depending on your T.A. the class is difficult. There were only two exams. But about four or five super boring books you had to read. Overall I really liked the class

The class was pretty easy. It was based on two exams (one was take home) and a project. However, her lectures were very important to attend cause none of the information was online. She assigned a lot of reading that was also on the exams. There are other ways to get your ethnic credits.

Some lectures were interesting. Only one of the four books were interesting. She is very passionate about what she does. Movies were pretty interesting. Discussions were pointless and unhelpful.

Her lectures are very boring that comprise of her reading off a 5+ page essay she prepares before class. The readings are very boring and long. You are expected to read 120+ pages every week. Midterm was tough. My TA was a very hard grader. Overall, I would look elsewhere if you are trying to find an easy class to take.

Honestly took this course only for the ethnic credit. Material is very easy, and depending on your TA, you can get by without doing the readings. Professor Wendland has done fieldwork, and is passionate about the material, but blazes though the lectures with little to no one-on-one interaction. Be prepared for fast notes in lecture!

Professor Wendland is very knowledgeable and easy to listen to. Most of the lectures were interesting and I attended every one. The class involves a lot of reading but is not hard. The midterm was pretty easy and the final exam is take-home which is SO nice. She's a great professor and person. I'm really glad I took this class!

She is very fair, and the class is not very hard if you go to lecture and get the important concepts from the readings. I didn't do that great in the class but that is because I wouldn't always go to class so I sometimes missed important notes.

Scattered and boring. Don't worry about the paper it is easy if you just do it according to guidelines. First exam is tougher than the second, but lecture is necessary to do well

Easy A, but if you do not attend every lecture you WILL NOT do well in this class. Takes almost all exam questions word for word from lecture, precis online only an outline will not tell you anything unless you were there. Talks quite fast, so comparing notes with someone else after lectures may help to make up for anything important you missed.

She was an amazing professor for this class. Very knowledgeable on the subject, interactive, and good at explaining concepts. There were a lot of readings, some boring, but she did her best to break those ones down and make them more understandable. For the paper, she was very helpful, and it wasn't difficult to get a good grade.

She took an interesting subject and killed it. Be forewarned; the class title has nothing to do with what its actually about. You're going to hear a lot of guest lectures tell you how stressful their ethnographic work was for them in places like Darfur. Wendland makes the anthropology department come off high and mighty, pompous. Waste of time.

Her class was easy, but she wasn't the greatest professor. She read straight off notes, and lecture was extremely boring. Her exams are pretty easy however, and during lectures she gives you examples of test questions. Some of them DO show up on the exam too. For the final she gave a packet of possible test questions exactly from the final too.

Very fair teacher. Exams aren't too difficult. Easy to get a B but tougher to make your way up from there.

she's pretty good overall. she makes it somewhat interesting, despite her occasional political statements

She took an interesting subject and made it boring somehow. She could probably benefit from a public speaking class--reading off her notes made lectures excruciating at times. Interesting material, I wish there was a different prof teaching though.

Reads her lectures off of a piece of paper in a monotone voice, so it's really hard to stay awake. The material was interesting and the tests were not too bad. It's not an easy A like people say it is, so do the work. Don't take her if you want to really like anthro and have an interesting prof.

Professor Wendland was my favorite teacher this semester, though it was not my favorite class. She makes lecture very interesting, very easy to stay focused. The exams are easy and fairly graded, and there's not much homework. Wasn't too fond of the text though, but I'm an engineering major so interpretation isn't really my specialty.

Amazing. hard to keep up taking notes because she says so many brilliant things so quickly. Shes approachable and humble and witty. Fascinating research. My favorite prof. Take ANY class with her

She could use a little more spice in her lecture, but for the most part she does a good job at applying ideas. Good luck taking notes; lecture is constant note taking. TIP: read the Lecture Precis she posts online to filter your notes for important information, or look up information you missed. GO TO LECTURE! Tests are easy if you study..DUH!

She reads all the notes off a piece of paper and repeats nothing... you just sit there hoping you got it all down. The powerpoints are useless (just pictures). The tests are actually hard, and you have to read a lot of boring books. She's a nice lady but I wouldn't recomend her.

Reads her lecture word for word off of a piece of paper, shows genuine interest in the topic however lecture becomes boring since she is reading it off of a paper...expects very specific answers on the tests even though they may not be specified (for example two examples were required with an answer for full credit without being asked for them)

I really liked her as a teacher. Her exams were super easy (due to my TA helping us out a lot right before the exam). She doesn't post her lecture notes, but her "precis" are just as useful, and are posted almost immediately after lecture. She even went to the department to get the grading curve changed so less students got D's and F's.

It's an easy class and she does what she needs to. There's not much more to say. She shouldn't be so sensitive about the class not saying hi!!

Very intelligent professor, lacking a bit in her clarity on course requirements and exam material. Extremely large class leading to lots of noise and her consistently getting frustrated. Overall a very interesting course, that really isn't to tough if you ask your TA's questions and study the lecture material.

Ridiculous! In 5 years, I've never had a professor with this awful teaching style. Walks back and forth in front of the class reading her lecture which she apparently has typed out word for word! Students don't know what material is imp't and can't keep up with writing down what she says. And she won't let the TA's hold review sessions! WHAT?!

Health in Africa wooooooooooo!

Intelligent, approachable, and wants her students think critically, which is vital to a good anthro seminar. I didn't find her grading of papers unreasonably hard, but you cannot hand in slop either.

Exams are take home, but the questions are really vague. She runs the class like it's a Medical school class which is fine if you don't have a lot of other difficult classes. Expects perfect writing when hers is not.

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