This subject was the most appalling and miserable experience of my degree. Frankly, it was very traumatising. I realised very quickly that, if you don't hold the same political views, opinions, and paradigms on terrorism as the course coordinator, you will be crucified. The subject co-ordinator is an organiser for a 'political' group on campus, which incites hatred towards a specific ethnic minority, and blindly and steadfastly supports terrorists. The coordinator is an academic who is so deep into her own indoctrination by social media propaganda that she is pushing it onto students through this subject and she is completely unaware of her filters (which is ironic given the subject talks about psychoanalysis. She can't even properly apply those psychoanalytical theories to herself and how she sorts and processes information). It is frankly uncomfortable, insufferable, and deeply unsettling that someone who is unabashedly supportive of a Jihadist group (whose founding charter explicitly call for the death of all members of an ethnic minority) to be teaching a subject about what terrorism is. It is deeply tone deaf. As a result of this, the subject is such an abstraction upon abstractions that it is removed from the reality of terrorism. That is, that terrorism is incited by political movements or political movements disguised as religions or other organisations that truthfully seek to bring ruin to non-believers or non-adherers of their cause. All the lecturer would talk about is racism and how the west views terrorism informed by this racist lens, how it it isn't reflective of what terrorism actually is; without even ever touching the horrifying reality of what it is. The subject ends up being an ill-formed loop that never brings you to a cohesive conclusion of what terrorism is and it's very real world implications. University subjects are meant to nurse your intellectual curiosity, and lead you to evolve as a person with intellectual and emotional maturity, as you find your place in the world. More importantly, university is supposed to help you develop critical thinking skills, and a level of independence and self efficacy that allows you to do what you want with your life, whilst contributing to the lives of others and the world. This subject does none of that. It beats you down and feeds you misinformation and abstractions that aren't applicable to the real world. It punishes you for wanting to contribute your ideas or to truly learn. If you have a high intellectual curiosity for politics and terrorism, or strong values for contributing to the world, society, or designing the systems we live in, or lean towards effective altruism, or truly making a difference in the world be it directly political or otherwise, you may have thought, like myself, that this subject would be the right fit for you. Don't do it. It's not worth your intellectual effort or energy. Don't burn yourself by taking this subject. If there's anything this subject taught me, it's that the system is so deeply broken.

It's really interesting, but insanely hard. The first lecture, they said this would be the hardest subject we did in our undergrads and they did not lie. If you have a lot of time to give to a subject, then go ahead. Also, this is not a subject about terrorism. It is a subject about psychoanalysis and psychoanalysing terrorism. The information was very dense and not always delivered with the most clarity. The subject had a lot of potential but seemed unnecessarily hard. The subject could've been more interesting and I would learned more if it was less packed with content.