Really fun class, opens your eyes to a lot of things! No textbooks required, just do the online readings carefully and listen to podcasted lectures.

Mankekar is one of the best professors I have had at UCLA so far. She is an engaging lecturer who genuinely cares about her students' learning. The topics covered were incredibly interesting and applicable to many facets of our lives today. The movies were great and some of them are now on my all-time favorites list. There are no mandatory screenings so you are able to watch them on your own, and the reading assignments were never overwhelming. Her lectures were a lot more complex and advanced than what we were expected to know for the film analyses and final exam, but they were enjoyable if you actually cared about the content of the class. The TAs were super friendly and supportive. I would highly recommend taking any of Professor Mankekar's courses - and this course was exceptional.

I took this class because I was interested in engaging more in my cultural roots and saw the amazing reviews on BruinWalk. The reviews (when I checked) neglected to mention the heavy amount of reading required for this class. While I agree that Professor Mankekar is a great professor who is passionate about helping students learn and keeping them engaged, it is difficult to keep up with such long and often repetitive readings. We have yet to take the final, but the midterm was 30 MC questions. Although MC exams are usually easy, the specificity of the questions and the short length of the exam made it difficult to do well.

The professor was very engaging and enlightening during lecture. However, I wish she would have sent the power points before lecture so students could pay closer attention to the information she was saying that wasn't on the slides. She tended to have lots to cover over one lecture and went through the information too quickly at times. The course itself was interesting, but the amount and length of readings assigned was difficult to manage. The class also has a multiple choice midterm and final on top of the two papers assigned.

this class made me woke ! the material was interesting and engaging, and i definitely took a lot away from this class for my own life. mankekar covered a lot in lecture so it was hard to follow because her powerpoint slides barely had any text on them. the assigned readings were a lot, so be prepared for a lot of reading (or a lot of BSing). there were two assigned papers which were both graded harsher than i expected (but this depends on your TA). would recommend if you're really interested in the content!!

If you're looking for your "easy" GE, then this is it. You don't even have to show up to class. Just listen to the podcasts. She's not an amazing lecturer so I would go to TA office hours for extra help. For the readings, I never found it necessary to do them. In discussion, they would be analyzed by groups so just go to discussion sections and take notes then, and you will be fine in regards to them. Mankekar also touches up on the important parts in class so don't worry about them. Overall, Mankekar wants you to do well, so the class is never made hard. Both midterm exam are all multiple choice, so just memorize the concepts with flashcards the night before and you will do well. Only time you actually have to understand some info is for the small papers you write, which even then are not a big deal. Podcasts + discussion is all you need.

The subject material isn't exactly what I had hoped for, as you don't learn specifically about Asian American women or specific women. Instead, you examine the Asian American communities using "gender as an analytic." I was upset for a bit about this, but honestly it was still an interesting and engaging course. The professor is a bit intimidating but overall very nice. She bruincasts her lectures, and she is extremely thorough in her explanations. The tests were multiple choice, which made it extremely easy, and the essays were also easily done if you read and understood the readings.

I went into class expecting to learn specifically about Asian American women and looking to relate my experience to the class but I definitely didn't get what I was expecting to learn. I wanted to learn about specific Asian American women or solely about Asian American women but this course was a lot broader. I was pretty disappointed by how this course was structured. This class focuses a lot more on using "gender as an analytic". It ties the struggles that Asian American women face(d) onto a broader level by relating / comparing it to the struggles of other women of other ethnic communities.

I was pretty confused as to how everything in we learned related and connected together. The course material kind of went all over the place. The readings were pretty long and not too interesting. The professor was pretty unclear when teaching and tended to use a lot of big words that didn't need to be used. The way that she described certain topics often overcomplicate them. My TA was also pretty bad at communicating and breaking down lecture materials during discussion to better explain everything. I scheduled an appointment with her once and she was talking to another student so I waited for 30 minutes. And then when they finished, she was like "Oh no, I'm so sorry I completely forgot. I have ______ now and I have to go." So I didn't get to discuss my ideas for a paper with her. (And I ended up doing badly on the paper).

If you do the readings and go to lecture, you should be fine. Do well on your papers. Readings are what's mostly on the finals + details or main ideas from the films you need to watch.

This class opened my eyes to a lot of issues regarding the Asian American experience. For that, I would take this class again. The readings are pretty heavy some weeks, but it's doable if you don't have another reading-heavy class. The two essays took quite a while to write and it was hard to synthesize ideas from different modules into just 4-5 pages. If you do the readings, it's a lot easier to complete the essays. Participation is required in discussion and encouraged in lecture. Make sure you attend the discussion, but if you can't make lecture, the professor Bruincasts. Overall, I understand why this class fulfills the diversity requirement because it doesn't just tackle the Asian American woman's experience, but also the experience of other minorities, genders, and classes.

She made our final OPTIONAL. Bless her soul.