The lectures were unclear, confusing, and altogether unhelpful. We often wasted time at the beginning of classes on technical difficulties and other things rather than lecture material. Soraya's explanation of the material was all over the place, I had no idea what content to even study for. I did learn a lot in discussion sections, and I don't think it would be too hard to get an A if you have a good TA who helps to clarify things, but in my opinion the lectures were essentially pointless.

That aside, what was most concerning were Soraya's policies regarding the pandemic and general accessibility concerns. She refused to upload lecture slides for the first week of class. Her reasoning was that posting slides would disincentivize people from coming to class, and give 'spoilers' to the material. I personally have never had a professor who has refused to provide slides, and as someone who prefers to take notes directly on the slides during lecture this was a bit frustrating. To her credit, after many students brought up their concerns during lecture, she eventually agreed.

The biggest issue was when UCLA announced the transition back to in person classes mid-winter quarter. She stated that she would only hold lectures in-person, and offered NO virtual options such as recordings. If you had to miss a class, she said you could come to in-person office hours, but even then she said she was only able to clarify lecture material, not teach content you missed. She argued that this is how things would be 'in normal times,' even though we are clearly experiencing extraordinary circumstances (and even pre-pandemic many professors offered Bruincast). As far as I know this is completely unheard of, and very insensitive to students' concerns for health, not to mention students with disabilities or those who were unable to travel back to LA at such short notice. It essentially punishes students who are unable to come to class even if they have COVID, and puts every student's health at risk. Pretty ironic for a class about scientific ethics.

The readings were very easy to understand. I am not the best when it comes to reading scientific articles or academic journals but they were straightforward. I saw a review mention the group presentation and how one student was humiliated. That is not true. The person went over time even though they were warned by the TAs with a 2 min and 1 min warning (you get 6-8 mins in total I believe) and they spent almost the entire time on first two slides that had nothing to do with the prompt. The professor gave them a chance to wrap up and conclude their presentation rather than leave it as is, which I'm sure helped them out a lot grade-wise. She did not say this is how they should not do lectures.

This professor was very disorganized with her slides and often difficult to understand. Her TA’s were also not the most helpful and honestly pretty harsh with some of the grading. During our in class presentations, someone gave a very thorough and organized presentation which most people afterwards had agreed was very good. The only issue was that this person had gone slightly over time, and the professor essentially humiliated her in front of the entire class. She pointed out how this is exactly what you should not do when giving a presentation. This is ironic, given that this professors presentation skills are so weak, less than half the class was ever present after the first lecture. I don’t think this class is worth the time it requires and I wish I had waited for a better, more engaging professor to teach it, so I would not recommend.

*Mine is really long so bear with me. But this is my entire experience with the class*
I really enjoyed this class. I am a HBS BS major and this was pretty much my first upper div so I was pretty scared, considering the last review I saw. However, I don't know where that person is coming from because Professor de Chadarevian is honestly one of the nicest professors I have ever had. She is very kind and always leaves the lecture open to asking questions during or after which she tries to take her time to answer to her full ability. I was a little scared going to office hours as I have never done that with a professor (I have only gone to TA office hours in the past) but she takes her time and doesn't try to hassle you if you have questions. She genuinely wants to know your opinion and see you succeed in your learning.

So the class consists of weekly reading responses (you need to do 5 out of 7) pertaining to the reading of that week. These ask your opinion on one of the readings for the week and how it relates to the class. The readings need to be done, as she basically talks about them for the whole lecture and she does ask for people's opinions or questions about them (TAs take note on who responds to give participation points). They are also the entirety of the discussion sections topics which are required attendance and a large amount of participation points come from there too. They are pretty easy to understand which a majority being around 2-5 pages of content. Only like two times were the readings massive like 20 pages.
The midterm was a take-home 24 hours essay and was very doable. I think the lowest score was like an 80%.
Then there was the self-selected assignment. One option could be a 3 page essay about a seminar, lab experience, etc. and how it relates to the class. The other option was a group presentation given in lecture with I think 6-8 min. The group presentation can be done with friends from other discussions or by yourself. The presentation had to talk about the same things as if you were doing the paper but a lot of people who did present chose to do like documentaries and how it relates.
The final was in person during class in week 10 which was really nice because you can focus on your other finals for actual finals week. It was six short answer (like 2-3 sentences) and one essay. I was concerned for the time as this sounds like a lot for 1 hour and 15 min, but a majority of the class finished with like 15 min leftover. You are honestly given so many options to choose from that there should be content you can easily talk about.

A drawback to the class was that the class only recorded audio. The room we were in didn't allow for video so if you wanted to go back to review or you missed class it was a little challenging. Attendance to class isn't mandatory but again TAs take note on who participates and goes and if a bulk of people don't they keep track. Personally, even if it wasn't for that I recommend going as it really helps with understanding the materials and expand on them in a way that allows you to do really well in all the assignments and exams. The other thing is that the professor is very soft-spoken. This is not her fault as she did wear a mic, but half the time it didn't work. In order to hear her you would need to sit in the upper-middle of the room. If you were in the back good luck. Slides are also not given before class which I feel like is nothing new. I have experienced a lot of professors like that. I found it more useful to actually write down what the professor is saying rather than what is on the slide.

I enjoyed the class and would take again with this professor. 10/10

Soraya is super nice and really cares about student learning, lectures might be dry but that's because the readings are dense! Use your resources and utilize your TA's (shoutout to Courtney!) The class isn't that bad, you'll be fine.

Soraya is the least articulate professor I have ever had. Almost the whole time no one understood the point she was trying to make (and 75% of the class was asleep). It was kinda sad, I felt bad. She does this thing where she will talk and talk and talk, lose her train of thought, then start mumbling something and go on to the next topic. Really annoying.

For the assigned readings, I recommend at least skimming over them. The longer ones I just made sure I knew the main points. I read through the short ones.

Here is the good news. The midterm and finals are doable. Just make sure to review the slides, and I mean really review them. Make sure you can explain what the concept trying to be made is. Go to office hours (for your TA) and just ask them what the point of every slide was, tying it back to the main concepts. Elizabeth Seger was the best TA. I don't know if she will be a TA again, but all I can say is that a good TA is essential for this class (so ask around and change sections if you must, that's what I did).

The tests are blue book / free response. Usually 5 short answer (definition type questions) that you pick from a list of 10, and as well a short essay prompt that you pick from 2-3 prompts. Final and midterm are the same length.

Ended the class with an A. I really didn't put in that much effort other than going to every lecture and section, and making sure I had a general understanding of the main concepts.