Professor Seidman is very approachable and wants you to succeed. At the same time, she teaches from a very limited perspective and doesn't really introduce alternative viewpoints and perspectives. Powerpoints are a jumble of article summaries and pictures without clear progression. Often goes on tangents and is generally just hard to follow.Rate My Professors ↗
Historical instructor
Gay Seidman
What students say
Original student reviews · all captured dates
Quality 3/5Difficulty 3/5
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Professor Seidman is very intelligent and has a genuine passion for teaching. It was one of the bests classes I've ever taken. I always left the class with so much knowledge. If you do not go to class it is hard to catch up since her class is mostly discussion-based.Rate My Professors ↗
Quality 3/5Difficulty 3/5
Professor Seidman was super nice and always in a good mood to teach. You can tell she is very knowledgeable and loves what she does. However, the lectures seemed a little disorganized at times and she downgraded me for not knowing things/"reflecting completely" on things that weren't discussed in class.Rate My Professors ↗
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
This class was definitely different compared to other sociology courses I have taken. Dr. Seidman was very clear on her grading rubric and very flexible as well as responsive to questions on clarifications. Lectures are heavily discussion based and there were lots of readings for class assignments.Rate My Professors ↗
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
Right from the beginning, it is clear that she knows much about the subject. She values student input and encourages participation. The class atmosphere was very relaxed, and the majority of the weekly work was to complete online readings. Grades were determined by written exams and papers, all of which had generally loose prompts and good feedbackRate My Professors ↗
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Prof Seidman was very exciting, lively, and passionate about the topics. She clearly cares about her students and wants them to succeed. She even brought snacks for us to the midterm and final exams! Lectures are interesting. overall pretty good class and experience.Rate My Professors ↗
Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.
Classes with Gay Seidman
No teaching recorded in Fall 2026.
No courses match this selection. Try the full catalog or another term.
Recorded teaching history
Explore courses taught by this instructor →Browse recorded courses
| Term | Course | Title |
|---|
Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.
Instructor identity & provenance
{
"instructor_uid": "instructor_be7f3c312cf1d4cf25099431",
"source": "legacy",
"source_instructor_id": null,
"identity_basis": "name_only",
"identity_status": "unresolved",
"name": "Gay Seidman",
"email": "SEIDMAN@SSC.WISC.EDU",
"first_observed_at": "2025-07-13 04:59:22.367394+00:00",
"last_observed_at": "2025-11-16 05:32:31.273726+00:00",
"ratings": {
"review_count": 28,
"quality": 3.68,
"difficulty": 2.46,
"quality_count": 28,
"difficulty_count": 28,
"profile_id": "rmp:163409",
"source_url": "https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/163409",
"match_basis": "exact_name",
"observed_at": "2026-09-07 16:38:34.925267+00:00",
"courses": {
"course_5f791a00b9be1fbcc4a5e4a1": {
"review_count": 9,
"quality": 4.44,
"difficulty": 3,
"quality_count": 9,
"difficulty_count": 9
},
"course_58c5efa4d73f20761eaf6279": {
"review_count": 2,
"quality": 4.5,
"difficulty": 2,
"quality_count": 2,
"difficulty_count": 2
},
"course_cebc93b8748658e94ab376c4": {
"review_count": 12,
"quality": 3.67,
"difficulty": 2,
"quality_count": 12,
"difficulty_count": 12
}
},
"bayesian_quality": 3.6715357431444153,
"prior_mean": 3.6596857835465957,
"prior_weight": 20
},
"current": false,
"courses": [],
"revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
"instructor_url": "/instructors/GAY_SEIDMAN--instructor_be7f3c312cf1d4cf25099431"
}