Do not take this class if you're just looking for an easy GE. You will have about 20 pages of reading to do before each lecture and the final will require quite a bit of studying. However, coming from a South Campus major, this class is very interesting and I ended up enjoying it. Professor Nair is very sweet and passionate about the topic. I would recommend going to her office hours even if you don't have a specific question because she has some fascinating stories. As far as the class goes, it's very interesting because you learn about Ancient American cultures that aren't typically taught about in detail.

While the midterm and the final require a lot of studying they end up being fairly easy because she gives you possible essay prompts a couple weeks beforehand. Out of the 6 essay prompts she will end up picking 2 for the exam, making it easy to do well as long as you're prepared.

Overall, this class is not easy but it's definitely interesting and valuable in the long run.

As long as you do the work for this class, you will do fine. There are lots of readings, and you also have to attend lecture for pop quizzes. The professor is not lenient with tardiness and will not let you enter the lecture hall if you are 15 minutes late or let you return from using the restroom after the first 15 minutes of class. Additionally, the professor's slides only contain pictures, and her lectures are not podcasted. Therefore, you must either attend class and take good notes, or you need to have a friend take them for you. Fortunately, before the midterm and final she gives you 6 questions which may be on the exam, of which 2 will be chosen. You also need to write a 5-page paper, which is worth 5% of your grade.

I suggest taking the class only if you are really interested in the material simply because there is lots of reading to be done, which may appear quite daunting if you do not care about the material. Granted, if you do the work you'll do fine regardless of your interest the subject matter.

I took this class as a GE but it was definitely not an easy 'A'. Take this class if you are willing to do all of the readings. I took this class expecting it to be an easy GE but it was a decent amount of work. As long as you pay attention in lecture and do all of the readings you can make a good grade. Also make sure you participate in discussion and ask your TAs questions. Attendance was mandatory as we had pop quizzes in both lecture and discussion. Lectures can be kind of boring but take good notes and it will help you with answers for the exams. The prompts for the midterm and final are given out so go to your TA and ask for help. I got a C on the midterm but studied really hard for the final and asked my TA a lot of questions and ended up with an A-. Overall the material in the class is not hard but it is not that interesting so as long as you keep up with the work you will be fine. Finish all of the readings and take good notes so you are prepared for the pop quizzes (the quizzes are very basic and easy as long as you read). I also think that your grade depends on your TA so if your TA is really strict then consider dropping the class. Lastly, professor Nair is really nice and wants her students to succeed so do the work and you will earn the grade!

This class was absolutely amazing for me because I am interested in indigenous American cultures. The fact that I have visited a good number of the sites covered made it even better.
That being said, it requires a fair amount of effort in terms of readings and paying attention in class. Attendance is somewhat mandatory due to the pop quizzes she gives. But she drops quite a few and she never gives them out on guest lecture days.
She and her TAs are fair graders but they are not particularly easy either. She is very helpful and vested in your success in her class, provided you reach out to her during her office hours.
Exam questions are given out ahead of time. There is just a fun paper that accounts for 5% of the overall score; it can be done pretty quickly.

This class was a very tough GE. It requires lots of work and about 50 pages of readings per week. The readings should be done because there are pop quizzes in lecture and you have to site the readings in the midterm and final. Also, there are pop quizzes in discussion so attendance is also mandatory there. Although she posts her slides online, they’re only pictures. Would not recommend if you want an easy GE.

Nair was an easy professor to listen too, her voice is pleasant and she did not inject too much of her own political views into discussions about history. She was a bit critical on tourists, which I thought was unfair because she often generalized them. The pop quizzes were also bothersome but Nair was lenient in giving other opportunities to balance this out, i.e. being present for group discussions. She gives you a study guide for the exams, but it consist of 6 extensive prompts that she chooses from on the day of the test. Thus, if you want to do well, join a study group to help ease the heavy workload! She makes clear how to get a good grade in her class, follow her guidelines and you will do well. Also, for the paper we got to choose an object from Fowler museum to do our essay on, which was a nice break from the norm. Overall the class was very interesting, Nair's lectures were fun to listen to, and most of the readings I enjoyed studying.

This seminar was so much fun and so engaging. We just did weekly discussion posts on slack about the readings that we did, and these posts followed into discussion during seminar. The discussion is framed around the readings so you do have to complete all of them and attend every seminar to receive the best grade. Professor Nair is super engaging and will assist you with any extensions you need or questions you have. If you are going to do the readings and participate in the discussion this is an easy A.
Our only assignment to turn in was the final paper, which is long but is not a research paper, just an exploration of how the texts we covered in class can relate to a building of your choice. Amazing class

Super easy class if you just turn in the assignments. Content is simple to understand and the readings do not need to be closely covered. Discussion attendance is important and small group work is done and turned in during discussion. Papers are assigned with a lot of time to complete them and TAs are super helpful, as well as Professor Nair.

I took this class for an easy GE and because I thought it sounded interesting. I was excited to learn about indigenous cultures, but the textbook was very dry If it had actually described indigenous cultures and their art and architecture, I wouldn't have found it so boring. Instead, it dove into random details in way too much depth (often involving Europeans) rather than describing actual culture. The textbook didn't give a lot of applicable information to the class; the articles Professor Nair provided were more related. It was also frustrating to read because it compiled way too many different indigenous cultures into one book - so much so that it didn't really do a good job of adequately describing any particular one. Because of this, I feel like I didn't really learn a lot. Assignments are graded easily and it's pretty easy to get an A, but the workload was a lot. There were two essays throughout the quarter and the final was also two essays. I'm a decent writer and got A+s on the essays, but I hate writing and was already taking a writing II class. This class was way more writing intensive than expected which made the work far from worth it. I wish I could recommend taking this course because I want people to educate themselves on indigenous history, but sadly I cannot.

I took this class during covid times and it was super chill. Professor Nair is super caring about her students and about the content. The workload was medium. There were just a lot of readings you had to before discussion and sometimes they would be long or difficult. But I managed to get an A- without doing a single one. Her content is extremely interesting and she isn't boring. I like her very much. My TA was also a gem. The reading assignments would help with quizzes and assignments that would take place during the discussion but they were all fairly easy. They care a lot about participation but as long as you watch the lectures you can get an A in this class easily. The essay assignments were also fairly easy. You just have to know a few cultures (ex. Incan or Mayan) very well in order to ace these papers. There were three papers. A midterm, final paper, and a final test(which was just two essays). I loved this class and highly recommend