This was my favorite class this quarter! The lectures were pretty engaging and you could tell that Prof. Tamai has a lot of passion and interest for the material taught. The subject matter was relevant and well taught with clarity.

The exams were all pretty straightforward, and as long as you know the key concepts, terms, and legislation and can explain them, you're pretty much set. For the essay, you can choose any topic you want related to contemporary Asian America, so there's a lot of freedom there to research something you're genuinely interested in. The grading on the midterm, essay, and final was also pretty fair and most of your grade is based on these components.

Professor Welty is an amazing lecturer, and I would recommend anyone to take her class. She is a lot of fun, sweet, and you definitely would not regret it. She's a very clear lecturer and seriously is concerned about every one of her students and their learning. In a class of 80-ish, she also remembered quite a few names, especially if you participate. I also had a great TA, Angel, so that also contributed to the experience. The workload isn't that bad - there are a couple readings that you should do each lecture (which I honestly only skimmed or even skipped), but everything you need is gone over in detail during class anyway so you can get by not really doing most in that field. I was rather on the lazier side, but I always looked forward going to lecture even if I didn't do the reading.

Psst...the reading is from books you CAN get from the store. It's definitely on the cheaper end, and if you don't want to get the books, she uploads the parts you need onto CCLE, and there are a few copies you can check from in the library.

There's paper that is divided into a rough draft, peer review, and final draft, and you can get a lot of guidance if you want. The midterm has an essay (which prompts are discussed during discussion section) plus a few key terms, and the final has a similar format. As long as you go to each lecture and take notes, you'll be fine. Be sure to discuss the significance of each term because it is rather emphasized. Generally it's rather easy if you go to lecture.

She never posts her slides online or uses a podcast, so do yourself a favor and attend lecture each time. You might have to take quite a bit of notes (but she tells you what you need/don't need for the most part), but I can guarantee you that you'll have a great time anyway. Best GE professor so far, and it was definitely worth it!

take this class! it will feel so rewarding. i'm not quite sure why i got an A- bc i worked really hard and it makes me kinda sad but i still absolutely loved the class, the material, and my TA haha. took it my first quarter of my first year and it made my transition to ucla a little more special.

I really liked this class! I took it my first quarter at UCLA and the professor was really passionate about the subject material. I did the readings for the first few weeks and then I slacked off a buuuunch, but if you listen to the lectures in class and take decent notes based on those, you're good to go! Write your essay on something you're passionate about, because the whole class will be way more enjoyable then. :)

This class was amazing. Professor Tamai-Welty is just brilliant. You can tell she really understands and loves the material. Even though I got an A- I am so grateful I was able to take this class. It was so refreshing to learn about my culture and other Asian cultures, especially since this course is contemporary Asian America. The readings were a lot usually but I enjoyed reading because I enjoyed the subject. Professor Tamai-Welty goes over all the concepts in lecture anyways. The only complaint I have about this course is that I never saw anything inputted into myUCLA grades. I just received my final grade but I never saw my final exam grade, final paper grade, discussion section grade, etc.

Hands down one of the best professors in the AAS department. I took professor Welty for two courses and both courses taught by her were some of my favorite AAS courses taken at UCLA. She's incredibly helpful and only wants her students to succeed. She's incredibly approachable and doesn't make you feel nervous about speaking up in class and sharing your opinion. There are a lot of readings and work for the class, but the readings and pretty interesting. Highly recommend taking any of Professor Welty's class!

Lecture:
Professor Welty uses lecture slides as a foundation for her lectures, and she comments on the slides. Her slides are not posted online, so I would recommend attending lectures. She tells you when it is unnecessary to copy down the information, such as statistics and quotes. I thoroughly enjoyed the course and found the topics interesting and relatable. Sometimes, she would show videos to illustrate her point. There will be some lectures where she would show a film and have you answer some questions and turn it in at the end of class. In general, Professor Welty is very engaging, and I looked forward to going to her lectures.

Discussion:
The discussion is made up of a short presentation by students each week and a discussion about that week's readings. I had to write six one-page reading reflection journals, which were graded very easily. Attending discussions is crucial to your grade, and you should try to engage in the discussions to earn more points. One absence = 3% marked off your grade, two absences =9% marked off your grade, three absences = 27% marked off your grade, etc.

Grade:
This is an essay GE to get an A in as long as you put in a little bit of effort. There is a midterm and a final. They both include passage identifications, which ask you to identify the key term and you will need to write about what it is and why it is important. Then, you also need to write an essay to answer one out of a few prompts. You will need to relate these to specific examples from the readings or the films. The midterm and final are both pretty easy as long as you study a little bit. There is a 6-8 page essay, and you are allowed to write about anything related to Asian American studies. Part of your grade for that is based on turning in an outline and a working draft. Discussion makes up a large portion of your grade too - this includes attendance, participation, and a group presentation. Also, there are occasional worksheets to fill out based on videos that you need to watch for homework. There are readings assigned that you are supposed to finish before each lecture, but they are really only to aid your understanding of the topic. The readings assigned are very long and sometimes boring, but Professor Welty will teach you that you only need to read the introduction, conclusion, and the first sentence of each body paragraph. You will need to buy a textbook called Contemporary Asian America, The New Chinese America, and The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. There are several opportunities to earn extra credit, such as going to a museum or attending a guest lecture. At the end of the quarter, you turn in a self-reflection to suggest what grade you think you deserve, and the TA takes it into consideration before assigning you a grade.

Grade Breakdown:
Midterm: 20%
Final: 30%
Paper: 25%
Section: 20%
Film Responses: 5%

Professor Welty is an amazing professor that is engaging and funny in lectures! This has been one of my favorite classes so far. This is an "easy G.E." where you'll do well only if you're well-engaged and understand the material (which isn't that difficult). The only downside to this is that there is quite a bit of reading accompanying *each lecture*.

Also, I'm selling the three textbooks needed for the class. Just email me at dligotmail@gmail.com

From what I've heard about other GE's, this is definitely one of the more work-intensive ones. According to the syllabus, students are expected to read 4 hours per lecture, which in my opinion, is a lot of reading in addition to weekly reflections, tem paper, and other small homework assignments. The professor was very nice, but she was not the greatest at lecturing. The TA's were ok at best, mostly because they didn't help much, even at office hours. There were a multitude of extra credit assignments and other random assignments to pad your grade. Participation during discussions is important as well. They did not post individual grades on myUCLA, but I assume that our quarterly reflection on the grade we deserve in the class is heavily considered in assigning grades. I would do this class only if you are super passionate about Asian American studies. I did learn a lot, but there was a lot of effort needed.

Professor Welty is a great lecturer, and this class was overall very easy, but there is a LOT of readings assigned each week and you must resist developing a habit of skipping them while focusing on your other major related courses.
There is one group presentation during discussion and one research paper that you have to write but the grading is pretty lenient.
The students get to choose what will be on the midterm and final (in class they just ask us to shout out various vocab words and topics).
Midterm contains about 2-3 identification questions which is a brief paragraph response for each ID, and then an essay prompt where you choose 1 out of 4 prompts.
Final has roughly the same structure, except there's a couple more ID questions.
Attendance is crucial. Lectures are not podcasted and her slides are not posted online, and if you skip a discussion section, they'll deduct 3% of your overall grade at the end of the quarter, and for each additional section you skip, they'll raise the percentage to powers of 3 (2nd offense: 9%, 3rd offense: 27%, etc)