Spring 2027

Race, Sex, and Texts (how to Do Things with Writing)

Course on race, sex, texts, writing, and U.S. contexts.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Sara Kelm3.8/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Joshua Calhoun

Past feedback indicated a moderate difficulty level, with the instructor described as helpful and kind.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Evaluate how race, gender, and sexuality intersect with language and inform textual experiences.

  • Situate the practice and use of rhetoric, writing, and/or literacy in social, historical, political, material, and personal circumstances.

  • Leverage writing as a mode of learning and means of conveying critical analysis.

  • Recognize and question cultural assumptions and knowledge claims as they relate to race and ethnicity and how they are affected by socio-historical factors.

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2

Grade history

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

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
ENGL/GEN&WS 401

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

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 5.00/5 from 2 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 2024: 3.88 GPA, 95.0% A/AB (n=20 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

SARA KELM is recorded teaching in Spring 2024. 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 / 300
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 300

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 · Joshua Calhoun

Students found the course engaging, noting frequent opportunities to visit Special Collections and work with old books.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.88 GPA, 95.0% A/AB (n=20 letter grades); Spring 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=35 letter grades); Fall 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=30 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Joshua Calhoun

Past feedback indicated a moderate difficulty level, with the instructor described as helpful and kind.

Past student reviews · Joshua Calhoun

Reviewers appreciated the hands-on experience with archival materials and the supportive teaching style.

Topics

  • Intersections of race, gender, sexuality, language, and texts.
  • Written texts and genres shaping U.S. expectations about race and sex.
  • Public documents and debates on race, sex, and everyday action.
  • The social power of words to harm or heal.
  • Historical and contemporary U.S. connections among race, gender, and texts.
  • Rhetoric, writing, and literacy in situated contexts.
  • Cultural assumptions about race and ethnicity over time.

Skills

  • Evaluate intersections of race, gender, sexuality, language, and texts.
  • Analyze rhetoric, writing, and literacy in multiple contexts.
  • Use writing for learning and critical analysis.
  • Question cultural assumptions about race and ethnicity.
  • Interpret public documents from legal records to digital activism.

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— 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 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

1316 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
ENGL/GEN&WS 401 · Spring 2027

Race, Sex, and Texts (How to do things with writing)

Recorded 2026-10-14
ENGL/GEN&WS 401 · Spring 2027

Race, Sex, and Texts (How to do things with writing)

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": "1274:352:025158",
    "course_id": "ENGL/GEN&WS 401",
    "course_uid": "course_72c28e54431c484a952cb178",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "025158",
    "source_subject_id": "352",
    "title": "Race, Sex, and Texts (How to do things with writing)",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Occasionally"
  },
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:963:025158",
    "course_id": "ENGL/GEN&WS 401",
    "course_uid": "course_72c28e54431c484a952cb178",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "025158",
    "source_subject_id": "963",
    "title": "Race, Sex, and Texts (How to do things with writing)",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Occasionally"
  }
]
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": "252493565ee2d41faff5bbb85ba83834bec436a8f9fc10f67f8c94148ff6af32",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}