The topics and material of this class are incredibly interesting and fun to learn about, but professor lefkowitz is very unorganized and made the class much less enjoyable. Most of his references are outdated, making lectures somewhat difficult to follow, and though he tried to be responsive to student feedback, the structure of the class desperately needs an update. He assigns five papers throughout the semester, with only 2 of them directly requiring engagement with the readings - otherwise they're almost entirely separate. His pop quiz questions at the beginning of class are often ridiculously specific, and the final exam was very unreasonable - multiple choice with no study guide provided. He ended up giving a curve and really seemed to be trying to be reasonable, and he was nice in office hours, but overall this class could've been done much better. If you're interested in the Middle East or linguistics, however, it is still worthwhile.