I took this course in Fall 2024 and enjoyed it. Profe is a great guy who's very passionate about the material, and he wants everyone to succeed in his class whether they have any background in anthropology or not. I took it as a random elective because I enjoy learning about ancient history and mythologies, and while it's much more focused on urban planning, artifacts, and archaeology, I still found a lot of it interesting. The lectures are a bit dry and basic, but if the students ask questions and participate enough, it goes a lot smoother.

It's also a great choice if you're trying to add a lighter class to your schedule and get an easy A. Profe's grading scale is so generous that he said it should be illegal, and he's not wrong—I have to imagine at least half of the class got an A+. All you have to do is finish a few short articles or videos per week and make sure you speak up at least once per week to get the participation points. Then there are a few short essays that ask you to expand on your favorite parts of the class. As long as all the facts are correct, your writing skills aren't super important for those. The final project is also straightforward, and it gives you multiple options for what you want to cover and in what format, like a longer essay, a video presentation, or an artistic rendering of an ancient city. He even gave us the last two weeks of the class off just so we had time to work on the final.