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

The workload for this class was somewhat heavy because we had to do long readings each week and watch two hour recorded lectures, which took up a lot of time. You also can't decide to not read the assigned readings because there's a possibility you'll get a pop quiz each week. Depending on the pop quizzes given by your specific TA, the questions can be pretty easy but the time preparing for the quiz is not worth it. Throughout the quarter, we got points for writing two papers and a couple papers for the final exam (which was take-home), which were not too difficult. We also had to post a comment about the readings each week on Slack for participation points. There's a textbook required but you can find a free pdf for it online. Overall, the class wasn't difficult, but the weekly readings were just time-consuming.

This class is my favorite class i've ever taken at UCLA! Even though I took it as GE and am not that into art, it got me so interested in indigenous rights, and prof nair and the book you read for class kind of blew my mind. I wouldn't say it's an easy GE, but if you want to learn about history of indigenous people in the americas, common misconceptions about them, and also the natural spaces around them, HIGHLY recommend. I've never written a bruinwalk review but i had to for this class

favorite class in the world what an amazing professor i feel so lucky to have taken her class i love her so much

I love Professor Nair, she is clearly very passionate about what she teaches and really just wants students to succeed. This was the third class i've taken with her and she does preface every class that it will be reading heavy - which it definitely is. But if you do the readings and take good notes it's hard to not do well. Not an easy A but very doable.

Stella Nair is the sweetest professor who is so passionate about her class. If you do the readings and follow along, you learn so much about such a fascinating culture. It has been one of the most interesting classes I have taken at UCLA.
There are pop quizzes to see if you did the readings so you must be on top of that. there is a midterm and a final test that are pretty clear to study for because she gives a study guide. there is one paper i believe researching an incan object. i highly recommend!

This class was honestly not bad in terms of GEs. The workload is manageable but there are a lot of readings and films to watch each week, and the TAs do pop quizzes on them in discussion. The Professor Nair is pretty friendly but is unfortunately a rambler and her slides have barely any content on them so you don't have much to go back to. You have to pay a lot of attention in lecture to have notes that make any sense, and the lectures aren't recorded. This is an issue for the final, which was a handwritten essay in bluebook and based only on lecture and reading topics(outside facts and sources would be penalized because of concerns with AI). It wasn't that bad this quarter because she gave us the list of ancient cities that she would test us on a week beforehand. Overall, just don't take this class if you hate reading a ton and writing.

Overall, while I was taking this class I was really stressed out because I felt like I wasn't totally sure about all of the material that I had to know for the class. I attribute this to the lectures because there are no formal slides besides pictures and they are not recorded, so you MUST go to lecture and take detailed notes QUICKLY! Our grades were based off of participation (included reading quizzes and discussion assignments), 2 papers, and the final. There was no official midterm.

The reading is pretty manageable. Some of the textbook reading was dense, but if you read it and understand the broader concepts you'll be fine. The articles are important for the final and I would make sure you can understand the claims that the authors make.

The essays were super chill for me. We were given ~2 weeks to write them, and I met with my TA and went over it and got high grades on them!

For the final, I was honestly stressed because all I had to go on were my notes (which I didn't fully trust lol) but my best piece of advice is to meet with other people and collect all of your notes together. Then I wrote practice outlines and made sure I had them memorized. I also met with Professor Nair multiple times in office hours for clarification which I highly recommend.

Professor Nair is so so sweet, and you can tell that she genuinely cares so much about the information. I would say although this is an art and architecture class, I learned so much about Indigenous Theory and I think that I really do go about my life differently after taking this class. My main pieces of advice for this class are to just really put effort into understanding material and take it seriously. I know for me I was looking for an easy GE (I'm pre-med) and its easy to fall into the trap of putting your GE work to the side to focus on other classes, but you will be successful in this class if you take it seriously. GO TO LECTURE!!! DO THE READINGS!! You'll be okay!

This class was honestly so easy, never did the readings, there were only pop quizzes like 3 times during discussion but they’re only like 5 questions each. The first and final paper of this class were honestly fun to do. I enjoyed having documentaries to watch as homework and enjoyed going to the Fowler museum.