Spring 2027

The History of Punishment

Examines punishment across ancient, medieval, and modern traditions through law, literature, art, and philosophy.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Karl Shoemaker3.7/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Karl Shoemaker

Assignments were easy and straightforward, typically taking five to ten minutes, but the provided readings were relevant yet lengthy and dense.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe punishment across a wide range of historical traditions.

  • Evaluate a variety of historical materials to determine their origins, perspective, usefulness, and reliability.

  • Analyze influences that shape historical narratives and debates across genres and media.

  • Recognize multiple ways of being in the world, and how what may seem natural in a society has been built over decades of accumulated human actions.

  • Assess the historiography or other scholarly debates that have shaped the study of punishment.

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
HISTORY/LEGALST 426

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: 3.75/5 from 48 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: 4.5/5 raw quality · 2.5/5 difficulty · 4 reviews

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

Past student reviews · Karl Shoemaker

Karl Shoemaker delivered articulate, engaging lectures that combined multiple concepts, often using storytelling and dry humor. Students described the course as straightforward with easy assignments, though readings were lengthy and dense. While one reviewer noted he sometimes drifted off subject, others found his clear expectations and forgiving approach made success achievable if you attended and did the work.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2019: 3.53 GPA, 76.5% A/AB (n=68 letter grades); Fall 2023: 3.71 GPA, 86.1% A/AB (n=101 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.80 GPA, 94.3% A/AB (n=105 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

KARL B SHOEMAKER is recorded teaching in Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Fall 2014, Fall 2019, 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

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1000
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1000

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 · Karl Shoemaker

Professor Shoemaker was described as an intense but forgiving lecturer who set clear expectations, ensuring that students who completed the work succeeded in the class.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.60 GPA, 83.3% A/AB (n=42 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.80 GPA, 94.3% A/AB (n=105 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.67 GPA, 90.2% A/AB (n=41 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Karl Shoemaker

Assignments were easy and straightforward, typically taking five to ten minutes, but the provided readings were relevant yet lengthy and dense.

Past student reviews · Karl Shoemaker

Students found lectures fun due to a dry sense of humor and noted that the professor’s textbook on sanctuary was not required for the course.

Topics

  • Punishment in law, literature, art, and philosophy across ancient, medieval, and modern eras.

Skills

  • Evaluating historical materials for origins, perspective, usefulness, and reliability.
  • Assessing historiography and scholarly debates on punishment.

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.

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Selected offering source records
HISTORY/LEGALST 426 · Spring 2027

The History of Punishment

Recorded 2026-10-14
HISTORY/LEGALST 426 · Spring 2027

The History of Punishment

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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    "title": "The History of Punishment",
    "credits_min": 3,
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    "source_subject_id": "535",
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    "credits_min": 3,
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    "typically_offered": "Spring"
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]
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 
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  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
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  "output_id": "1a89a5b91997c74c797e75329e6eb14886cd8435904fc9f8069103728dd70c80",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}