Nothing but great things to say about her! She truly cares about her students and the content she teaches. The BEST 201 teacher! Her lectures are interesting, and I am engaged the entire time. The readings she assigned are still interesting and relatively easy reads despite being about heavy content. If you put in the work, you can do very well.Rate My Professors ↗
Current instructor
Kathryn Ciancia
What students say
Original student reviews · all captured dates
Professor Ciancia is an excellent professor who clearly cares about her students success. She is an amazing lecturer and is very passionate about what she teaches. She has only fueled my interest in learning about history.Rate My Professors ↗
Professor Ciancia is unquestionably one of the best Professors I've ever had at UW. Not only is she a genius, but I've never had a professor care more about me and my fellow students before. She gave us incredibly detailed feedback on all of our papers and is so fun to talk to. If you want to love history, take her class. She's a gem.Rate My Professors ↗
She is one of my favorite professors. Lectures are always interesting, she is very kind and encourages participation. Do the readings, show her in papers that you understand and have been paying attention and you'll do well. You can tell she knows her history, assignments are about the big picture and focusing on why things happened, not just datesRate My Professors ↗
I've had Professor Ciancia twice now, for History 270 and for History 201, she is an excellent professor. Her lectures are well prepared and interesting. She does a fantastic job of engaging with the class and encouraging participation in her lectures. The readings she selected were also brilliant.Rate My Professors ↗
She is so cute and precious. She's kind of like your grandmother but younger - that type of personality. She's very soft spoken and gentle, and her material is interesting. You know she's really into because she had so much knowledge about it. She did not give a final exam, so she's an angel. Did you know she graduated from Oxford?Rate My Professors ↗
Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.
Classes with Kathryn Ciancia
Senior Honors Thesis
1–3 creditsHISTORY 681 is a mentored independent research and thesis writing course for honors students.
Offering recorded · Fall 2026
No recorded grade history
Senior Honors Thesis
1–3 creditsHISTORY 682 is a mentored independent research and thesis writing course for honors students, requiring concurrent enrollment in HISTORY 680.
Offering recorded · Fall 2026
Recent recorded grades — Spring 2022: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=1 letter grades).
historical GPA · grades
Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sampleDirected Study
1–4 creditsHISTORY 698 is a directed study course allowing students to conduct independent research under faculty supervision.
Offering recorded · Fall 2026
No recorded grade history
Directed Study
1–4 creditsHISTORY 699 is a directed study course allowing students to conduct independent research under faculty supervision.
Offering recorded · Fall 2026
historical GPA · grades
Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sampleResearch and Thesis
1–9 creditsHISTORY 990 is a research and thesis course where students conduct independent research and write a thesis under faculty supervision.
Offering recorded · Fall 2026
No recorded grade history
Independent Work
1–6 creditsHISTORY 999 is an independent work course involving directed study under faculty supervision.
Offering recorded · Fall 2026
historical GPA · grades
Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sampleRecorded teaching history
Explore courses taught by this instructor →Browse recorded courses
| Term | Course | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Fall 2026 | HISTORY 681 | Senior Honors Thesis |
| Fall 2026 | HISTORY 682 | Senior Honors Thesis |
| Fall 2026 | HISTORY 698 | Directed Study |
| Fall 2026 | HISTORY 699 | Directed Study |
| Fall 2026 | HISTORY 990 | Research and Thesis |
| Fall 2026 | HISTORY 999 | Independent Work |
Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.
Instructor identity & provenance
{
"instructor_uid": "instructor_113069bb086d09d37415e386",
"source": "enrollment",
"source_instructor_id": "ciancia",
"identity_basis": "netid",
"identity_status": "source_identified",
"name": "Kathryn Ciancia",
"email": "CIANCIA@WISC.EDU",
"first_observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
"last_observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
"ratings": {
"review_count": 9,
"quality": 5,
"difficulty": 2.78,
"quality_count": 9,
"difficulty_count": 9,
"profile_id": "rmp:1904329",
"source_url": "https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/1904329",
"match_basis": "exact_name",
"observed_at": "2026-09-07 16:26:56.844673+00:00",
"courses": {},
"bayesian_quality": 4.075645367963169,
"prior_mean": 3.6596857835465957,
"prior_weight": 20
},
"current": true,
"courses": [
{
"course_uid": "course_3b97b068160d601be814baa5",
"course_id": "HISTORY 699",
"title": "DIRECTED STUDY",
"credits_min": 1,
"credits_max": 4,
"gpa": 3.797
},
{
"course_uid": "course_41573e70786d760dbd11cabc",
"course_id": "HISTORY 698",
"title": "DIRECTED STUDY",
"credits_min": 1,
"credits_max": 4,
"gpa": null
},
{
"course_uid": "course_6432520b02cd7934abbfcd3f",
"course_id": "HISTORY 682",
"title": "SENIOR HONORS THESIS",
"credits_min": 1,
"credits_max": 3,
"gpa": 3.763
},
{
"course_uid": "course_8778fa7b5b565bca47ade417",
"course_id": "HISTORY 681",
"title": "SENIOR HONORS THESIS",
"credits_min": 1,
"credits_max": 3,
"gpa": 4
},
{
"course_uid": "course_9ece8db211897864d843d882",
"course_id": "HISTORY 990",
"title": "RESEARCH AND THESIS",
"credits_min": 1,
"credits_max": 9,
"gpa": null
},
{
"course_uid": "course_f3c5da1f78bad390731fed93",
"course_id": "HISTORY 999",
"title": "INDEPENDENT WORK",
"credits_min": 1,
"credits_max": 6,
"gpa": 3.953
}
],
"revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
"instructor_url": "/instructors/KATHRYN_CIANCIA"
}