Stella is a really nice professor, but I'm just not interested in this subject.

I took it as an "easy" GE and honestly, it takes more work than I want to put into it. I would say the readings really are mandatory because there's a constant possibility of pop quizzes, both in lecture and discussion. Some of the longer readings can be around 25 pages and you'll be tested on some pretty particular details.

Midterm and final are in class essays and you're given 6 possible prompts ahead of time, from which 2 are picked. Not a lot of outside of class writing, just one paper worth 5% of your grade. Maybe I'm just lazy, but it's really hard to motivate myself to study for this class. If all of this sounds good to you though, go for it.

If you're interested in the subject, I'm sure you'd like it because it's a well-taught class, but if you just want an easy GE, go with Scand 50.

Edit- I’ve now finished the class, so if you do end up taking it:
Since you have to go to class anyways for the quizzes, I’d recommend taking good notes on her lectures- she posts the slides but they’re mostly pictures so you need good notes to go back and know what they’re about. Honestly, I think it’s probably inevitable you’ll fall asleep in this class at least once, but try to make it one of the guest lecturer days, since these seem to be less likely to be related to the exams- the movies are still tested!

Overall, my advice for this class would be to just do the work and be able to answer every part of the questions she gives you to prep for the midterm/final. There's no easy way around it.

the worst class I have ever had in UCLA. don't take it especially for the non art history major student. for art history major student, try to find other class to replace this one. this class is so boring and you have to do lots of things for this class. lots of reading to do and you even need to go back to read the reading again and again. it is not helpful at all. the professor uses the slides but there is no word in the slides just some pictures. it is hard for you to review before the test. lots of unhelpful quizzes and work.

If you're looking for an interesting AND/OR easy this is NOT the class to take.
I regret doing it. She just talks and rambles on about stuff you are supposed to take notes on and then use in your essay questions.

There are quizzes in EVERY lecture based on the readings which are dry and long plus quizzes in discussion section.

PLUS a 5 page paper that is ONLY 5% of your grade due 10th week.

You get 6 questions for the midterm and final, out of which 2 show up for the actual exam.

Waste of effort and time.

This is by far the worst class I've taken at UCLA. Her lectures are beyond boring, her slides pretty much only have pictures on them and she talks really fast so it is impossible to write everything down, which is very important in preparing for the midterm/final. Class and lecture are mandatory as there could be a quiz in each lecture. Preparing for the midterm and final is a huge pain as she gives you 6 essay prompts, 2 of which will be on the exam, but the prompts have about 10 subquestions to go along with the actual question which makes the prompt extremely confusing and difficult. HUGE BS class, definitely do not recommend.

Do not take this class unless you absolutely have to. As someone who isn't an Art History major, I found this class incredibly boring and uninteresting and therefore, it was extremely tough for me to study for this class.
The professor is nice I guess, but I thought she was a bad lecturer. She only shows pictures on her powerpoint slides and talks about them but she talks fast and doesn't slow down, and she doesn't really highlight the main points we have to get down either. She also doesn't post her lectures online. She doesn't mind if you record her lectures though. She doesn't let you into the lecture if you arrive 10 minutes or more after it has begun. Also, once you leave lecture, she doesn't let you back in even if you just needed a quick bathroom break.

Discussion is mandatory and worth 20 percent of your grade so you probably should go. It could at least help your grade.

The midterm and final are pretty much the same, consisting of two essay questions which are both long and confusing (final is longer than midterm). There's a lot of points you have to address. I'm not sure if the professor or TA grades the exams. Honestly, just try and write as much as you can and hope for the best. The grading is pretty damn harsh.

There are pop quizzes both in lecture and discussion that are usually based off of the articles we have to read which are ridiculously boring and usually long. The quizzes are graded by your TA. Luckily my TA, Deglin, was an easy grader so just hope you get a good TA. Again I'm not sure if they are the ones who grade the exams or not though.

One final paper we had to write that was 5 pages long but I think she changes the prompt every quarter. Plus it was literally worth only 5% of your grade. The professor was saying how this was supposed to be a fun easy assignment which it wasn't at all. Also, I met this one person in class who is an art history major, and even she didn't like this class. Overall, I really don't recommend this class, but it's up to you.

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.

I took this class as a GE. The lectures are pretty boring (professor Nair seems nice overall though) and there is in fact a good amount of reading you have to do each week, but I found it manageable and not even that bad. The overall topics are actually quite interesting and there are really only two major assignments (paper 1 and paper 2 which also has a project component). Both essays are honestly really chill because you get to pick what you write about, and I had such a fun time doing the second paper/project (I wrote it on Genshin Impact - yes, the gacha game). If you get a good TA (mine was absolutely amazing but unfortunately she won't be TA'ing next year), the discussions are really fun and engaging as well. The final was okay (an essay on a random city you learned about + short responses on lecture material), but it sort of banks on you having done some reading and paid some attention to lecture. Overall I wouldn't exactly recommend this class especially if you know you won't do the readings (there's pop quizzes) but if you are at least slightly interested and can do at least one 18-ish page reading a week then it should be a relatively free A.

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