Spring 2027

Black Death and Medieval Life Through Boccaccio's Decameron

Explores Black Death and medieval life via Boccaccio's Decameron, examining medicine, art, politics, gender, and daily existence in the Middle Ages and early modernity.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Jelena Todorovic3.8/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Jelena Todorovic

The reviewer advised coming to class prepared and completing the readings.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Learn about Giovanni Boccaccio and his Decameron, medieval civilization and its human culture(s)

  • Acquire intercultural knowledge and competence and apply them to past and current issues

  • Analyze a text, a situation, a context

  • Synthesize information acquired from primary and secondary sources

  • Learn the dangers of anachronism

  • Engage in problem solving

  • Develop critical and creative thinking skills

  • Engage in effective teamwork

  • Design and construct new content based on skills acquired throughout the semester

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
LITTRANS/MEDIEVAL 255

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: 4.08/5 from 12 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: 5.0/5 raw quality · 2.0/5 difficulty · 1 reviews

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

Past student reviews · Jelena Todorovic

Professor Jelena Todorovic delivered informative and engaging lectures that were enjoyable for students who came to class prepared and completed the readings. Her exams did not include trick questions or surprises, according to past student feedback.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.87 GPA, 92.1% A/AB (n=38 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.87 GPA, 96.6% A/AB (n=89 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.78 GPA, 87.9% A/AB (n=116 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

JELENA TODOROVIC is recorded teaching in Fall 2015, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, 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 / 1250
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1250

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 · Jelena Todorovic

One student found Professor Todorovic’s lectures to be informative and engaging.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.87 GPA, 92.1% A/AB (n=38 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.87 GPA, 96.6% A/AB (n=89 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.78 GPA, 87.9% A/AB (n=116 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Jelena Todorovic

The reviewer advised coming to class prepared and completing the readings.

Past student reviews · Jelena Todorovic

The student noted that exams did not contain trick questions or surprises.

Topics

  • Medicine, art, culture, music, politics, religion, warfare, fashion, and gender roles in the Middle Ages
  • Medieval documents, feminist responses, film adaptations, frescoes, plague history, and COVID-19 comparisons

Skills

  • Intercultural competence and analysis of medieval civilization through Boccaccio's Decameron
  • Textual analysis and synthesis of primary and secondary sources
  • Critical thinking, avoiding anachronism, and problem solving

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
LITTRANS/MEDIEVAL 255 · Spring 2027

Black Death and Medieval Life Through Boccaccio's Decameron

Recorded 2026-10-14
LITTRANS/MEDIEVAL 255 · Spring 2027

Black Death and Medieval Life Through Boccaccio's Decameron

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
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    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
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    "course_id": "LITTRANS/MEDIEVAL 255",
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    "term_id": "1274",
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    "source_subject_id": "551",
    "title": "Black Death and Medieval Life Through Boccaccio's Decameron",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  },
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    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
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    "offering_id": "1274:633:011404",
    "course_id": "LITTRANS/MEDIEVAL 255",
    "course_uid": "course_7283bd4ccf912249792903f3",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "011404",
    "source_subject_id": "633",
    "title": "Black Death and Medieval Life Through Boccaccio's Decameron",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  }
]
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 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "1111a5ed3a92fbc5ae3f509b32290f3f3a6770fa3a1c1b1d85e65b9c853d7962",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}