Spring 2027

Machiavelli and His World

Close reading of Machiavelli's major works in cultural and historical contexts, focusing on intellectual attitudes, literary sensibility, and political thought controversies.

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

Summary

1 / 8

Past student reviews · Kristin Phillips-Court

Attendance was a large part of the grade in past terms. Students reported that doing all the readings before exams helped them succeed.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Develop a broad understanding of Machiavelli’s principal intellectual attitudes.

  • Cultivate a deep understanding of Machiavelli's literary sensibility.

  • Articulate controversies and complexities surrounding Machiavelli's political thought.

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2 UW Guide 3 UW Guide 4

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Satisfied Communications A

  • Satisfied Communications A
ILS/ITALIAN/LITTRANS/POLISCI 365 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
  • Satisfied Communications A

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

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SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

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

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Kristin Phillips-Court

Phillips-Court’s lectures were described as passionate and exciting by some, while others found them scattered and unorganized. Students noted that missing a class could leave them confused.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.44 GPA, 71.6% A/AB (n=102 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.80 GPA, 90.4% A/AB (n=104 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.71 GPA, 89.3% A/AB (n=112 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Kristin Phillips-Court

Attendance was a large part of the grade in past terms. Students reported that doing all the readings before exams helped them succeed.

Past student reviews · Kristin Phillips-Court

One student found the teaching style frustrating due to tangents and minimal slide text, stating they relied heavily on TAs because they actually knew the material.

Topics

  • Major works of Machiavelli
  • Cultural and historical contexts
  • Political thought

Skills

  • Analyze Machiavelli's principal intellectual attitudes
  • Interpret Machiavelli's literary sensibility
  • Articulate controversies in Machiavelli's political thought

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.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
[]
Rate My Professors

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.

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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": "9e6b19728f228c494814641865ed0b785babc61c48c34bf5f742aa3db0765549",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}