My fiat lux was based on the current school year's Common Experience, which was the book The War for Kindness. This book basically dives into everything empathy, from its biological basis to real-life experiences surrounding empathy.

I really enjoyed the class, and Professor Khankan is absolutely amazing. Each fiat lux will be different, but this one was low-commitment where we only read some chapters of the Common Experience book to guide our discussions as homework. Class consisted of different activities, primarily discussing empathy and how it works. I learned about how empathy is actually a skill one can work on, and I saw how there's actually a lot of research going on with empathy. We also did fun stuff like watching Inside Out 2. A really meaningful discussion also happened in the last class scheduled where we decompressed and applied the concept of empathy right after the 2024 election night.

Hopefully, you'll come out of the fiat lux courses taught by Dr. Khankan with perhaps even more curiosity about an initially cool and random topic you found on the class planner. If not, you'll still get lots of snacks, a free plant, and hopefully closer connections with your professor.

(This quarter, LIFESCI 19's theme was "Social Dilemmas," not gentrification)
Professor Khankan is absolutely the best. She is full of interesting stories and wants to give students an engaging experience at UCLA, in and out of class. I highly recommend taking a Fiat Luxe with her. She offers to have lunch with students (which I have not taken up out of my own shyness) and discusses ways she could get us to go on trips.
Attending this class is pretty required, but that's about it. There was no homework, just a nice cozy class size, some videos, and some discussion.
Also, we played a game, and she gave everyone a free succulent at the end.