Spring 2027

The History of the (american) Body

The course examines the social and cultural histories of human bodies, including values, expectations, and the role of science and medicine in shaping bodily meaning.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Judith Houck

The course was rated as moderately difficult, with no specific details provided regarding weekly workload or assessment intensity.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Identify and summarize categories of embodied difference.

  • Analyze how embodied differences have shaped axes of power.

  • Examine how the experience of embodiment has shaped personal experience in the American past and present.

  • Integrate historical research skills and learn to craft and develop arguments from primary sources.

  • Apply historical understanding to current events focused on the body.

  • Recognize and describe general trends in the history and the historiography of the body.

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2 UW Guide 3

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
GEN&WS/HISTSCI/MEDHIST 532

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

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

JUDITH HOUCK is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Spring 2010, Spring 2013, Spring 2015, Fall 2018, Spring 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

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

Past student reviews · Judith Houck

Students found the class always interesting, praising the instructor for selecting good readings and providing substantial feedback.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2015: 3.39 GPA, 63.2% A/AB (n=19 letter grades); Fall 2018: 3.00 GPA, 39.1% A/AB (n=23 letter grades); Spring 2023: 3.43 GPA, 71.1% A/AB (n=45 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Judith Houck

The course was rated as moderately difficult, with no specific details provided regarding weekly workload or assessment intensity.

Past student reviews · Judith Houck

Reviewers highly recommended the course, noting that the professor made attending class consistently engaging and enjoyable.

Topics

  • Social values, expectations, and the cultural meanings of bodies.
  • History and historiography of the body.

Skills

  • Identify and analyze categories of embodied difference and their role in shaping axes of power.
  • Use historical research methods to build arguments from primary sources.
  • Connect historical knowledge about bodies to contemporary issues.

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2023— 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 2023

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2023 · 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

1185 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.

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
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "49b85b840e6f4f974c1c892e09860a8c73853fa78bc8f64377caa9515367d806",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}