Spring 2027

Introduction to African American Literature

Introduction to African American Literature analyzes major works of fiction, drama, poetry, and autobiography, focusing on historical, cultural, and biographical contexts.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Brittney Edmonds3.4/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Sandra Adell

Students of Sandra Adell read one short book per week and completed few writing assignments; staying on top of the reading from the start helped.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Identify major literary movements in the history of Black literature

  • Identify the contextual frameworks that shape cultural representations of race in the US

  • Describe the ways African American history and culture shapes and informs Black literary compositions

  • Apply textual analysis and cultural studies criticism to our primary readings through class discussion, written essays, and other evaluation

  • Develop persuasive written arguments about the aesthetic construction, form, context, and meaning of Black authors’ cultural texts and objects

  • Communicate with others in ways that displays an understanding of racial inequities in the US

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
AFROAMER 227

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: 3.19/5 from 21 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 2023: 3.79 GPA, 92.2% A/AB (n=77 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.76 GPA, 92.6% A/AB (n=27 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.85 GPA, 97.2% A/AB (n=36 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ANTHONY BLACK is recorded teaching in Fall 2012, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2019. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

BRITTNEY EDMONDS is recorded teaching in Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SANDRA ADELL is recorded teaching in Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2017, Spring 2020, Fall 2021. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

THULANI DAVIS is recorded teaching in Fall 2018, Fall 2020, 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 / 750
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 250

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 · Sandra Adell

Past students of Sandra Adell found her class forum-like and engaging, though some found paper grading subjective or the classroom anxiety-inducing.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2023: 3.79 GPA, 92.2% A/AB (n=77 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.76 GPA, 92.6% A/AB (n=27 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.85 GPA, 97.2% A/AB (n=36 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Sandra Adell

Students of Sandra Adell read one short book per week and completed few writing assignments; staying on top of the reading from the start helped.

Past student reviews · Sandra Adell

Sandra Adell was helpful with paper writing and selected interesting books.

Topics

  • Major works of African American fiction, drama, poetry, and autobiography
  • Major literary movements in the history of Black literature
  • Contextual frameworks shaping cultural representations of race in the US
  • Ways African American history and culture inform Black literary compositions

Skills

  • Textual analysis and cultural studies criticism
  • Developing persuasive written arguments about aesthetic construction, form, context, and meaning
  • Communication demonstrating understanding of racial inequities in the US

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

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.

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Selected offering source records
AFROAMER 227 · Spring 2027

Introduction to African American Literature

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:106:022159",
    "course_id": "AFROAMER 227",
    "course_uid": "course_87ccc163f848f404a40288e8",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "022159",
    "source_subject_id": "106",
    "title": "Introduction to African American Literature",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
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": "b32afbb4064aa764142a16085148d2d044ce65f0484a0310bf5d1da04c780b77",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}