I took Soc M164 Politics of Reproduction with Landecker (this is not an option you can pick when rating the class on bruinwalk). She is really sweet and and you can tell she is interested and passionate about what she is teaching. This class in itself was super interesting, and is one of my favorite classes that I have taken so far. There are 4 or 5 easy quizzes, a midterm, a final, and a term paper. Everything is graded fairly and I ended up with an A!

Actual class taken: Society and Genetics 5

Dr. Landecker taught the first half of the course and Dr. Lynch Alfaro taught the second half.

Just as the other reviewers said, Dr. Landecker is a very kind person. However, she is a very boring lecturer and I struggled to stay awake during her classes.

Grading Breakdown
20% Midterm
20% Essay
20% Participation
20% Quizzes
20% Final

The midterm was during Dr. Landecker's part of the class and was far more difficult than most of us expected. The average was in the mid-70s. This was definitely the most difficult part of the class.

The essay was seven pages consisting of a 1 page introduction to the issue (antibiotic resistance or the microbiome) and then 2 separate 3-page testimonies to Congress about the issue. It's easy as long as you don't wait until the day before its due to start.

Participation is simply doing the weekly standing assignment (involves reading 2 articles, writing key terms, a quick summary, and asking one question for each article) and occasionally speaking during discussion. Easy points.

5 quizzes, all during the the last half of the course. The lowest gets dropped. The readings are irrelevant for these, just review your notes.

The final was given by Dr. Lynch Alfaro and was a bit easier than Landecker's.

Overall the class was not too difficult. Plenty of opportunities for easy points to bring your grade up. That said, there are definitely easier GEs for you to take. If subjects like antibiotic resistance, the microbiome, and reproduction rates/techniques interest you, go ahead and take the class.

SOC GEN 5
I had professor Landecker for the first half of course than professor Alfaro for the last part. Professor Alfaro was the better lecturer. Professor Landecker is really passionate and approachable, but I had a hard time following her lecture--it seemed to me that she jumped from one topic and one topic rather quickly and I always got lost. Going to her office hours didn't help me much either--she sometimes never really answered my questions.
Overall, I suggest taking the class with Professor Alfaro who is the better lecturer and keeps the class engaged ! Also her power points were practically all you needed to do well in her class!

**SOC GEN 5**

I took this class during fall quarter of 2014, when Landecker taught the first half and Lynch-Alfaro the second half. Professor Landecker is a nice lady, but her lectures are incredibly dry. I fell asleep in every single lecture no matter how hard I tried to stay awake. Landecker's quizzes and midterm were arguably harder than the ones given by Lynch-Alfaro. Most people in this class are pre-human biology majors, but I'm a political science major who took this class as a GE. It was really easy, though, especially if you took AP bio in high school. I ended up with an "A+" in the class with minimal effort. I'd recommend the class with Professor Lynch-Alfaro instead.

I've tried so hard to stay awake in this class, but I immediately fall asleep once Landecker starts talking. Her voice is very unenthusiastic, so potentially interesting topics sounded extremely boring during lectures. The course is supposed to be about both human biology and society, but the focus seems to be mostly on biology. The exams are hard because she includes small biological details that we didn't know we were supposed to study. The questions are also really tricky, where you think two answers are technically right, but one is slightly "more correct" than the other. This professor pretty much ruined Human Biology and Society for me, but I hear that the class with Lynch-Alfaro is really great compared to this one.

As a 3rd year HBS major, this class is much like your other GEs - written portions on exams (this is what got me, forgot how to english), per-lecture readings, weekly discussion participation assignments (30 min spent typing them up), and so on. The grading for this class was fairly lenient, although as mentioned before, a large portion of it is up to the TA's discretion. The biggest takeaway from this class by far though, is the way Dr. Landecker presented the class material. For those who are interested in applying to the HBS BA or BS, I highly suggest you take a course with Dr. Landecker. She is truly passionate about her research, and if you are interested in the topics as well, you will find her lectures immensely engaging. This course was by no means hard, and is the most unique courses I've taken yet in its unconventional structure without a textbook supplement.

This class was not hard at all, as long as you put in a bit of effort. If you do the readings, go to lecture/section (participation is a large portion of your grade), and study for the exams, you will be fine. She gives a study guide for her exams and the material to fill out the study guide can be found directly in her lecture slides. Her lectures are also BruinCasted, which were useful to refer back to while studying. She doesn't allow technology (phones or laptops) during class so you have to handwrite your notes. Overall good class.

The other review for this particular quarter (Fall 2016) is unfair; while Landecker may not be the most engaging professor, she is extremely well versed in the material and wants to see students succeed. Lectures are BruinCasted, slides are posted online, and there is no textbook; instead, students have to read about ~4 articles per week and do a very short (less than one page) assignment regarding TWO of the articles per week. Your grade will be determined mostly by your TA, as they grade these assignments, the midterm/final, and the one essay that is required of you. The grading scheme is actually rounded out fairly nicely by large percentages attributed to participation in discussion, alongside a few (very short) participatory assignments that Landecker passes out every once and a while to encourage attendance in lecture. I also took Soc Gen 89 (the honors seminar for the course) and highly recommend; Landecker's 1-on-1 interactions are inquisitive and much more charismatic than the large lecture allows for. I am a more of a science-heavy student, so I actually wished we focused MORE on the biology-based material (we rarely discussed the biological causation/explanations of the material in-depth; rather, we focused a lot on their actual implications and this often spun the conversation in-lecture towards more societal narratives. Just another reason I disagree with the other review). The exam questions CAN be misleading, I admit, but they are not so impossible to navigate that you will fail the exams; review what she SAYS in lecture rather than the lecture slides themselves and the rest will follow (this is made easy by the BruinCasts). All-in-all, this class is not all-that-difficult to succeed in - it's up to you to put in a decent amount of work and not just blow this class off as an easy GE. I'd definitely take this class - with this professor - again.

I thought this class was very interesting and the professor was really nice and helpful! We had a multiple choice midterm and a take home final with short answer questions. There was plenty of opportunities for extra credit as well. Since this was her first time teaching the class, the midterm grades were curved.

I actually took SOC180B with her during Fall 2025 Quarter and this is an AMAZING professor. The class was on Sociology of Nutrition and Health and I actually learned so much with her. Like seriously, her grading is pretty standardized, but her exams can be a bit tricky. Doable but a bit hard, especially for the multiple choice part, she will have more than required options to test you for example 10 options and choose 4 of them etc. But overall, my experience with her was really pleasant. If you can get a class with her, I will definitely recommend go for it. My TA Andrew was amazing as well. Now I'm conducting research with her.