Fall 2026

Conspiracy in the Ancient and Modern Worlds

CLASSICS 340 explores conspiracy in ancient Rome and applies those insights to modern events like the Salem Witch Trials and Watergate.

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

Summary

1 / 5

Historical reviews of Grant Nelsestuen: The course involves significant reading and written assignments, including discussion posts, journals, and papers. While the workload is substantial, materials are often posted in advance, and lectures provide necessary context for the essays.

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades
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Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
CLASSICS 340

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

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Fall 2026

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Historical reviews of Grant Nelsestuen: Grant Nelsestuen is described as knowledgeable and engaging, with some reviewers finding his lectures helpful and interesting. Others criticize his lectures as scattered and incoherent, noting a lack of student interaction. While some students value his clear explanations and helpful feedback, others find his presentation style disorganized.

GRANT NELSESTUEN is recorded teaching in Spring 2017, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2023, Fall 2025. 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

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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 for Grant Nelsestuen describe engaging lectures and deep subject knowledge, though some students found the lecture delivery scattered. The course is generally well-regarded for its interesting topics and helpful feedback, with one reviewer noting the online structure is very well organized.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2020: 3.49 GPA, 78.5% A/AB (n=93 letter grades); Fall 2023: 3.74 GPA, 89.9% A/AB (n=69 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.77 GPA, 91.8% A/AB (n=49 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Historical reviews of Grant Nelsestuen: The course involves significant reading and written assignments, including discussion posts, journals, and papers. While the workload is substantial, materials are often posted in advance, and lectures provide necessary context for the essays.

Historical reviews of Grant Nelsestuen: Students report mixed experiences regarding interaction and grading. Some reviewers criticize a lack of social interaction and unclear lecture delivery, while others note that the TA grading essays is harsh and that non-essay components are graded leniently.

Topics

  • Structure of the traditional Roman household and paterfamilias
  • Religions conflicting with Roman authorities, including Bacchus cults and early Christianity
  • Modern conspiracies: Salem Witch Trials, Red Scare, Kennedy Assassination, Watergate

Skills

  • Interrogating conspiracy phenomena in ancient contexts
  • Applying ancient historical insights to modern conspiracies

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Fall 2026.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

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AB
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BC
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D
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Grades over time

Through Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · 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

1320 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

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
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Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

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Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-09-07

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4
LLM outputs across runs
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4",
  "model_revision": "1355db6a052410cfd62085d94b58866fd0f2c3c5",
  "task_version": "14",
  "output_id": "c235c644734ce09e737137cdf8f78ed0c2c264deb3d5eb9cc0c16859f558b5f5",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}