IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR AN ENJOYABLE, INSIGHTFUL "EASY" GE, TAKE THIS COURSE.

This class is by far my favorite course in the humanities I've taken at UCLA. I'm so happy I took it. The content was SO interesting and the course was really laid back which is what I needed during this stressful remote quarter.

Professor Ingenito is a brilliant professor who really cares about his students and it shows. He's so nice and approachable and he's insanely knowledgeable about the topics in the course, but what mattered to me was that he was able to breakdown complex concepts and gave us the foundation to analyze the works in the class. The first few weeks were like a crash course into sex, gender, and sexuality and a great intro into gender studies if that interests you. Getting the basics down made understanding the context of the texts on Persian love poetry and mysticism so much easier to understand. I feel like this course just generally made me a more informed, well-read human being.

Note: you definitely do NOT need to be Persian to take the class. Most people weren't Persian and didn't speak it, it's all in English. It was so cool seeing all types of people enjoy Persian literature.

The class was a laid back seminar style where we could freely ask questions when needed, and read through poems that we would then further analyze and tie together with important lecture/reading topics.

WORKLOAD:
Really manageable and if you put in effort and show interest, you will get an A.

This class consisted of weekly reports that were ~200 words where you analyzed the texts/made connections to lecture topics. Easy points and great way to master the topics without much stress.
Midterm + Final were both essays with broad topics that allowed you to pick what you were interested in from the course materials covered and use the readings to write about pretty much whatever you were intrigued by.

If you're interested in gender studies, human sexuality outside the Western context, poetry from Sufis like Rumi and Hafez, or even just into art and literature as a whole, TAKE THIS CLASS!

This is the first time I am actually writing a review on Bruinwalk because I absolutely LOVED this professor and this class. Professor Ingenito demonstrates such passion for the subject matter and just wants to see his students engage in the subject material and learn, which is further encouraged by the fact that he offers extra credit for simply attending lecture and participating. He wants his students to focus on learning and not stress about grades so he has made an effort to ensure that it is quite difficult to not do well in this class - all you need to do is show up and actually learn and engage with the course material and you will do well. The course material is also so incredibly interesting and a side of history that I never knew existed. I learned so much in this class and I enjoyed every second. Also, Ingenito is just the purest most wholesome professor I've ever had. He gets so excited about the topics we cover and the insight the students offer. Attending lecture each week and seeing his animated face light up in class really made my quarter. If you are looking for an easy, not to mention incredibly interesting GE with a professor who actually cares about his students, TAKE THIS CLASS. You will not regret it.

For a first time course, this class was beautifully constructed and planned out. The professor knew exactly what he wanted us to learn from this class and took the time to answer any questions we had. He really allowed his students to have a voice, which is very important. All of the readings connected weekly to what we were learning in class. Also, the syllabus was very straightforward.

Ingenito really cares for his students and it shows. He is the sweetest professor ever and if you are looking for an easy GE take this class. I feel like the review above me says it all so I'm not going to repeat much. Both TAs, Atiyeh, and Julie were GOATs. They explaining everything so well and were really nice and chill. 10/10 recommend this class to anyone.

I feel like the other reviews were a bit misleading. This class was pretty easy up until the midterm and final. We were given readings every week to complete, but to be honest I never did them and ended up getting an A so that does say something about how easy it is. We also had a weakly report we had to submit every week discussing the readings from that week, but it is pretty easy to make stuff up because it was just completion points. However, the midterm and final were pretty ridiculous.
Midterm:
The midterm was due Tuesday night of week 7 and he expected us to include ALL of the readings that we had been assigned so far in class to be cited in the paper. (For reference, it was about 25 different sources, some of which had nothing to do with the prompt.) It was supposed to be a minimum of 1,500 words and no more than 1,800. The prompt was extremely broad and hard to have a clear, cohesive argument while also forcing 25 different sources in the paper. I will say that as long as you have a clear thesis, some form of structure, and use all the sources, you should get an A on the paper.
Final:
Final was the same format, but he only expected us to use sources from week 6 and after. The prompt for the final was really similar to the midterm except he had us also discuss the concept of spirituality. I found the final was easier than the midterm.
Final thoughts:
I think if gender and sexuality studies interest you, you will love this class. Professor Ingenito was very enthusiastic about the topic and made it easy to enjoy learning in class.

TAKE THIS CLASS!!!!! I am a first-year student and wanted to take some GEs. I'm a STEM major but I would totally take this class again.

