Professor Dutton is very passionate and well versed in this subject and is always willing to talk to students. He is incredibly kind and always excited to teach, and he is very inclusive and understanding. The workload is very light and the final exam was also not bad. It reminds me of an easier version of an AP test. There are multiple choice questions, fill in the blanks, and an essay response, but you will know the potential prompts ahead of time. There is no midterm and attendance in lectures is taken through an easy warmup question on the board. You can show up at the end of class and still submit. You don't need to show up to every lecture to understand the content and the discussions do a really good job of preparing you for the final exam. The discussions are easy and you don't even need to talk to get full credit, just show up. Highly recommend taking!!!

participation is taken every lecture but you can show up legit 10 minutes before class ends and do the participation check. prof dutton is a super sweet and knowledgeable guy though so i def showed up for every single lecture! they were really engaging, and the readings were pretty interesting but kind of long sometimes. theres a 400 ish word reflection based on the readings every week, it's not too hard because you can just yap about how it relates to yourself or something + theyre only graded on completion. both the TAs are really good too so i would def recommend this as a nice GE but waking up for the 9:30 lecture was a bit of a pain i cant lie

I really recommend taking this class for a GE requirement. This was definitely the easiest class I have taken at UCLA, while also being very interesting. Professor Dutton is so kind and remembers everyone by name. He is definitely someone you would feel comfortable asking questions to or having a conversation with. I've always really wanted to visit Southeast Asia, so I was intrigued when I saw this class. There is a writing assignment weekly based on the readings, but it's very easy and only 500 words. There was no midterm, just a final exam and a book report, both of which were pretty easy. The book report does take some time though. Really enjoyed this class!