I cannot stand this woman. I had her for some Asian American Women class and it was fine, not too hard because we had a TA. Then I had her for another class and she gave me D's on all my reading response (and I normally get A's in other classes) and then she turned me in for plagiarism because I had ONE sentence that was similar to wikipedia. The head of my department said she turns in someone for plagiarism every quarter. She is also the most annoying speaker in the world.

Gender 103 (Knowledge) has a reputation for being one of the more challenging core classes in Gender Studies, especially since it ties into philosophy more heavily. Even though I got an A in the class and found the assignments to be graded leniently, the class is not a cakewalk if you take it with Grace Hong. My departmental advisor told us that she gets complaints every time Hong teaches this class. This review will show you why that’s the case.

BACKGROUND:
The last time Hong taught Knowledge before Spring 2021 was Fall 2016, which had a similar structure. However, the Spring 2021 version of this class was designed with COVID-19 in mind, replacing reading notes with reading response worksheets (which are graded on completion) and replacing the take-home final with a final project. We still had the study question assignment, which is really straightforward and completion-based. You were allowed to either do a traditional research paper or do a creative piece, and students like me chose the latter. Plus, you didn’t have to buy a textbook, which was nice.

THE CLASS ITSELF:
Knowledge was definitely a wild ride. The material was very difficult to understand, especially when we were assigned readings from old white philosophers like Descartes and Locke. My major complaint was that these philosophers hardly had any ties to the field of feminist epistemology. I get that this class is trying to give us a background in epistemology. But for some reason, the Descartes reading (about trying to prove that God exists) and the Locke reading (about power and property) hardly had anything to do with gender and knowledge production. They should have replaced them with something more manageable and introductory so that you’re not feeling whiplashed by the ancient language of white philosophers like Descartes. The good thing is that at least we got to read works from Audre Lorde, Patricia Hill Collins, and Saidiya Hartman. These Black women scholars made profound contributions to the way we study feminist knowledge production.

Besides the readings, the lectures weren’t the best. Hong isn’t the most organized and engaging lecturer. She doesn’t have slides, so it was hard to follow along at times. Plus, she tends to use filler words like “um,” “right?” and “you know?” Thus making it hard for me to focus on lecture. Luckily, Hong knows the readings really well and she sometimes explains the main ideas and contours thoroughly (as in the case with her lecture on Audre Lorde). Even that wasn’t enough to make her lectures worthwhile.

Discussion sections (led by the TAs Nic and Nashra) were the highlight of this class. My TA Nic (they/them) was very kind, supportive, reassuring, and extremely helpful in section and in office hours. They made the course material manageable and facilitated a strong community among students. They even went so far as to create a Slack workspace for students in their sections. I never had Nashra (they/them) but I heard they’re really sweet and super helpful as well.

Though this class was a pain in the ass, Hong was actually a decent person. She’s really sweet and approachable in office hours, plus she listened to us after the whole Gradescope fiasco (and allowed us to submit reading responses through CCLE). She was flexible with deadlines and gave us extensions when needed, no questions asked. She’s also a great resource on anything related to gender studies research and grad school. At one point, she recommended a colleague of hers whose research interests align with mine.

OVERALL: 3/5
I was lucky that I took this class during the pandemic since the grading was very lenient. But it still doesn’t change the fact that it is a difficult class due to the material. I would recommend taking advantage of help from the professor, TAs, fellow students, and online resources to aid with understanding the course content. If Hong ever teaches Knowledge again, she might go back to the reading notes and take-home final. I hope she still continues to be flexible even after COVID-19 is over.

If Joshua Guzman ever teaches Knowledge again, take him. I heard that he’s engaging, clear, through, and has an interesting take on Knowledge. With that being said, Knowledge will still be a tough class regardless of who is teaching it. But getting an A with either professor is doable. And I wish current and future gender studies students all the best.

I don't know what everyone's complaining about. I took her this quarter, and to be honest-- yes she has a tendency of saying um's and what not, but after a while, you get used to it.

She is EXTREMELY friendly during office hours- and very very approachable. She smiles and even though not the funniest jokes, the effort is noticeable.

The reading load is really not that bad--and unlike other classes it's quite interesting actually.

The TAs can be difficult depending on who it is, but I had Angela and she was really friendly--just do your homework and do all of the readings, they can really be interesting.

Go see Dr. Hong when you have a chance and just honestly, realize that this class is really interesting everything you learn is something quite new.

Boring+huge workload+lectures that could never be followed+weird class rules= horrible class
Neither the professor nor TA would give definite answers to your questions during classes or office hours.
Horribly time-consuming->took me forever to study and write papers/weekly reflections to get an A-
The only thing that I have learnt from this course is knowing what a HORRIBLE class is like.