Professor Ingenito: You will never find someone as sweet and as passionate as he is! He truly cares about his students and the way his face lights up is the most wholesome thing ever. All he wants is to share his passion for Persian literature with his students. He doesn't care about grades as long as he knows that you understand the materials. He constantly asks for feedback and is so adaptable to his teaching styles to make sure each of his students is doing well.

Workload: Each class he assigns us reading or two for the next lecture and they are so interesting. Most of the time I never read them, I just skimmed through right before class to get a general idea, but almost all of the readings he gave us were something I enjoyed reading. They cover the topics of gender, sex, and love related to Persian poets, their works, and the Iranian government. I basically spent like one hour of work a week on this class.

Grades: The only thing you have to do in this class is to upload a weekly report which is around 200-300 words minimum. All you do is write about what you learned within the past week. That's literally it. The midterm and final are short papers (1,500 words) and on both of them, he asks you to just write a paper connecting the readings that were assigned in the quarter. THAT'S IT!!!!!! It shows just how much he truly just wants you to understand the coursework and general ideas in this class. He also gives extra credit for showing up to lectures.

TAs: Both of the TAs are awesome and you can't go wrong with picking one.

General Takeaway- For my first quarter at UCLA, this was my favorite class. It was nice having a professor that actually knew my name and genuinely cared about me and how I was doing. I loved that this class wasn't so focused on grades, and in all honestly, that led to me learning more because I simply was engaged with learning rather than focusing on making sure I got a good grade. I learned so much from this course and it truly changed my perspective on lots of things.

Okay so I took this class fall 2022 during the strike so I didn't finish out the year, but I still really enjoyed this class! I really appreciated how Professor Ingenito canceled class in solidarity with our striking TAs, iconic! This was a really fascinating class and I learned so much about medieval and modern Iranian history, art, and poetry through the lens of gender and sexuality! It was clear that Professor Ingenito really cared about this subject, and I had a great time! The workload was really light as well, just do the reading and come to class and you'll be fine! He's a really easy grader too :)

Content was really interesting, but there was quite a bit of reading. We had weekly reports synthesizing and reflecting on the readings, and we self-reported how many hours we spent on the class (syllabus said he expected 10-15 hours per week including class and discussion, but dedicating that much time is not necessary at all). We had two, 1500-word papers where we had to cite all readings assigned up until the paper (around 20-25 readings, I think). I thought that my TA (Julie) graded pretty leniently. Lectures were not recorded and slides were very long and text-heavy. Prof lectured on specific passages from the readings to talk about fluidity, homoeroticism, mysticism, etc in medieval poetry, but also tended to talk about topics that didn't relate to the readings.

As someone who knew nothing about Persian culture coming into the class, Iranian 55 was a really nice introduction. Dr. Ingenito was welcoming towards students of all backgrounds. 40% of your grade was based on coming to class and reading the literature he posted. 30% was your midterm and 30% was your final. The prompts for the midterm and final were broad, but allow you to rope in all the readings and create nuanced arguments. They are pretty easy to answer as long as you pay attention in class.

I feel like I learned a lot and had a genuinely good time!

As someone who did not come from an Iranian or Middle Eastern background, I thought this class was a nice introduction to Iranian culture. Though there were often times where I felt like an outsider, Professor Ingenito emphasized several times that everyone was welcome in this class. He had interactive lectures where he'd ask students to share their thoughts/ideas as he taught and was always open to answering questions. It was also really nice that we didn't have to buy any textbooks for this class.

Grade distribution:
10% attendance of lectures and discussions (I don't think attendance was ever taken at lectures though)
30% weekly reports (graded on completion & usually just asking us to share thoughts on the weekly assigned readings. The amount of reading was overwhelming at first, but fortunately they decreased a bit toward the end of the quarter. Some did fine by just skimming, but since I was unfamiliar with the subject material, I often had to read very carefully)
30% midterm essay
30% final essay
up to 7% extra credit by attending guest lectures via zoom and submitting a ~300 word reflection about it (1% per lecture attended)

About the midterm & final essays - the prompts were very broad but I personally found them pretty tough because we were required to incorporate every single reading we were assigned into them. Even though prof said that they would be graded leniently, the TAs did not really follow through with this. If it wasn't for the way participation and weekly reports were weighted, the grade distribution for this class would be much worse. Tbh my qualms with this class mostly came from my personal experiences during discussions and with my TA (Nora), but I'll leave those out of this review.

Overall, I would recommend this class if you're interested in learning about Iranian culture especially through gender and sexuality. The weighting of assignments means you don't have to do particularly well on the essays to get an A. I learned a lot and the way I view gender has changed.