Had Professor Matsumoto for AAS10. I thought she was a fairly good lecturer and articulated her thoughts and ideas well. The lectures on plantations and agriculture got a little dry but overall I enjoyed the class. My TA Jane was pretty awesome and I actually decided to become an Asian American Studies Minor after taking the class.

The class isn't too difficult as long as you go to lectures and discussions. The readings aren't extremely difficult and are usually narratives so it's not too dull. There is a midterm and a final. Professor Matsumoto gives you a study guide with about 6 or so questions and she chooses 2 or 3 of them to put on the test so you get to prepare before hand. There's no reason you shouldn't get an A!

I took Asian American Studies 10 with Professor Matsumoto. Boy, was it a waste of my time. Lectures are absolutely pointless and incredibly boring. Right when class starts, she goes on for the whole class period without stopping, which was usually about an hour and fifteen minutes. I went to all of the lectures and just did homework in the back most of the time. She uploads all of the powerpoints for her lectures online. But thats not to say the class is hard. She has 1 midterm and one 8-page research paper, and mandatory reflections due every week in discussion. Luckily I had a nice TA so it balanced out. The grading scheme is kind of skewed because the paper is worth about 55% of your grade. Her final and midterm are basically the same, she gives 6 essay questions beforehand, and she puts up 3 random ones on the exam, and you choose 2. As long as you read the books she has you buy (we had 4), and read over key points from the powerpoints, you should be fine. The paper was also easily graded, but it was just time-consuming, especially if you leave it until the weekend before it's due. All in all, with never paying attention in lecture, and just reading half the books, I managed to scrape an A- in the class. If you're looking for an easy class, and don't mind writing papers/reflections, this class is for you.