Randa Serhan

Randa is amazing. If you have the chance to take a class with her, DO! She is genuinely the kindest person, super open to talking, and genuinely wants you to succeed. She cares about each student's specific interests and makes an effort to incorporate all of them into the lectures. She encourages student participation in lecture and learns everyone's names, but also doesn't penalize you for not participating if you're visibly actively listening. The TA Jose was very kind and even set up weekly meetings with me since I couldn't make the discussion section times, but he didn't want me to have to drop the class. Also let me re-submit my memo after receiving feedback and was super quick with feedback and responses. Side note that Randa is very soft-spoken and can be hard to hear sometimes in the back of the room (we were in James Room in Barnard Hall, so it was echo-y and noisy from the street outside). She wears a mic, so if you have trouble hearing her, sit by the speakers!

Professor Serhan has truly changed my life for the better. She is the most engaging, passionate, and truly knowledgable professors at our university. She challenges us to think from multiple perspectives, to constantly question, and engage in nuanced conversations. She is the reason why I am a sociology major, and the Sociology department at Barnard would not be the same without her.

Amazing professor with great TAs. She's really a pleasure to listen to and is always open to new ideas or conversations during class or in office hours. This was my first sociology class, and I loved it.

This class is great especially if you are not totally experienced with sociology. I enjoyed it because she made us look at a variety of texts, sociological but also literature, news articles, videos, history... Serhan cares a lot about this topic. I think it was challenging to keep it focused–Arab New York itself is actually quite specific—and I think that came through in that many of our class discussions easily got sidetracked. Nonetheless professor did a great job at leading discussion and always had such interesting insights. She also cares about her students a lot and will support you however you need, and she seems like a wonderful person. I wish people had a bit more care in the space she created for the class, which touched on so many identities, demographics, people in this city and around the world. Take this class if you're interested in the topic and want an intelligent, invested, and kind professor!

Bright, interesting, interesTED, and engaging instructor who genuinely cares about her students and that they understand the subject matter. Is willing to go the extra mile, dig deeper and truly allow for discussion in the class. First class in which I genuinely felt that a real Discussion occurred on a regular basis, and not one between student/instructor but rather student/student/student/instructor. DEFINITELY take THIS class from THIS instructor. Do not miss this instructor...she's terrific.

I loved PPS! It's a great into into political sociology with a good mix of theory (for the first half) and application/real-world analysis (for the second half). Readings can be dense but generally okay, she goes over them in lecture so it's fine to miss/skim them. Even though this is a lecture, Professor Serhan is great about inviting student contributions, so there are definitely opportunities for more seminar-like conversations. However, that's only to the extent that you want to speak, there are definitely people who don't say anything and then there are people who talk every class. However, Professor Serhan is such a nice prof, she truly cares about you and takes the time to know your name and value your insights. She can be a little late on the grading; we didn't get our first memo or midterm until over a month after they were due (respectively). Since the due dates were pretty lax, it could get stressful not knowing if you actually had a paper coming up, but generally, she's very communicative. We also didn't get a ton of guidance on picking our final paper topics (unless you spoke with her one-on-one in office hours). Discussion sections were generally unhelpful, but you only had to attend six for credit.

Going into the class, I was unaware of the direction that Prof. Serhan would take, especially given that I had no background in the study/topic of surveillance. However, Prof. Serhan did an amazing job explaining and encouraging students to dive deeper into the readings. I really appreciated how, despite the circumstances, Prof. Serhan put her best foot forward, making each class memorable and teaching me new things. Surveillance was one of my favorite classes of the fall 2023 semester because of the interaction with real-world issues and the connections that Prof. Serhan would make, even outside of the seminar. Prof. Serhan genuinely cares about all of her students and makes herself available to everyone, especially those who seek out extra guidance and assistance during office hours. This is the second class that I have taken with Prof. Serhan simply because of who she is as a professor and her clear interest and passion for the work she does. If you have the opportunity to take a class with Prof. Serhan, TAKE IT!!!

I loved this class!! As someone in an unrelated major, I took this for fun and have no regrets. Super interesting to learn about society from a sociological perspective. Prof Serhan is very knowledgeable and likes to involve discussion in lectures. I recommend!

Many readings. Very fair grading in my opinion. I think participating helps to show you are interested; it counts as part of your grade in the class.

AMAZING professor. She's the reason why I'm studying sociology now!! You can tell that she truly cares about her students, and will always be on our side. Her work in the field is fantastic, and she has been in this field for so long that she has so many amazing insights into the way things work in this world. She moves fast during her lectures, so you really have to pay attention and be on your A-game. The discussions in class felt incredibly valuable and rewarding, as it definitely was a whole class participating type of feeling, instead of just individual students and the instructor. She encourages differing opinions and for people to share their own stories, and is just super cool in general. Challenges people to think about their views, and encourages students to engage in discussion. Definitely make sure to go to her office hours for clarity on any topics. This class really made me think, but I felt properly stimulated and have learned so much.