Gender and Sexuality in Modern Japan with Professor Diehl. This professor is actually so awesome. Did a cold brew coffee review everyday before class, gave us extra brake days in addition to the ones UVA gave us, and readings/exams were all totally manageable and super fairly graded. Topic was super interesting, I took this just to fill a requirement and ended up really enjoying everything I learned.

This class is full of super interesting material taught by a passionate and knowledgable professor. If you are interested in both American history or Japanese history I highly recommend this class because it takes a very wide stance about the events covered. The topic of the body and democracy was incredibly unique and new to me, but the main themes were easily applicable to life now. Professor Diehl is also a young and fun professor who loves to nerd out with his students and really tries to cater the class to your individual interests. It's a history class so expect a lot of reading - but Diehl mixes in dense historical stuff with cool articles, primary sources, novels, and movies so you won't get bored. The class is really discussion-based too so be sure you - actually - do read, otherwise, it's a midterm, final, and research project. The midterm wasn't hard he even let it be open note, and the research project is really open ended in form and content so you can do whatever you find most interesting. Overall great class, manageable work load, and fun prof!