This course was definitely a favorite of mine this quarter, not only because I enjoyed the lectures or the subject matter, but because the entire concept of the course is different from most of the other classes I've taken. The goal of the class wasn't to give us a step-by-step retelling of the Viet Nam war, it wasn't to give a pro-American or pro-Vietnam narrative to the war, and it wasn't even about the war at all if we're being honest. The class was about marginalized groups being silenced, suffering from the ramifications of events most had no part or control in. It was about how past traumas permeate and influence our communities as we go on, and how to step away from that cycle. It was about educating and arguing and questioning the things we are told and the history we've been given.
The point of this course was to learn and analyze information that we didn't know, or hadn't even thought about, and connect it to the contemporary history we and our communities were now experiencing. The South East Asian community was our focus, but the scope of conversation in class went far beyond that. I was definitely never bored. While there wasn't an aspect of class that I didn't enjoy, my favorite were the days that we discussed the contemporary status of our world, and the patterns of everything that we had already seen. Connecting what has happened to what is currently happening, and how/why we get there is endlessly fascinating to me. I look forward to taking more classes like this.
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