DO NOT TAKE HER CLASS!!!!! She is the worst professor I've ever met in UCLA! Her lecture is nonsense. Her jokes are not funny but she thinks she is humorous. If you ask your TA questions, your TA will tell you: in the lecture the professor told you blablabla. But you cannot learn anything from the lecture because she always "ah, you know. ah, you know...".
I regret to take this class!!!!! If you take it, you need to change the letter grade to pnp!!!!!

*For Gender Studies 103*
I have never had a negative experience in Gender Studies major until I took this class. Not only does Professor Hong lack the ability to consistently facilitate productive classes, but she is also extremely unprofessional and rude. She contradicts the theories and values furthered by the major through her actions. For example, rather than transforming silence into language and action as Audre Lorde would further, she fostered silences--creating an unsafe space for discussion in that she makes students feel stupid. She often encouraged students to come to office hours, but I and many other students found she is not genuinely unapproachable. While I did well in the class, I would not choose to take another class with her.

For Asian Am 50... couldn't find it elsewhere

She has good analysis of readings and going to lecture is a must. HOWEVER she is a TERRIBLE speaker; she often reiterates and repeats the same ideas at least 3-5 times before moving on to the next topics. In addition she says "uuuummmmm..." literally every 2 sentences. I CANNOT GET OVER IT.

The readings are analytical but get dull after the second week, its just a lot of reading and writing.

Really easy class to pass, if you go to office hours she will definitely remember you and that could work in your favor, but after a while she gets reaaaally annoying.

Professor Hong is the sweetest person and her passion for teaching courses related to Gender Studies is evident, but she is the worst lecturer of all the professors I've had in 3 full years at UCLA. Her lectures are unorganized, tangential, and unrehearsed, ultimately making them pointless to attend, as all the material for her Gen 10 class this quarter was explained better in the assigned texts. She also says "um" and "right" and "ya know" about 10 times per sentence which makes it very difficult to pay attention. She is great at answering questions and explaining tricky topics in easily understandable ways, and she gives very fair exams. But, I wish I had taken Gen 10 with any other professor.

Overall: I actually took this class with Professor Alves but she isn't listed lol. But anyways, as an 8 AM class it was kind of brutal because the lectures seemed kind of pointless. A lot of the times the lectures were historical backgrounds or contexts for the readings and when we did talk about the actual readings, she talked very generally about the main ideas of them. But overall, if you do the readings (for the most part they weren't extremely boring), you'll do well. It's a pretty easy GE so I'd recommend it only if you have any interest at all in Asian American experiences.

Tests/Quizzes: There are no tests in this class. There are 4 "pop quizzes" that are 5 questions each (the first one was a pop quiz and the other three she gave us a heads up about it) . If you have any idea of what is happening in the slightest and you generally skimmed the readings for that week, you will get at least a 3/5. There are three essays that are 2-3 pages: a podcast reflection, a literary reflection, and a film reflection. These were pretty easy to write, as they were so short.

Attendance: Participation is a part of your grade so go to your discussion and you're fine. She's really annoying about being late to lecture and also will call you out if your phone isn't on silent. But for almost all of the lectures I would listen to music and not really pay attention. She uses slides so just copy the notes and then you can zone out because her actual lectures aren't very helpful.

Homework: The homework is just all reading so if you hate reading DO NOT take this class. I enjoy reading and most of the time I enjoyed the stories. Some of the articles she has us read are boring but if you really can't bear it, you can skim. There are a few articles that are important for the midterm/final but she goes over them in lecture so you can skim the readings and be fine. Read the stories and short stories though, as they are the main focus of the final and papers you write. In discussion, there is one group presentation about one of the short stories you read. It is really easy and slides aren't required but everyone ended up making a presentation anyways but it had minimal text on it and everyone just talks for 1-2 minutes each.

Midterm/Final: She cancelled the midterm for us because she said the stress was "taking away from learning" which was nice. The final consisted of choosing 2 out of 4 questions to answer, one paragraph each. Then you have to choose 2 essays to write out of 4. If you review the authors, stories, and the main themes of the class, you will do fine.

TAs: The two TAs available for this class were Rishi and Micaella. TAKE IT WITH MICAELLA. Honestly, she is so sweet and nice and will grade your presentation/essays easily. I didn't have Rishi but from what I have gathered, he has a stick up his ass. He'll glare at you if you come into lecture late and he randomly calls on people if you don't participate. Plus, he's a harsh grader. Take it with Micaella and the class will be 10x easier.

"Um, y'know, right? RIght? Right? Y'know?" is all I hear during her lectures. Horrible lecturer. Too much work for a GE, you have to read over 100+ pages a week and I mean you HAVE to because you have a two page analysis each week to do it on it. She barely covers the surface of the readings and mainly goes off on tangents.