Spring 2027

Introductory Topics in African Literature

Introductory course covering a special topic in African literature, focusing on a specific region or genre as indicated by the title and description.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Luis Madureira3.7/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Tobi Idowu

Workload consisted of reading three books, posting in daily discussions, writing weekly journal entries, and completing a final research essay on a chosen topic.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Recognize canonical authors and texts, historical forms, genres, and structures, and recognize aesthetic and cultural concerns in Africa and its diasporas.

  • Demonstrate their understanding of major theories, approaches, concepts, and current and classical research findings in African and diaspora literary and cultural studies.

  • Develop a level of proficiency in the different “ways of knowing” Africa through literatures.

  • Understand their own learning processes and possess the capacity to intentionally seek, evaluate, and learn from information, and recognize and reduce bias in their thinking.

  • Effectively retrieve and comprehend primary sources in English and secondary sources in literary criticism.

  • Communicate effectively through essays, oral presentations, and discussion, so they may share their knowledge, wisdom, and values with others across social and professional settings.

  • Show knowledge of conventional rhetorical strategies and integrate research by other authors while distinguishing between their own ideas and those of others.

  • Discuss literature from various perspectives, formulate ideas and make connections between literary concepts and themes.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
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F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
AFRICAN 203 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.71/5 from 14 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.89 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=22 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.88 GPA, 93.8% A/AB (n=16 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.80 GPA, 86.4% A/AB (n=22 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

LUIS MADUREIRA is recorded teaching in Spring 2022, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SAMUEL ENGLAND is recorded teaching in Spring 2022, Fall 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 240

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Tobi Idowu

The course covered African immigration and struggle through readings and a research essay. One student found the summer online section very easy and recommended it.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.89 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=22 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.88 GPA, 93.8% A/AB (n=16 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.80 GPA, 86.4% A/AB (n=22 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Tobi Idowu

Workload consisted of reading three books, posting in daily discussions, writing weekly journal entries, and completing a final research essay on a chosen topic.

Past student reviews · Samuel England

A previous student described Professor England as passionate about the material and eager for everyone to learn, noting he was a very nice instructor.

Topics

  • Special topics in African literature, specifically regions or genres.
  • Theories, approaches, and research findings in African and diaspora literary and cultural studies.

Skills

  • Retrieve and comprehend primary sources in English and secondary sources in literary criticism.
  • Apply conventional rhetorical strategies and integrate research while distinguishing own ideas from others.

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
AFRICAN 203 · Spring 2027

Introductory Topics in African Literature

Recorded 2026-10-14
AFRICAN 203 · Spring 2027

Coming of Age Stories

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:104:025253",
    "course_id": "AFRICAN 203",
    "course_uid": "course_f55fac894a94d4843c58c348",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "025253",
    "source_subject_id": "104",
    "title": "Introductory Topics in African Literature",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  },
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:104:025253.5",
    "course_id": "AFRICAN 203",
    "course_uid": "course_f55fac894a94d4843c58c348",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "025253.5",
    "source_subject_id": "104",
    "title": "Coming of Age Stories",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "537ee7856d2cd6cdd201e3082ae6bf29dee0d6e987f192e668bc9ce4d8d168a8",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}