Well. This has been an interesting first couple of days.
Ethnicity 110: The Asian American Experience will be an interesting class; I'm already liking the primary text, Ronald Takaki's Strangers from a Different Shore. My only real concern is that Dr. Maeda comes off at first meeting as almost racist; his first lecture had a "How White People Have Screwed Us Over" tone to it. And on the one hand, the things we'll be studying really happened (I'm no stranger to any of it, being something of an Asianophile, I've studied the bad as well as the good), they were horrible, and people need to know these things happened. On the other hand, it's hard to not feel defensive when you're sitting in a room that is 90% Asians, taught by an Asian professor, and hearing about all the horrible ways in which "my people" have been incontestable assholes.
English 198T: Sex and Death In Young Adult Literature will be fun, but a LOT of work. There are only two assigned texts, but we're expected to read a lot of YA lit on our own, as well as a lot of LitCrit, in order to research our seminar paper. So far I'm considering doing a paper on dystopian futures in YA lit.
History 148B: China, 1600-Present: Dr. Shek is funny, energetic, and has a great love of the subject. He ought to: he lived in China for most of his early life. As he put it, "I voted with my feet. But I still love my home country, so this subject, 1600 to now, makes me a little sad." Very nice man; this looks to be a hard but enjoyable class.
English 125A: Literature and Film for Young People will also be an interesting class. It's taught by the same teacher from 198T, Dr. Dunstan, who is an Americanized Brit. He sounds (and almost looks) like John Hurt. Weird.
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wicked_wish, whose commentary was perfect: "No, Dior is the new 14 year old vampire LARPer who just wants to be held."