The professor is amazing! She is very knowledgeable and engaging. The sources she brings are very diverse and thought-provoking. It forces you to think for yourself with the information you are provided but also makes clear that terrorism is complicated and not a black and white answer or issue. I feel more knowledgeable after taking this class not only about terrorism but also about humans. The class is structured with 2 midterms and a final. The midterms are usually an event like an article about an attack and the questions will make you use your knowledge and understanding of the material to analyze the article or event. The final is quite lengthy. It is around 10 questions that cover material from weeks 1-10. It is meant for you to synthesize and kind of bring all that you've learned together to produce balanced well-informed answers. I really enjoy working on it actually because it gives you a chance to really test yourself on whether you actually learned as much as you think you have. The questions are released at the end of week 8 [and due finals week] and I submitted an outline first for some guidance. The outline was absolutely helpful as outlines are but the professor directly edited and advised me on some aspects that really helped me produce the best work that I could have. Thank you for that professor :)!!! Go to office hours, email her about how to improve or what to focus on to really get the best you can out of each assignment. One of the best classes I have taken. Good luck!

This was a great comm upper div! There are three assignments throughout the quarter: midterm paper, final paper, and a fun little thing where you are paired up with a random student and have to introduce each other to the class for 30 seconds. Arbabzadah is great, she lectures as if she is giving a Ted Talk presentation. Sometimes her lectures get a little confusing, and I always went to class in person, but I found her recorded lectures easier to follow sometimes. The papers were very easy to write. You don't need to do the readings (except skimming them in order to have a source or two in your papers). Highly recommend this class!

Professor Arbabzadah is a REALLY nice professor and is super caring. The class is structured as such:
- 45% Midterm "Paper"
- 45% Final "Paper"
- 10% Classmate Introduction

The papers are quite easy to do, you just need to do some of the readings she posts each week, but the bulk of the information comes straight from the slides and they require minimal analysis. I put 'paper' in quotation marks because it's not really an essay. She just gives you four questions to answer and you can get away with just repeating what she says in lecture or paraphrasing the readings.

The classmate introduction is a cute little thing that she does, where she assigns to a classmate at the beginning of the quarter and you'll have to get to know them and introduce them in front of the class - it's super low stress and it's a fun way to get to know someone you probably wouldn't have otherwise.

I gotta admit, the lectures are a bit slow and it's easy to zone out or stop paying attention. They're not even necessary to do well in class, because she posts the slides (class attendance significantly dropped by the end). But I went anyway because she is genuinely a very nice person and has a quirky sense of humor, definitely would take a class with her again.

I actually took Comm1 with Arbabzadah and she was amazing. Super funny, only graded on three speeches, and was a super kind grader. She offers a ton of help workshopping your speeches and this class really helps with public speaking. Highly recommend!

I have no idea how well the difficulty of this class will translate to in-person, but online it was a cakewalk. Super straightforward class structure. Just attended lecture and understood the material and it was fine

I highly recommend this class. First, Professor Arbabzadah is very knowledgeable about the subject and is very patient and thorough. All of her slides are well developed and she offers "test yourself" questions that clue you in on what will be tested on the exam and help you think back to understand the material.

Your grade is based solely on two midterms and a final take home paper. I would say they were all reasonable, based off both readings and presentations. They were multi-part short answer based on a scenario of sorts.

There were a lot of readings but you can get by by reading selectively and having a general grasp on the big ideas.

Her grading is overall pretty reasonable as long as you are specific in your responses and cite enough evidence.

Arbabzadah is a great professor. She really cares about us learning and her lectures are very organized. She shared some stories about her childhood growing up in Afghanistan during the war, and it was really powerful in the context of our class about terrorism. Overall, I learned a lot and I'm so glad that I took this class.

The class has only two grades: an in-class essay-based midterm and a LONG final paper. Fit perfectly for people like me that like to write papers rather than to take exams. Plus she is one of the most caring comm professor I've ever met. Her slides are super clear and she always asks if or not she needs to clarify anything. She is super nice when you come to ask questions. Giving her personal background and experience, I often feel so moved in her class as I know she is teaching with her full energy. She weighs her life on the class, and I can feel it. Thank you.

I took this class because I had taken comm 106 with professor Arbabzadab and loved it, however, this class turned out to be miserable. The final paper which is worth 65% of your grade is so hard with no clear instructions. The professor decided to assign a new type of final which she hasn’t used before and her new style final ruined many peoples grades (my friend got a C and another an F). I am so disappointed I took this class because it messed up my gpa. The feedback I got on my paper was worded very rudely and didn’t even explain why I lost so many points when I did everything properly. I highly suggest not taking this class.

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.