I took AAS30 in Fall '09. While it is true that Professor Bascara uses complex vocabulary to explain concepts, it isn't necessarily difficult to grasp if you're listening closely to his words. Staying awake can sometimes be a problem since it's a huge class and his voice is soft, but the material he presents is interesting if you make the effort to listen. He also shows multiple video clips in class, so make sure you attend lecture. You needn't write down every word he says, but just keep up and once you get the point, you'll be able to draw on that to write your midterm paper and discuss those ideas on the final. There is quite a large amount of reading on some weeks and a few short stories or poems for other weeks, so while falling behind on reading one week may seem ok, don't let it get past a few weeks once those larger excerpts start coming in. Also, Daisy Le is one of the best TA's for this class – she's chill and grades easy, and makes sure to keep the discussions on track. Discussions in general are painless and actually worth attending. Overall fun, relaxed-pace GE class and one that is valuable to anyone's appreciation of ethnic diversity.

Bascara seems to be a very dedicated and caring professor. He clearly puts time and effort into structuring his lesson plans, even attempting humor at times. Unfortunately, his lectures are VAGUE. He will throw many works and concepts at you, leading you to believe they will be tied together at the end. However, by the end of the one and a half hours, the class is over and he hasn't made any statements about the works at all. Worse yet, he enjoys using his large vocabulary to explain concepts that would otherwise very simple, making them very cryptic.

Your grade depends almost exclusively on your TA, so make sure that you get a good one! The work isn't difficult, but since over 35% of your grade rides on two essays, a competent TA is crucial.

In the end I received an A so it's a doable class. Just be prepared to draw arbitrary connections among various works.

Easy class, lectures were a little boring but discussions were a lot of fun. You should sign up for a discussion on Friday so that when you write the "weekly journals" you only have to write about his summaries of the readings during lecture. That way, you don't even need to do the reading

You write 2 papers, one is 2 pages and the other is 5 pages. The prompts are really vague but the TA's help you through them. The final wasn't too hard--you choose 13 of 15 short answers and I think 2 out of 3 essays (5 prompts were given to you before the class).

Overall, the class was interesting but Bascara makes the material a bit too vague.

Prof. Bascara seems like he cares and puts in the effort as a professor. However, his lectures are all over the place, and it's very hard to extract much meaning out of it. Like the previous evaluation said, he takes attendance so somehow make sure you sign in.

His Midterm and Final are easy - students could just study the night before, using a study guide compiled by one of the TA's. There is a lot of reading, but you don't have to read anything since the study guide is comprehensive enough. Unless you plan on doing all the reading, take this class for the grade - not the information.

*Not all TA's compile the study guide, so you might have to suggest this idea.

Professor Bascara presents himself as a very intelligent and sophisticated professor. That being said, understanding every detail he elaborates can be somewhat difficult which makes taking notes bothersome. Maybe half of the students actually show up to class because of this and due to the dryness of the material. He paces back and forth across the front of the room without looking at the students which makes you not want to look back.

Nevertheless, I found some of his analyses helpful when writing the weekly journals. The work load is doable but can be annoying. It all depends on your TA. You might get a TA who only cares that you summarize the readings of the week (and there are A LOT) for the journals or a TA who wants a well thought-out thesis like you're writing a legit essay. The TAs in fact really care about the material and demonstrate much enthusiasm for the class.

Speaking of the readings, there may be around nine during one week and then only one book and a movie the next. The movies were actually fairly interesting which balanced out the staleness of the other material. Studying for midterms won't be a hassle at all if you read the material during their assigned weeks. The readings aren't hard to comprehend once he tells you the main themes/messages. It's when he starts analyzing details when you can space out.

If you want an easy A GE take this class. He curves the midterm (multiple choice) generously and the final consists of m/c, short answers, and essay. Also, there's not much thinking to this class since the readings become very repetitive (Asian Americans have been oppressed by America through the economy, culture, racism, etc., we get it...). It won't be exceptionally fun but there are some few nice moments that. The end result (an A) is what really matters to some of you anyways, right?

Bascara is a wonderful, highly intelligent professor. An immediate first impression was that he was friendly and very soft-spoken. The one time I visited him for office hours, I could tell he was genuinely invested in the material and is willing to help you if you're having trouble.

The class itself is writing-and-reading heavy, since it is a literature (and culture) class. Journals due at discussion every week, a small group project, a one-page micropaper, and a five-page long paper. It helps if you already have a strong interest in Asian American topics. We read a wide breadth of novels, short stories, poems, and scholarly essays. A solid amount of time has to be dedicated each week to reading these and responding to them via the journals.

New to this year, we had a midterm, which just consisted of multiple choice questions. The final had multiple choice, short answers, and two essays. He doesn't give you study guides, but your discussion section should be enough help, and he provides the essay questions ahead of time (five prompts, three appears on the exam, write two of them).

He posts his lecture slides online, but truthfully, they will make no sense to you unless you attended lecture and heard what he had to say about them.

All in all, Bascara's a great professor, he plays music before each lecture, and he talks about a variety of historical events as well as current events (think Gangnam Style). I ended up with a solid A, turning in all my journals and earning A's for my midterm, micropaper, and long paper. A very reasonable GE!

This class was okay. His lectures are boring, and his readings were really long. His discussions were required. You had to write reading responses on the readings and lecture every week for discussion. You also had to do a group week facilitation for a week, which is basically talking about the readings for that week. His 2 essays were okay. They were graded easily by the TA. His midterm consisted of multiple choice on the readings. His final also had that but also essay questions. If you read the readings, you're fine. There's just a lot to read.

The class overall is pretty boring, it really hard to stay awake. There is a lot of reading in this class but I found it to be doable, you really just need to scan them and you'll be ok. His midterm and final weighed very little because I failed both and was still able to get an A- in the class. If you want to do well in the class make sure you do the essays well, thats really where the majority of your grade comes from. Reading responses every week got a little annoying but it's ok if you just summarize what was said in lecture. Overall, this class is fairly easy if you just put a little effort into the writing, the topic for the essays aren't bad.

Professor Bascara brings a new perspective into Asian American studies. His lectures are very organized and the assignments he gives out are meant for students to critically think about the class material. He is there to help with all assignments as well. Take this class!

Pretty easy GE. A lot of reading, but mostly skimming is helpful enough to understand the class. Bascara lectures in a slow voice that makes taking notes easy, but staying attentive kind of hard. Needed to write three essays, but midterm was really easy (got 100%) if you looked at a test bank and studied the readings/paid attention in discussion. Final exam was cancelled because of the fire, so only did the group presentation, which required minimal effort as well.