Spring 2027

Sects and Cults

Introduction to new religious movements in the U.S., including groups often labeled sects, cults, or fringe religions.

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

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Susan Ridgely

The small class size made discussion very comfortable for the reviewer.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Articulate the complexities of defining new religious movements.

  • Describe and assess a variety of arguments about religion, brainwashing and representation.

  • Demonstrate skills of analysis, persuasive writing, oral communication.

  • Articulate and better understand your own definition of religion.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
RELIGST 311

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

SUSAN RIDGELY is recorded teaching in Fall 2017, Fall 2019, Fall 2023. 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

No records available.

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Susan Ridgely

A non-major student called Professor Ridgely's class the most interesting they had taken and recommended it to anyone.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2017: 3.52 GPA, 91.7% A/AB (n=24 letter grades); Fall 2019: 3.50 GPA, 80.8% A/AB (n=26 letter grades); Fall 2023: 3.70 GPA, 84.4% A/AB (n=32 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Susan Ridgely

The small class size made discussion very comfortable for the reviewer.

Past student reviews · Susan Ridgely

The instructor made the class fun and was clear that she wanted everyone to do well.

Topics

  • New religious movements in the United States
  • Arguments regarding religion, brainwashing, and representation

Skills

  • Defining new religious movements
  • Assessing arguments about religion and brainwashing
  • Analysis, persuasive writing, and oral communication

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2023— 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 2023

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2023 · 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

1292 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
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "2bbb057eea9e2547d01ac17c9118135972c32fa05298ccfe4e355d95c18f6a2d",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}