If you do all the readings there is kind of a lot, but the professor doesn't test you. The readings are just there for you to write your essays. I did ok on the in class essay and well on the final paper (not in class) as well as on the project. The subject is interesting most of the time. She holds office hours before the paper is due to give everyone feedback which is nice. Overall, a the professor is pretty fair, but the grade breakdown only rests on like 3 assignments lol so could be risky (I would recommend viewing the films as well. It helps you come up with something to write)

easily the best professor i have ever had. truly cares about her students and their learning.

ridiculously easy GE

Grading is like this:
Discussion participation/assignments - 20%
Class participation - 10%
Midterm essay - 30%
Final paper or Group creative/multimedia project - 40%

The discussion assignments consisted of weekly discussion posts (paragraph on one the week's readings) and a group presentation, where you in depth analyze one of the week's cultural works (usually a film) with up to 5 people and present for 20 minutes. This was the main workload of the class (besides the midterm and final), and it was very doable. All the discussion sections shared the same TA Suong, and I thought she was nice and helpful, nothing else notable to talk about.

The midterm essay is 4-pages and was graded by the TA. You have about a week to do it and the professor gave the prompts. It's not too bad and I thought it was fairly graded.

For the final, I chose the essay option, and it is more open-ended, but the instructions on it are actually given in the syllabus. It's at least 8 pages, so I would actually really recommend taking advantage of having the instructions early and work on it as soon as possible. Professor Nguyen-Vo does give more explanation on the final later on, but I think having an outline already based on what you're given earlier is very helpful. I only started the final essay about a week earlier, and that was a bad decision just because it will take up a lot of your time/mental energy when you want to focus on other finals too. So make a plan for the final essay early. I can't comment on the final group project option.

There's a LOT of readings, that are "required" but you're not tested on them or anything so you don't actually have to. However they're necessary for your weekly discussion posts and very helpful for your essays/project, so at least get a general idea of what they're about and come back to them when you need them.

There was extra credit given, mostly consisting of watching a live Zoom presentation (usually a bunch of speakers/professors discussing topics related to Asian-American issues or the humanities) and writing a reflection on it.

I was expecting more history/analysis of Vietnamese cultural works, but at least in the first third of the class, you're actually going over general social theory, which could be interesting if you're into that, but it's kinda esoteric and I wasn't really able to follow along in the beginning. The latter half of the class focuses more on actual Vietnamese culture like movies, music, literature, history etc, and personally I found this part of the class more interesting since it felt more tangible.

Our lectures were online (though they were supposed to be in-person) which made it less engaging, but also more convenient since they're recorded. You don't HAVE to go to lecture actually, though if you want participation points you should probably make at least a few comments/questions during lecture.

The professor is very knowledgeable on the content and is helpful during office hours if you want essay feedback or help understanding the concepts. She's also an interesting person to talk to so if you want a conversation you should go to office hours too lol.

If you're taking this as a GE, this isn't the best one out there, but the grading is pretty good, workload is fair, and depending on your background/interests, it may be interesting too.