Jane Fajans - Cornell University

Professor: Jane Fajans

Department: TBD

College: Cornell University

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: ANTH2450
• Grade Received: A+
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Keep up with the readings, lectures are boring, but I thought the material was decently interesting (maybe not to everyone). Class isn't too hard if you keep up, and exams just require you to regurgitate material.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: ANTHR2450
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Easy to get a good grade in this class, but you have to read (or at least skim) each of the 5-6 articles that she assigns per week. Besides that, she focused too much on specific regions of the world (e.g. Brazil and Papua New Guinea), which was annoying because I was excited to learn about cuisine from ALL over the world.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: ANTHR2450
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

God, I don't even know where to begin. If you can, avoid this women. The class material would be so much more interesting if a blind and deaf toddler taught it. The grading is pretty easy, but seriously, I'm pretty sure she makes up 80% of the lecture material, the other 20% coming right from the ridiculous long textbook readings.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: ANTHR2450
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Worst professor at Cornell by far. Class is super easy but I got nothing out of it. Laughs at her own jokes throughout the lecture, readings are interesting but long, PowerPoints are useless, is rude to students who leave early, could go on and on about a subject matter without really saying anything at all.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: ANTHR2450
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

This is a worthless class in which the professor exoticizes and stereotypes different groups. She thinks French food is the best, tribal people are all loving and communal and that Asian people eat strange things. Worthless!

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: ANTHR2450
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS!!!! It is one of the worst classes I have ever taken. You read over 1,000 pages in articles some of which are interesting, but that have absolutely no connection to each other. You learn hundreds of random facts about people you will never care about in the future. Most of the time the lectures do not even mention food.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: ANTH2450
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

She is one of the worst professor I have ever had at Cornell. I don't know how a competitive school like Cornell could hire such an incompetent and **** professor - especially in the anthropology department! She spends a whole lecture saying absolutely nothing. The class might be easy but I don't know what I'm getting out of this class. Horrible!

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: ANTHO2450
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

terrible. lectures are terrible powerpoints have no info on them at all too many reading that take forever. laughs at her own jokes the whole class. can talk the whole class without makin a single point. Thinks she knows everything about food and applies meaning to things that have none

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: ANTHR2500
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

very easy class

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: ANTHR250
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Good prof to avoid; this could be an interesting subject but she sucks the joy out of it. Also she's mean to people that leave early or arrive late, and seems full of herself and her work.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: ANTHR320
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Belongs to 1900s Margaret Mead's anthropology where "primitives" and "uncivilized" were "subjects of study." No post-colonial anthro perspective. And without this, it's obvious how anthropology can be another way of ethnicizing/racializing people. Biased/loves her hubbie's works/avoids someone like Taussig's critical points.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: ANTHR250
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Fajans is one of the worst professors I have ever had at Cornell. Anthro should fire her, in my opinion. She is mean. She hates her students and clearly doesn't enjoy teaching. She just lectures from a PowerPoint. Hard to stay awake in her class...

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: ANTHR250
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Fajans is a horrible teacher and this class is NOT interesting even if the name makes it seem interesting. Her tests are not very easy and there are endless readings. She's so lazy she doesn't even do her own grading...she makes the TA's do it all. And she's very rude and snappy toward her students.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: ANTHR250
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Fajans was completely disorganized, could talk for an hour without actually saying anything. Paper topics had no educational value whatsoever. The class could be great -interesting readings and stuff, but she completely ruins it. She is also hostile towards students. Don't take this class!

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: ANTH250
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

There's no organization, the theme is not consistent in the syllabus sections, and the paper questions are really bad and unproductive. We had to watch super size me before slope day, and it made me puke on the slope.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: ANTHR250
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Will interrupt lecture to embarass you for being late or leaving early. Grades papers and essays extremely subjectively, disorganized lectures, and is generally kind of uptight and high-strung.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: ANTHR172
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

This was a freshman writing seminar class. Class was boring and un-interesting, and she graded nothing the whole semester until we turned in a final portfolio a few days before grades were due.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: ANTHRO250
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: N/A
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

lecture slides were disorganized and they weren't very cohesive. don't ever hand in a paper even a few hours late. she gives you the evil eye and deducts a lot of points.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: ANTHR250
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: N/A
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Great class, terrible teacher. Definitely take the class for an easy A and some very interesting information on food. Also, we watched some really interesting movies. Lectures were disorganized, but section helped to clear things up. Do the readings! They're interesting anyways, so might as well.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: ANTHR250
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: N/A
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

The course readings and the lecture material are fabulously interesting, I learned a lot of things about food that I didn't realize before! You should definitely take this class if you like food =)