I really like the professor, as he is super helpful and is very flexible when it comes to deadlines and assignments. But as someone who loves in class discussion, I wish this class had more of it. Attendance and participation was worth 30% of our grade (3 one page assignments were also included in the grade for participation), however we weren't really ever given a chance to participate or contribute a lot. So if you don't like speaking in class, this one is for you. But other than that, the class essentially consisted of the professor assigning reading, and then going over slides with his own interpretation + historical background. As someone who loves history that was my favorite part of the course. But all in all, if you put some effort in, and do the readings for the 2 essays, this class should be super easy.

I liked Professor Perez-Torres. I didn't earn a good grade due to a fault of my own, in general I think he's a lenient grader. Professor Perez-Torres is friendly and approachable and his passion for good literature is inspiring. I really liked the material from his lectures, we read James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, John Okada, Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey, and Sandra Cisernos, looking at various perspectives of American society in the 20th century. I wish he would slow down to have a conversation with us students instead of just a full lecture. But the lectures are valuable, full of history and textual explication, and you will learn something if you take this class.

I absolutely loved Professor Perez-Torres. He was so helpful, and one of the best professors I've had at UCLA. I took this class via Zoom, unfortunately, but it was pretty simple to keep up with. It was about a book per week (reasonably paced though, definitely doable). The books that the professor chose for this quarter were great – full of authors from different walks of life (my first encounter with James Baldwin, which was awesome). From what I remember, there were weekly postings, one small response paper, one midterm paper, and one final paper. I actually liked the weekly posting requirement because it kept me accountable to the reading, and it wasn't just for participation, the professor actually tried to comment on as many as possible and gave feedback, so by the time the papers came around, I kinda knew what he was looking for. The professor's expectations for the papers were also really clear, but I remember he was also available for office hours and really helpful there too.

Best professor I have taken at UCLA. He is the most caring and helpful person I have met IN MY LIFE. I cannot express how awesome he is. The class consisted of 2 essays (Midterm and Final paper), there were 3 fairly easy assignments which were short quote analysis. There was also a midterm exam (quote identification and quick response). He was very clear with what he expected and was very flexible in grading. As long as you go to his office hours and ask for help, he will do everything he can to help you. Professor Perez isn't there to give any students a hard time or make their lives harder than it currently is, he genuinely wants to help everyone and he does.