Hiv: Sex, Society and Science
Introduction to HIV transmission and its scientific, political, and societal impact, including current developments in HIV science and policy.
Summary
Past student reviews · Thomas Friedrich
Students reported a few readings for every class. Grading included attendance points and three midterms, with exams described as straightforward but requiring study.
What you’ll be able to do
Use science as a tool for understanding the world and solving problems.
Understand how scientific data, social context, and political decisions impact prevention and treatment of infectious diseases in different community contexts.
Identify obstacles to implementing effective disease interventions and understand ways to evaluate those interventions.
Describe the steps of the HIV viral life cycle.
Discuss how HIV’s replication process leads to immune deficiency and AIDS.
Describe immune responses against viral infection and list reasons why these responses fail to clear HIV infection.
List reasons why it is challenging to cure HIV infection.
Discuss approaches for making vaccines against other pathogens and list reasons why it is challenging to apply these approaches to HIV.
Discuss and evaluate approaches for slowing the spread of HIV in the United States and other countries.
Describe the processes by which HIV emerged to become a human pathogen.
Discuss the sources of funding for the global response to HIV/AIDS and evaluate the efficacy of each in achieving its goals.
Apply the concepts learned in relation to HIV to other emerging and re-emerging pathogens, such as Ebola virus, Zika virus, and/or SARS-CoV-2.
Source: UW Guide 1· UW Guide 2
Grade history
↗All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors
Prerequisites
Course mapNone
- None
This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.
Prerequisite text tree
- None
Professors
Spring 2027No instructors recorded for this selection.
Historical instructors & teaching patterns
DAVID O'CONNOR is recorded teaching in Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
DAVID WATKINS is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Fall 2010. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
THOMAS FRIEDRICH is recorded teaching in Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, 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 2027Schedule loads here as you scroll.
| Section | Mode | Enrolled / capacity | Waitlist |
|---|
Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.
Meeting source records
Student experience
the class
Past student reviews · David O'Connor, Thomas Friedrich
This honors-only course features small classes where lectures function as discussions. Students found the content accessible and engaging, with instructors noted for being well-established in their fields.
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.75 GPA, 83.3% A/AB (n=30 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.88 GPA, 93.1% A/AB (n=29 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.83 GPA, 82.8% A/AB (n=29 letter grades).
difficulty & workload
Past student reviews · Thomas Friedrich
Students reported a few readings for every class. Grading included attendance points and three midterms, with exams described as straightforward but requiring study.
Past student reviews · Thomas Friedrich
The course was considered super up-to-date and very interesting. It was viewed as a great option for new UW students, even those in non-STEM majors.
Topics
- HIV transmission and societal impact
- HIV viral life cycle
- Immune responses to HIV
- Emergence of HIV as a human pathogen
- Vaccine development challenges for HIV
Skills
- Using science to understand the world and solve problems
- Understanding how scientific data, social context, and political decisions impact disease prevention and treatment
- Identifying obstacles to disease interventions and evaluating them
- Evaluating approaches for slowing the spread of HIV
Grades
Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.
Grade distribution · % of letter grades
Grades over time
Through Fall 2025
More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data
Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.
Sources & history
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.
Selected offering source records
No offering records for the selected term.
Raw records
[]
Student reviews
Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.
Read original reviews
Grade history
Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.
Explore recorded gradesRecorded 2026-10-14
Model outputs & technical records
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces
Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.
Model & dataset provenance
{
"model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
"model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
"task_version": "17",
"output_id": "5c9d7592dbda8259483cdf8951f6ac7396db199533b21aa542832e406b2ca3ba",
"requirements_status": "valid",
"dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
"observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}