Even though I did not have much interest in Japanese Civilizations, I found that his lectures were very well prepared, filled with videos, sounds, and images to make them informative and entertaining. The readings for the discussion sections as well as the suggested reading from the textbook amounted to a lot of reading, although the readings for the sections were fairly entertaining. Pretty easy GE, although there is quite a bit of information to memorize for the midterm and final (non-cumulative).

Great teacher, easy class...
Honestly, lectures and reading the book is not necessary at all, but his lectures are interesting. At first I did all the readings, but after the midterm I realized I didn't have to. You do have to, however, read the outside readings. I got 100% on both my midterm and final. All you have to do is study the exam guides he provides you two days before the test. SERIOUSLY, EVERYTHING ON THE STUDY GUIDE IS ON THE EXAMS VERBATIM. There's only one writing assignment, but he reveals that it is only a grade booster and that everyone who does it receives an A. Discussions are the only mandatory component to this class and remember to participate a lot, because it's 20% of your grade. Overall great class and is very interesting, especially if you are interested in the Japanese culture.

Test Format:
-First section: Five short paragraphs on anything from cultural development to dynasty description
-Second section: Define 10 out of 15 terms/keywords
-Third section: Give/Identify the author, date, title, and short description of the outside readings.

You TA will pretty much determine your grade, since they grade your responses, participation and your tests. The only thing Duthie grades is you response paper, which he admits he will give you full credit if you turn it in (barring that it is no complete BS.)

Nice guy, though lectures can get pretty boring. A pretty easy GE course.

When I took this course freshman year, it was his first time teaching it. Even so, he did a great job! The lectures were interesting and he mixed it up a lot so there were videos too. The material was not hard, just memorize what's on the midterm and final review sheets and you'll get a good grade. What you put in will reflect your grade in the class.

As said below, Duthie builds his class around learning rather than grading. You could reasonably skip the lectures and just use the study guide he emails out. It has all the possible questions. The midterm and final are basically the same format and length, not cumulative. The TAs determine your grade so either hope you get a nice one or talk a lot in discussion (attendance and participation in discussions count towards your grade). He assigns a good amount of reading (20-50 pages per week + textbook) so if you don't particularly care for Japanese history it will bog you down and you do need to read for the tests as well as discussion.

Duthie has a British accent and talks fast but he's usually easy to understand and has a good sense of humor. He likes to show pictures and short video clips, which helped keep me awake. It should be an easy A if you do most of the work. I give him an 8/10 overall.

Prof Duthie is totally awesome! He's super chill and wants people to learn for the sake of learning and not for GPA's. So like, his class isnt hard, but it isnt easy. Basically, if you put in the work for your grade, you'll get the one you deserve. You wont study hard and then get a crappy grade.