Spring 2027

Reading Seminar in History

An advanced reading seminar exploring selected historical topics through small group discussion and intensive engagement with primary and secondary materials.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Leonora Neville4.1/5Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen3.8/5Ashley Brown3.7/5 +5 more

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.76 GPA, 92.7% A/AB (n=82 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.69 GPA, 84.1% A/AB (n=69 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.70 GPA, 85.5% A/AB (n=76 letter grades).

What you’ll be able to do

  • Synthesize diverse sources of information about a discrete historical topic.

  • Develop a convincing narrative or well-substantiated argument based on a close reading of a range of historical sources.

  • Communicate historical knowledge and argumentation clearly and effectively.

  • Lead and participate productively in purposeful collaboration, discussion, and feedback.

  • Develop historiographic knowledge as a foundation for future study in the field.

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

HISTORY 201 or junior standing

HISTORY 500

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

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

Leonora Neville

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.53/5 from 19 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 2012: 3.75 GPA, 91.7% A/AB (n=12 letter grades); Spring 2023: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=15 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.93 GPA, 92.9% A/AB (n=14 letter grades).

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.84/5 from 45 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.

No course-specific feedback yet.

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.33/5 from 3 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 — Fall 2023: 3.45 GPA, 72.7% A/AB (n=11 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.69 GPA, 84.6% A/AB (n=13 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.60 GPA, 93.3% A/AB (n=15 letter grades).

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.15/5 from 27 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 — Fall 2024: 3.54 GPA, 76.9% A/AB (n=13 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.50 GPA, 75.0% A/AB (n=8 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.47 GPA, 66.7% A/AB (n=15 letter grades).

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 2.91/5 from 32 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.

No course-specific feedback yet.

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 2.79/5 from 28 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 — Fall 2022: 3.83 GPA, 88.9% A/AB (n=9 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.95 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=10 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.96 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=14 letter grades).

No course-specific feedback yet.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.60 GPA, 80.0% A/AB (n=15 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.61 GPA, 66.7% A/AB (n=9 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.50 GPA, 87.5% A/AB (n=8 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ANTHONY MICHELS is recorded teaching in Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ASHLEY BROWN is recorded teaching in Spring 2019, Fall 2021, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

CLAIRE TAYLOR is recorded teaching in Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

LEONORA NEVILLE is recorded teaching in Fall 2010, Spring 2012, Spring 2023, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

VIREN MURTHY is recorded teaching in Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2022, Spring 2024, Fall 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
SEM 003Classroom Instruction0 / 180
SEM 005Classroom Instruction0 / 180
SEM 006Classroom Instruction0 / 180
SEM 007Classroom Instruction0 / 180
SEM 001Classroom Instruction0 / 180
SEM 008Classroom Instruction0 / 180
SEM 009Classroom Instruction0 / 180
SEM 010Classroom Instruction0 / 180

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

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.76 GPA, 92.7% A/AB (n=82 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.69 GPA, 84.1% A/AB (n=69 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.70 GPA, 85.5% A/AB (n=76 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Selected historical topics that vary by offering
  • Historiography

Skills

  • Synthesizing diverse sources of information
  • Developing convincing narratives or arguments from close reading
  • Clear communication of historical knowledge and argumentation
  • Developing historiographic knowledge

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— 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 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

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
HISTORY 500 · Spring 2027

Reading Seminar in History

Recorded 2026-10-14
HISTORY 500 · Spring 2027

The Long Roman Empire

Recorded 2026-10-14
HISTORY 500 · Spring 2027

Women and U.S. Sports History

Recorded 2026-10-14
HISTORY 500 · Spring 2027

Blacks & Jews in Urban America

Recorded 2026-10-14
HISTORY 500 · Spring 2027

Sparta

Recorded 2026-10-14
HISTORY 500 · Spring 2027

Queering Crisis

Recorded 2026-10-14
HISTORY 500 · Spring 2027

Marxism

Recorded 2026-10-14
HISTORY 500 · Spring 2027

Great Reads in US History

Recorded 2026-10-14
HISTORY 500 · Spring 2027

American Indian Gender History

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews

No records available.

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 
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  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "4c1ccef50f8eaeb3748f7289b280316c6f1d4136bdcd0f437e022047fb23e294",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
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