Incredible lecturer, extremely well-informed and happy to learn more, even from students. Highly recommend this teacher and class, even for a lifelong Angeleno you will learn a lot. UCLA should give this man a tenured position!

One of my favorite professors. It would be a huge oversight on the part of UCLA if he is not hired as a full time professor!

This class was so, so good and Dr. DeGuzman ("JP") is extremely funny and enthusiastic. We had a potluck and he organized a field trip. We got most things done without going the full three hour block. The grade was broken down into hosting a group discussion and a paper. I'm pretty sure he gave A's to everyone, and I think this was smart because we were all a lot more relaxed and attentive because it was a low stress environment. He's a really smart guy, can't recommend highly enough.

Dr. Deguzman is a very knowledgeable and engaging lecturer. Unique from the other Asian Am 10 classes, J.P. allows his students to experience the history of the lived experiences of Asian Americans instead of assigning exams that determine the students' understanding of the material.
There are five writing assignments and a capstone project. The writing assignments are fairly easy to complete. The capstone project is a pop-up museum that is put together by groups of students that address a broad array of topics from immigration to Japanese internment to Asian American traditions and culture.
There are weekly readings assigned; however, I only found them useful to read and refer back to when writing the final reflection paper.
I was planning on majoring in Asian American Studies and after taking this class, it reaffirmed my decision.

Dr. Deguzman is a very knowledgeable and engaging lecturer. Unique from the other Asian Am 10 classes, J.P. allows his students to experience the history of the lived experiences of Asian Americans instead of assigning exams that determine the students' understanding of the material.
There are five writing assignments and a capstone project. The writing assignments are fairly easy to complete. The capstone project is a pop-up museum that is put together by groups of students that address a broad array of topics from immigration to Japanese internment to Asian American traditions and culture.
There are weekly readings assigned; however, I only found them useful to read and refer back to when writing the final reflection paper.
I was planning on majoring in Asian American Studies and after taking this class, it reaffirmed my decision.

JP is THE sweetest professor you'll meet at UCLA. It's a shame that he wasn't a lecturer earlier in the cluster. His courseload was extremely reasonable. There was readings each week that were manageable, and as long as you skim them, you should be fine during class.

He did an excellent job transitioning to zoom. He would often start the class by asking if we wanted to share about anything going on in our lives (while respecting the times when we didn't want to share), discussing current events, and he genuinely treated his students like adults. He never talked down to us once, and was so sad that he didn't get to meet us in person.

He said that he had planned a field trip and/or dining hall visit/potluck if we had been in person, and it's a shame that we didn't get to go through with that :,(

After the first few weeks, we then transitioned into the second half of the seminar being taught by a group of 1-3 students, where we'd take turns presenting slides about the topics of the reading. Just a warning for those who may not be comfortable speaking in public, it was required that we each took turns presenting, but he made the environment feel very comfortable.

He did a great job working through the silent moments when we were unsure how to answer his questions during a discussion, and never scolded us for not answering.

His seminar always ended early, so that was nice. There was no midterm for this class, and due to the circumstances, he also made the final essay optional !

JP is truly a gem of a professor, and I would highly recommend that you take his class.

Professor Deguzman is extremely knowledgeable, engaging, and funny in his lectures. I would definitely recommend this class to anyone who needs to fulfill their GE's. I cared about this class the most out of all my classes this quarter, and the TA's were very knowledgeable and understanding as well.

Out of all of the seminar options for Cluster20: Race and Indigeneity, I highly recommend Cluster20CW: Buddhism and Intersectionality. Not only do I think the content is very interesting, but Dr. JP DeGuzman is single-handedly one of the kindest, smartest, and best professors at this school. This class is centered around 2 books mainly, along with a few assigned digital readings that are extremely manageable. There are also a few field trips to Buddhist temples and YRL along the way, which are really fun and a great way to apply what we read to real-life. The seminars are 2 hours and 50 minutes long, which are long but they go by extremely quickly in Dr. JP's class. As for graded material, participation really matters - as well as 2 essays in this course, which are really interesting and involve a deep analysis into Buddhism (in the media, and in archives). Dr. JP is extremely helpful and provides awesome constructive criticism on essays.