Current instructor

Laird Boswell

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.31/5 from 48 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.

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

HIST359 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
An amazing lecturer. Definitely history heavy, so if you don't really enjoying learning about history, I would skip out on this course. But as a history major, Professor Boswell was a really fantastic instructor. Readings can get dense throughout the semester, but other than that, the workload is quite light for this course. Highly recommend!
Rate My Professors ↗
HIS120 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Prof. Bowsell is amazing lecturer and he makes history extremely engaging. He also is very funny and often would tell us personal accounts of the historical topics we are going over in class which is super cool. This class has 2 major papers but other than that it isnt a burden and I often just had to read interesting books.
Rate My Professors ↗
HIS120 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Great lecturer. Manages to keep things engaging and can be kind of funny, but you definitely have to somewhat like history to enjoy the class. LOTS of reading (like a book a week, but you can sparknotes a bunch of them) and frequent papers. TA is much more responsible for your grade than Boswell is
Rate My Professors ↗
HIS359 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
I can't speak to his assignments or grading since I was just auditing the course, but he is a terrific lecturer! I thoroughly enjoyed this course.
Rate My Professors ↗
HIS120 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
One of the best lecturers I've ever seen - he makes the content very interesting to listen to. However, would not recommend taking this class as a graduation requirement for STEM majors since the workload can be pretty significant - very reading and essay intensive
Rate My Professors ↗
HIS120 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
Professor Boswell is one of the best professors I have had here at Madison. He is very passionate about the material he teaches and makes lectures engaging for students. However, the course is extremely heavy with reading material, as you are expected to read a full book every week. Would recommend for those into history/reading
Rate My Professors ↗

Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Laird Boswell

HISTORY 691

Senior Thesis

1–3 credits

The Senior Thesis course involves mentored independent research and writing on an original topic, requiring concurrent enrollment in HISTORY 690.

Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources

Stephen KantrowitzCindy Cheng+22 more

No recorded grade history

Recorded teaching history

Distinct courses recorded per term

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Spring 2027HISTORY 681Senior Honors Thesis
Spring 2027HISTORY 682Senior Honors Thesis
Spring 2027HISTORY 691Senior Thesis
Spring 2027HISTORY 692Senior Thesis
Spring 2027HISTORY 698Directed Study
Spring 2027HISTORY 699Directed Study
Spring 2027HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2027HISTORY 999Independent Work
Fall 2026HISTORY 681Senior Honors Thesis
Fall 2026HISTORY 682Senior Honors Thesis
Fall 2026HISTORY 691Senior Thesis
Fall 2026HISTORY 692Senior Thesis
Fall 2026HISTORY 698Directed Study
Fall 2026HISTORY 699Directed Study
Fall 2026HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2026HISTORY 999Independent Work

Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.

Instructor identity & provenance 
{
  "instructor_uid": "instructor_9b43a8db077352441399c574",
  "source": "enrollment",
  "source_instructor_id": "lboswell",
  "identity_basis": "netid",
  "identity_status": "source_identified",
  "name": "Laird Boswell",
  "email": "LBOSWELL@WISC.EDU",
  "first_observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
  "last_observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
  "ratings": {
    "review_count": 48,
    "quality": 4.31,
    "difficulty": 2.94,
    "quality_count": 48,
    "difficulty_count": 48,
    "profile_id": "rmp:819267",
    "source_url": "https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/819267",
    "match_basis": "exact_name",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 18:58:52.572750+00:00",
    "courses": {
      "course_74d27dbe14c68ae655b14b27": {
        "review_count": 3,
        "quality": 4.67,
        "difficulty": 2.67,
        "quality_count": 3,
        "difficulty_count": 3
      }
    },
    "bayesian_quality": 4.118586347204844,
    "prior_mean": 3.65919358049647,
    "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_97935a61b1c6b838f99ceb60",
      "course_id": "HISTORY 691",
      "title": "SENIOR THESIS",
      "credits_min": 1,
      "credits_max": 3,
      "gpa": null
    },
    {
      "course_uid": "course_9ece8db211897864d843d882",
      "course_id": "HISTORY 990",
      "title": "RESEARCH AND THESIS",
      "credits_min": 1,
      "credits_max": 9,
      "gpa": null
    },
    {
      "course_uid": "course_a5cb188042700b0c351bcea5",
      "course_id": "HISTORY 692",
      "title": "SENIOR THESIS",
      "credits_min": 1,
      "credits_max": 3,
      "gpa": null
    },
    {
      "course_uid": "course_f3c5da1f78bad390731fed93",
      "course_id": "HISTORY 999",
      "title": "INDEPENDENT WORK",
      "credits_min": 1,
      "credits_max": 6,
      "gpa": 3.953
    }
  ],
  "revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "instructor_url": "/instructors/LAIRD_BOSWELL"
}