Spring 2027

Topics in Legal Studies and the Humanities

Topics in Legal Studies and the Humanities links humanities perspectives to the central themes of law and legal institutions.

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

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Rebecca Anderson

Assessment consisted of three essays and weekly completion assignments. One student reported the grading was very lenient, while another found the workload manageable if they skimmed readings and attended lectures.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Analyze how social, political, and cultural phenomena shape law and legal systems.

  • Analyze the social, political, and cultural impacts of law at the societal and individual levels.

  • Assess how legal ideas and ideologies have changed over time and have shaped law and legal systems.

  • Find, interpret, and utilize resources relevant to law and society.

  • Analyze information, write clearly and persuasively, and construct original arguments.

  • Analyze research methods, engage critically with scholarly literature, and assess debates among scholars and others who have shaped understandings of this topic and 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

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
LEGALST 450

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

MELANIE MURCHISON is recorded teaching in Fall 2015, Spring 2019, Fall 2019. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

REBECCA ANDERSON is recorded teaching in Fall 2022. 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
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Rebecca Anderson

Professor Anderson taught the course as an engaging study of courts and human rights. Students found the material interesting and noted she was accessible outside of class.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.66 GPA, 80.6% A/AB (n=72 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.72 GPA, 82.3% A/AB (n=62 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.54 GPA, 84.1% A/AB (n=113 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Rebecca Anderson

Assessment consisted of three essays and weekly completion assignments. One student reported the grading was very lenient, while another found the workload manageable if they skimmed readings and attended lectures.

Past student reviews · Rebecca Anderson

Professor Anderson prioritized student mental health by offering 48-hour extensions on assignments. The reviewer appreciated the creative essay topics and found the class great.

Topics

  • Central themes of law and legal institutions
  • Humanities perspectives applied to law
  • Social, political, and cultural influences on legal systems
  • Historical evolution of legal ideas and ideologies

Skills

  • Analyze how social, political, and cultural phenomena shape law and its impacts.
  • Assess changes in legal ideas and ideologies over time.
  • Find, interpret, and utilize resources relevant to law and society.
  • Write clearly and persuasively while constructing original arguments.
  • Engage critically with scholarly literature and assess academic debates.

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 3 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 · 0.15 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 · 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.

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 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "805b8361279b5e66288a394388ed9b2015581f70580d7157b30553ccffe7c7aa",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}