I really loved the content of this course and Professor Fong. Her lectures were clear, engaging, and perfect for effective note-taking. Professor Fong made her expectations very clear: attendance is mandatory, phones should not be out, and general respect for the course and professor expected. The only down-side was the midterm (this is were I struggled the most and my grade dipped). The midterm was an in-class essay and short answer questions. We only had 1 hours and 15 minutes to do this. If you are good at in-class tests you will totally be fine. I, on the other hand, am not lol. While I was very familiar and comfortable with the material, I was not prepared for this in-class essay and really struggled to write something coherent. Besides this, the final is a group project. You have plenty of time to work on it and if your group mates carry their weight, you'll be fine. Professor Fong is super helpful and friendly in office hours, cares about her students, and is all around very reasonable. I would take this class again (even with the stressful midterm).

Very engaging and nice lecturer and interesting class. Would take again! I wish the lecture recordings and slides weren't deleted after a week though.

Easily one of the best classes I've taken at UCLA, grateful to have enrolled + professor truly cares about the students + Dr. Fong is a great connection

The other reviewers for Fall '24 clearly dgaf about their education, maybe if you actually put effort into the class and showed up to lecture then you'd understand the exams/progression of the class? lol

Lectures are engaging + build off one another, the very final lecture was one of the most memorable classroom moments in my time at UCLA

A common complaint is that lecture slides aren't shared, but I think it's to get students to show up to lecture --- if you show up to lecture and participate, you'll get more out of the class

If you're interested in Asian American history and identity definitely take this course, the other reviewer for Fall '24 clearly does not care about humanities (didn't show up to lecture??), this class only made me more interested in the humanities

If you put effort into the class Dr. Fong will take notice + will be willing to help you out in the future, given that it's difficult to make a connection with some other professors at UCLA I would 100% take advantage

Dr. Fong is an excellent, knowledgable, and conscientious teacher who pours incredible care into her teaching and her students. Although the course is rigorous, every material and assignment we engage with has been intentionally curated to challenge us to grow, think critically, and build confidence in ourselves. Dr. Fong provides adequate support through every step of the process and genuinely wants the best for her students. The course is centered around a group research project that is extremely transformative and impactful, allowing students to pursue a topic that is personal and meaningful to them. For this reason, I believe this particular class (103) should be offered at least once every year to allow students to experience this transformation. On top of this, Dr. Fong is the perfect teacher for this class because of her thoughtfulness in providing feedback (she spends time to leave comments for every assignment) and interdisciplinary approach to ethnic studies (readings draw from black and indigenous scholars).

For my research project, I collaborated with 2 other group members and we chose to focus our topic on Asian American immigrant stay-at-home mothers. It was honestly the most impactful project I've ever worked on in my life - I got to ask my mom very personal questions (which I might've never had the chance to without this project) and I cried during my interview while hearing about her recount her experiences. The process of synthesizing all our data and insights into a 20-page research paper was challenging, but it was so incredibly rewarding because we ended up creating something we were very proud of. The collaborative nature of the project was also so powerful in allowing us to lean on each other for emotional support and connect more deeply with one another. I'm happy to say that I got super close with my group members and we're still good friends even after leaving the class. If you're interested in reading my group's paper, feel free to reach me at cjleung[at]g.ucla.edu!

Keep in mind that course material can feel a little overwhelming at times with several deadlines a week and constant engagement in readings, especially while students are balancing a large research project. I think reducing the workload during certain weeks could be helpful in making the course more manageable and not as heavy. However, I recognize that there is a purpose in the workload for building discipline and knowledge, and Dr. Fong's support makes it very doable for students even if it is challenging.

All in all, I am super pleased with my experience in this course and commend Dr. Fong as a phenomenal instructor. :')

This class was horrible. Professor Fong was uptight for no reason. She would post lecture slides and take them down after a week. Her final was a 6 page essay with the most complicated prompt.

i would not take this class for several reasons. i think the textbook is terribly written; the other readings assigned are fine to good but the main textbook is just awful and honestly not worth anyone's time. i think prof is bizarrely protective over lecture slides that essentially amount to a few bullet points that summarize readings + some pictures usually from the textbook but fear not anyone who is reading this who has already enrolled and cannot switch to a more interesting ge: i went to three lectures total, did not look at lecture slides, and (fairly) smoothly received an A in the course. and in general i find what was actually taught was pretty mediocre. it's an intro class of course but walking into lecture and getting hit with definition of imperialism as "When a country has a large influence on another country" and colonialism as "When a country occupies another country" nearly ended me permanently. it actually made me start to question the value of humanities education as it currently exists and i have always loved the humanities. in short save urself it's not that hard but it's also not worth it. just find a book on the particular aspect of asian american history you want to learn about and read that

Dr. Fong is a passionate teacher who truly cares about educating her students on the importance of Asian American history. Her course isn't overly difficult, but it does require a lot of reading. I stopped keeping up with the readings after the midterm, which didn't affect me much because the final was open note. I was able to use the readings during the final in order to find quotes and correctly cite things. So, make sure to stay on top of the assigned readings for the midterm. After that, you can slack off a bit if you need to. You can also just listen to the presentations for the assigned readings during the discussion.

She is strict on sharing her course content. For example, she closes her slides after a week, I think. In addition, she doesn’t allow any audio/video recordings, screenshots, or photos. So, make sure to take notes with the date and title. That’ll be very helpful to cite for the final. Her lectures are also basically a review of “The Making of Asian America: A History” by Erika Lee.

This class is a lot of work, but definitely worth it!
Weaknesses: I think that nearing the end, the readings get to be overwhelming when we are also expected to complete a very big group assignment. I understand that they were already reduced for this concern, but readings such as one that discussed the history of objects may have been cut to reduce the workload a little. Even reducing page numbers by selecting the most important pages may have been helpful. It was still manageable, but that was with one week having no readings and time to completely focus on the group project, and I'm unsure how I would've done without that week. Nevertheless, I have very little other complaints about this course and even this is like a nitpick and nothing that would dissuade me from taking the class again.
Strengths: by the end of the course, a whole research paper is completed. I think this is a great way to explore research, and even more incredible that it focuses on Asian Americans. There is also a focus on the decolonization of methodology, which I think is relevant especially to us as a research institution. Also, Dr. Fong is incredible. It almost makes me cry how much she truly cares. She fosters a great classroom environment, and makes an effort to connect with every single person, even in a class with twenty five people. She reads every piece of work submitted and gives proper feedback, which is very very rare in other classes. I learned so so much from her and also my peers taking this course.

I really enjoyed this class as it covered material I had never learned about before. However, it is definitely a bit more of a work load so don't consider it a "easy" GE. But, as long as you put in considerable effort (aka read the readings) then you will be fine. Work hard for the midterm, so then you don't have to take the final!

Do the EC. READ her syllabus bc she gives a free EC opp. if you prove you read all her syllabus. Attend lecture bc she doesn't record and her slides get taken away after a week. Make sure you start on group project early. Grading was as followed: Discussion section 15%; Weekly discussion assignment 15%; Journals 5%; Exams 40%; Gidra assignment 25%. Talk to your TA or her if you will be missing class. Talk in section bc that matters. She is an easy A if you put in the work and you do it in a timely matter. I got an A- because I turned in like 3 things late. All her books and articles can be found online.