Spring 2027

Governments and Politics of the Middle East and North Africa

Introduction to politics and governance in the Middle East, covering regional political economy, Islam and democracy, authoritarianism, and political Islam.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Steven Brooke4.2/5

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.62 GPA, 80.9% A/AB (n=47 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.62 GPA, 81.2% A/AB (n=48 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.55 GPA, 83.0% A/AB (n=47 letter grades).

What you’ll be able to do

  • Develop a concrete understanding of the history and politics of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

  • Apply comparative politics’ theories and frameworks toward understanding the current events and the complexities of MENA’s politics and governance structures

  • Apply critical and analytical skills to different, even contradictory, points of views and contemporary debates relating to MENA politics and ongoing conflicts.

  • Demonstrate the ability to write in several forms and present written ideas and arguments for audiences with diverse interests and backgrounds.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
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F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing,POLI SCI 104 or 140

POLISCI 320

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

Steven Brooke

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.58/5 from 24 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.

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

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2021: 3.73 GPA, 93.2% A/AB (n=44 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.62 GPA, 80.9% A/AB (n=47 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

STEVEN BROOKE is recorded teaching in Fall 2021, Spring 2024. 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 / 510
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 170
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 170
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 170

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

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.62 GPA, 80.9% A/AB (n=47 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.62 GPA, 81.2% A/AB (n=48 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.55 GPA, 83.0% A/AB (n=47 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Political economy of the region
  • Link between Islam, culture and democracy
  • Politics of authoritarianism
  • Political Islam

Skills

  • Apply comparative politics theories and frameworks to understand MENA politics and governance.
  • Apply critical and analytical skills to contradictory viewpoints and contemporary MENA debates.
  • Write in several forms and present written ideas and arguments for diverse audiences.

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.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
POLISCI 320 · Spring 2027

Governments and Politics of the Middle East and North Africa

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:778:025845",
    "course_id": "POLISCI 320",
    "course_uid": "course_a21e41a91c68c3a601319097",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "025845",
    "source_subject_id": "778",
    "title": "Governments and Politics of the Middle East and North Africa",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews

No records available.

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": "9c35fdc237fb2afb2b279fcf4b784a45032c79e737e7e8a639b81a4a4520e891",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}