Spring 2027

Human Geography: Space, Place, Society, and Politics

An introduction to human geography exploring economic, political, social, cultural, and technological dynamics driving interrelationships and divisions in space.

offering recorded4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Jenna Loyd2.3/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Jenna Loyd

Quizzes included three-page essays, and students reported large assignments almost weekly, making studying for exams difficult.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Define key human geographic concepts, including place, space, territory, imagined geographies, and geopolitics.

  • Identify human geographic concepts in everyday life and current events.

  • Discuss the defining features and contributions of some human geography subareas.

  • Explain how political and economic dynamics, past and present, have created uneven geographies across the globe and at different scales.

  • Discuss interdependencies (and conflicts) across the globe, among nation-states, within cities, between humans and non-humans.

  • Discuss the role of nation-states in spatializing sovereignty and regulating mobility.

  • Discuss how spatial divisions are created, the power such divisions have in different groups of people’s lives, and how people try to reshape these dynamics.

  • Share course content and demonstrate key course concepts via writing and speaking.

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
GEOG 101 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027

Jenna Loyd

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 1.61/5 from 44 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.

For this course: 1.4/5 raw quality · 3.7/5 difficulty · 31 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Jenna Loyd

Students said Jenna Loyd was unprepared and that her lectures were disorganized and boring. One student said slides were not uploaded to Canvas, while others found weekly quizzes challenging, with subjective grading of short-answer questions; some reported many papers with unclear guidelines, and one student said expectations were clear and extra credit was available.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.31 GPA, 68.0% A/AB (n=172 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.32 GPA, 65.7% A/AB (n=169 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.27 GPA, 69.2% A/AB (n=143 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Robert Kaiser, Keith Woodward

Robert Kaiser taught this course with fast-paced slides that made note-taking difficult, while Keith Woodward's lectures were described as interesting but often tangential. Students took two essay exams and 6-page papers under Kaiser, while Woodward's class required a midterm, final, and two papers.

JENNA LOYD is recorded teaching in Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KARA EILEEN DEMPSEY is recorded teaching in Fall 2009. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KEITH WOODWARD is recorded teaching in Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2024, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ROBERT KAISER is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Fall 2010, Fall 2013, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2021. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

WILLIAM GARTNER is recorded teaching in Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Fall 2022, Spring 2026. 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 / 1980
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 140
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 170
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 170
DIS 305Classroom Instruction0 / 170
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 140
DIS 306Classroom Instruction0 / 170
DIS 307Classroom Instruction0 / 170
DIS 308Classroom Instruction0 / 170
DIS 309Classroom Instruction0 / 170
DIS 310Classroom Instruction0 / 170

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 · Jenna Loyd

One student found the class not the most fun but noted that expectations were clear and extra credit was available to boost grades.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.65 GPA, 88.0% A/AB (n=150 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.27 GPA, 69.2% A/AB (n=143 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.53 GPA, 81.1% A/AB (n=122 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Jenna Loyd

Quizzes included three-page essays, and students reported large assignments almost weekly, making studying for exams difficult.

Past student reviews · Jenna Loyd

Jenna Loyd did not post slides on Canvas, which made it hard for students to follow along and study effectively.

Topics

  • Key human geographic concepts including place, space, territory, imagined geographies, and geopolitics.
  • Interdependencies and conflicts across the globe, among nation-states, within cities, and between humans and non-humans.
  • Multiple meanings and experiences of space encountered through sports, social media, travel, and local life.

Skills

  • Defining key human geographic concepts such as place, space, territory, and geopolitics.
  • Explaining how political and economic dynamics create uneven geographies at various scales.
  • Discussing the role of nation-states in spatializing sovereignty and regulating mobility.
  • Analyzing how spatial divisions are created and their impact on different groups of people.

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.10 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

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.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
GEOG 101 · Spring 2027

Human Geography: Space, Place, Society, and Politics

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": "1274:416:008189",
    "course_id": "GEOG 101",
    "course_uid": "course_123bc1da6521fa3f2e3a0637",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "008189",
    "source_subject_id": "416",
    "title": "Human Geography: Space, Place, Society, and Politics",
    "credits_min": 4,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
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 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "e2d9a38324e1a776ff9c624a3a64db10cfefd7ccb4afbe9b427db955b46fee3a",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}