Fall 2026

Latin America: an Introduction

An interdisciplinary introduction to Latin American culture and society, covering historical, political, economic, and social developments from pre-Columbian times to the present.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Fall 2026 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 5

Historical reviews of Kathryn Sanchez, Marcella Hayes, Patrick Iber, Steve Stern: Workload varies by instructor, involving significant reading, multiple exams, and writing-heavy assignments such as an 8-15 page paper or essay.

Grade history

average GPA
letter grades
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
AFROAMER/ANTHRO/C&ESOC/GEOG/HISTORY/LACIS/POLISCI/SOC/SPANISH 260

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Fall 2026

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Historical reviews for Steve Stern, Kathryn Sanchez, Patrick Iber, and Marcella Hayes highlight engaging lectures and accessible instructors. Stern and Iber are praised for brilliance and flexibility, while Sanchez and Hayes are noted for personable teaching and interesting storytelling. Students generally recommend the course for its compelling content and supportive faculty.

KATHRYN SANCHEZ is recorded teaching in Spring 2009, Spring 2011, Spring 2013, Spring 2015, Spring 2017, Spring 2019, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

LEVI CROSS is recorded teaching in Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MARCELLA HAYES is recorded teaching in Spring 2022, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

PATRICK IBER is recorded teaching in Spring 2018, Spring 2020, Fall 2023. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

STEVE J. STERN is recorded teaching in Spring 2008. 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

Fall 2026

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

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

Meeting source records

No records available.

Student experience

the class

Historical reviews of Marcella Hayes, Patrick Iber: Reviewers consistently praise the course for engaging lectures and accessible instructors, recommending it highly despite varying workload structures across different teaching terms.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.60 GPA, 79.7% A/AB (n=74 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.65 GPA, 88.2% A/AB (n=17 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.61 GPA, 78.7% A/AB (n=47 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Historical reviews of Kathryn Sanchez, Marcella Hayes, Patrick Iber, Steve Stern: Workload varies by instructor, involving significant reading, multiple exams, and writing-heavy assignments such as an 8-15 page paper or essay.

Historical reviews of Kathryn Sanchez, Steve Stern: Students find lectures interesting and personable, though some note that sparse slides and fast speaking can make note-taking and exam preparation challenging.

Topics

  • Historical developments from pre-Columbian times to the present
  • Political movements
  • Economic problems
  • Social change
  • Ecology in tropical Latin America
  • Legal systems
  • Literature and the arts
  • Land reform, labor movements, and political ideologies

Grades

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

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

1283 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.

Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records
[]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Model outputs & technical records
nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Model & dataset provenance
{
  "model": "nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4",
  "model_revision": "1355db6a052410cfd62085d94b58866fd0f2c3c5",
  "task_version": "14",
  "output_id": "e551256a76da105b99625326ddf106e1802e9f8365a3ea31dee338551833bedc",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}