Nushin is the best professor I have ever taken.
I recommend anyone taking her before they graduate. I have taken two classes with her and it has literally changed my life. The material is important and relevant to what is happening in the world today. There is one midterm which is worth 35% and then a final paper worth 65%. It's an easy class in the sense that everything is interesting and you actually want to learn, but don't expect to just sit through class and still getting an A.
Nushin is a fascinating person and I love that she shares her personal experiences, growing up in Afghanistan.

Professor is one of the best I’ve ever had at UCLA! She is incredibly knowledgeable, balanced, and funny. Her lectures are engaging and very informative. I felt that I learned not only about the communication aspect of the course, but also in a way about the human psyche. The class is structured so that there is 1 midterm and 1 final paper. The final paper is a sort of synthesis paper that requires much attention and detail since it covers questions and materials from the entire quarter. I would recommend that you start as soon as she releases the questions, which tends to be sometime at the end of week 8 and due finals week. Go to her office hours or email and ask her about what to improve and what you should actually be focusing on and because of her helpfulness and clarity, you should be rewarded with a good grade. Good luck!

I took this class as my first upper-div comm class and it was super interesting. the grade just depends on the midterm (35%) and a final paper (65%) so there is not a lot of work outside from that, lecture, and readings. The professor is very knowledgeable about conspiracy theories and the Middle East. Lecture attendance was mandatory but she sent the recorded lecture to international students and posted all the lectures the week before midterm and finals week. This is a good and somewhat low-stress comm elective to take because there is not a lot of work throughout the quarter except for midterm and finals week.

The professor was very unorganized with her teaching style. It's a shame because the content of the class had the opportunity to be really awesome and interesting, but it was nearly impossible to follow along during lecture because of how all over the place it was. The professor was super sweet, and the exam was not difficult, I just think I could have learned so much more had the lectures been clear and easy to follow.

I feel as though I came in eager to learn the ins and outs of true American conspiracy theories and I was left with a bunch of conspiratorial mush about theorists. Not quite sure how this class is an upper-division offering, or an offering at all. She has a disdain for AI, and thanks to a student in her prior class that got caught for cheating, our tests were in person and closed note. A midterm and a final, with both weighing equally in your final grade is tough especially when lectures and parameters for what we were going to be tested on was unclear. I honestly don't know if I would've been better off skipping lecture than going, but she did drill us that students who didn't come would fail. I signed up for this for the seemingly interesting material, and take home exams, so if you're on my same wave length AVOID! OR if you're up for the challenge, enroll. Either way I am glad to have finished the course with some sanity left, but I do get trauma when "anomaly" or "karl popper" is mentioned.

This class is super easy, but I don't think I learned anything. The title is 10x more interesting than the class and professor Nushin lectures in a very roundabout way without giving a lot of clear information. She's very knowledgable, passionate and kind but I did not think she was a good lecturer. I didn't do any of the readings and just referred to them when we had to write papers and still got an A in the class. She is one of the nicest professors I have had at UCLA (she will buy you tea or coffee if you go to office hours) but I didn't gain anything valuable or feel any more educated after taking this class. If you need an easy upper div this is a good one.

I love her. She's great. If you work with the professor, you'll get an A in the class.

Personally, I don't really understand the hype surrounding this class/professor. Took this class because it sounded interesting but it turned out to be kinda boring and lectures felt like a drag. Lectures were hard to follow and it made the readings/content even more confusing. I don't feel like I really learned anything which is disappointing because I was looking forward to taking this class. We didn't even get into Middle Eastern conspiracies until around Week 7/8.
Pros: We only had to do two papers (midterm and final) so there was very little work to do in between which is nice if you're looking for an easy filler class. Paper prompts are posted a few weeks in advance. You can get most of the information from the slides she posts. Even though I feel like I didn't know what was going on in the class, the papers were pretty easy to BS. She's a pretty lenient grader, very nice, and very willing to help students with questions, emails, and clarifications.

This class had the potential to be super interesting but I just couldn’t engage myself with these lectures. My advice is to sit in the first two rows in class, those students seemed to be having a class. Overall super easy class only a midterm and final and I didn’t do any of the readings. I would say take this if u want an easy comm elective but I kinda wish I took a different comm elective since I only can take 2 before I graduate.

Very knowledgeable and engaging professor! She truly cares about the course content and the students. As a non-traditional transfer student I was new to UCLA but Professor Arbabzadah was very responsive to my questions, offered excellent feedback on my midterm, and took the time to listen to my questions and concerns. I was so impressed with the depth of material relating to conspiracy theories that I also registered for another class she is teaching. I feel like I finished this class not only with a better understanding of what is going on in the world but a better writer as well. There are two essays in the class that are challenging but very doable if you listen to the lectures, take good notes, read the required readings and refer to the slides. The slides and even some of the readings are highlighted so if you put in effort and try to attend office hours for any questions or to go over your papers, you will do well in this class. I highly recommend this professor and any of the classes she teaches as the content is relevant and interesting.