Spring 2027

Africa: an Introductory Survey

Introductory survey of African society, culture, polity, and economy from prehistory to contemporary developments, covering nationalism and social change.

offering recorded4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Marissa Moorman

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · James Delehanty

The workload included a heavy reading load, but exams and a five-page paper were considered manageable if students completed the assigned work.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Analyze African society and culture from a multidisciplinary perspective.

  • Discuss polity and economy from prehistory and ancient kingdoms through the colonial period to contemporary developments.

  • Study contemporary nationalism, economic development and changing social structure.

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2 UW Guide 3 UW Guide 4 UW Guide 5 UW Guide 6 UW Guide 7

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
AFRICAN/AFROAMER/ANTHRO/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SOC 277 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
Historical instructors & teaching patterns

JAMES DELEHANTY is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Spring 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MICHAEL SCHATZBERG is recorded teaching in Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

NEIL KODESH is recorded teaching in Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023. 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 / 1080
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 305Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 306Classroom Instruction0 / 180
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1080
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 305Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 306Classroom Instruction0 / 180
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1080
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 150
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 150
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 305Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 306Classroom Instruction0 / 180
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1080
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 150
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 150
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 305Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 306Classroom Instruction0 / 180
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1080
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 305Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 306Classroom Instruction0 / 180
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1080
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 150
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 150
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 305Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 306Classroom Instruction0 / 180
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1080
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 150
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 150
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 305Classroom Instruction0 / 180
DIS 306Classroom Instruction0 / 180

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

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · James Delehanty

Past students described the course as providing a comprehensive overview of the continent from multiple perspectives within a single semester.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.78 GPA, 90.0% A/AB (n=90 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.27 GPA, 66.3% A/AB (n=86 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.66 GPA, 80.9% A/AB (n=94 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · James Delehanty

The workload included a heavy reading load, but exams and a five-page paper were considered manageable if students completed the assigned work.

Past student reviews · James Delehanty

Reviewers noted that the instructor was passionate, knowledgeable, and friendly during office hours, while also featuring interesting guest lectures.

Topics

  • African society, culture, polity, and economy
  • Historical periods from prehistory to contemporary era
  • Modern nationalism, economic development, and social structure

Skills

  • Analyze African society and culture from a multidisciplinary perspective.
  • Discuss polity and economy across historical periods.
  • Study contemporary nationalism, economic development, and social structure.

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.16 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

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/AFROAMER/ANTHRO/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SOC 277 · Spring 2027

Africa: An Introductory Survey

Recorded 2026-10-14
AFRICAN/AFROAMER/ANTHRO/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SOC 277 · Spring 2027

Africa: An Introductory Survey

Recorded 2026-10-14
AFRICAN/AFROAMER/ANTHRO/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SOC 277 · Spring 2027

Africa: An Introductory Survey

Recorded 2026-10-14
AFRICAN/AFROAMER/ANTHRO/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SOC 277 · Spring 2027

Africa: An Introductory Survey

Recorded 2026-10-14
AFRICAN/AFROAMER/ANTHRO/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SOC 277 · Spring 2027

Africa: An Introductory Survey

Recorded 2026-10-14
AFRICAN/AFROAMER/ANTHRO/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SOC 277 · Spring 2027

Africa: An Introductory Survey

Recorded 2026-10-14
AFRICAN/AFROAMER/ANTHRO/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SOC 277 · Spring 2027

Africa: An Introductory Survey

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
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": "5a0f31e19e62611c78d9f29fe0e60ec4e65261c83f539078ee0b659372100815",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
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