Spring 2027

Religion and Popular Culture-local and Global

Introduces religious studies through popular culture, exploring themes via U.S./Japan theme parks, sports, music, and tattoos to analyze local and global religious expression.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Susan Ridgely3.9/5

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2023: 3.77 GPA, 91.9% A/AB (n=62 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.36 GPA, 58.8% A/AB (n=68 letter grades).

What you’ll be able to do

  • Apply some theories in the academic study of religion to examine a variety of religious expression related to popular culture

  • Test these theories against the experiences and practices of people across a range of contexts in the U.S. and globally.

  • Demostrate key aspects of global religious literacy and articulate the diversity of ways that religion both reflects and shapes human communities and self-conceptions

  • Employ improved skills in critical reading, writing, and thinking

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

None

  • None
RELIGST 105

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

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.80/5 from 5 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 — Spring 2023: 3.77 GPA, 91.9% A/AB (n=62 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.36 GPA, 58.8% A/AB (n=68 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

SUSAN RIDGELY is recorded teaching in Spring 2023, 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 / 800

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

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2023: 3.77 GPA, 91.9% A/AB (n=62 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.36 GPA, 58.8% A/AB (n=68 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Religious studies theory applied to popular culture.
  • Case studies including theme parks, sports, music, and tattoos.
  • Global religious literacy and community self-conceptions.

Skills

  • Applying theories in the academic study of religion to examine religious expression in popular culture.
  • Testing religious studies theories against experiences and practices in U.S. and global contexts.
  • Demonstrating global religious literacy and articulating how religion reflects and shapes communities.
  • Employing critical reading, writing, and thinking skills.

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2024— 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 Spring 2024

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2024 · 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

1238 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
RELIGST 105 · Spring 2027

Religion and Popular Culture-Local and Global

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": "1274:856:026322",
    "course_id": "RELIGST 105",
    "course_uid": "course_24d1648626495ed4a30dd404",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "026322",
    "source_subject_id": "856",
    "title": "Religion and Popular Culture-Local and Global",
    "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

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": "f8fb210d103f59dd73197497de6d90cab548a25e5ac16f34610a3f2e2f58219c",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}