Historical instructor

NEIL KODESH

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.25/5 from 24 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

Quality 4/5Difficulty 2/5
Professor Kodesh is full of information, a clear master of the subject he teaches. However, his lectures are quite boring. He is very willing to help outside of class, which I appreciated very much. This class wasn't time consuming at all, we just had 2 midterms and a final essay. If you want a general synopsis of Africa, take this class!
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HIS277 · course not matched
Quality 4/5Difficulty 4/5
Neil Kodesh is a very knowledgeable about African history - however, he is a very boring lecturer. He has weekly quizzes of varying levels of difficulty, and there are weekly readings (a lot of them). There are two essays which are graded difficultly but fairly.
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HIST277 · course not matched
Quality 3/5Difficulty 3/5
Prof. Kodesh is a fine professor and definitely knowledgeable, but I felt that the class was not worth it. Half the lectures were given by guest lecturers (other profs in the department) and the class, while interesting, wasnt memorable compared to others. Your grade came down to your TA (mine was horrible), so Ill give Neil an average rating.
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Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
Neil is an amazing professor and I learned so much about Africa in general from this course, definitely recommend; however, a 75 minute lecture with him talking the whole class period is TERRIBLE. 30 minutes in, I begin falling asleep. You have to attend lecture in order to do good on the assignments, but great course.
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HIST277 · course not matched
Quality 4/5Difficulty 3/5
Note that all of Neil's classes with the 277 tag are the same one, it's crosslisted as several different things. His lectures are incredibly informational (if a bit dry), so though attendance isn't mandatory you'll struggle a lot if you don't go. Lots of reading, but it's fairly easy and you can get away with skipping it fairly often.
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AFRICA277 · course not matched
Quality 2/5Difficulty 2/5
This was probably the most boring class I've ever taken. He doesn't post slides at all, so it's pretty necessary to go to lecture to gather information for the essays. The whole class is graded on three essays and participation, so no final, which was probably the best part of the class. The class wasn't really difficult overall, just really boring
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with NEIL KODESH

No teaching recorded in Fall 2026.

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Recorded teaching history

Distinct courses recorded per term

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Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Spring 2026HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2026HISTORY 999Independent Work
Fall 2025HISTORY 682Senior Honors Thesis
Fall 2025HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2025HISTORY 681Senior Honors Thesis
Spring 2025HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2024HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2024HISTORY 682Senior Honors Thesis
Spring 2024HISTORY 861Seminar-the History of Africa
Spring 2024HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2023AFRICAN/AFROAMER/ANTHRO/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SOC 277Africa: an Introductory Survey
Fall 2023HISTORY 600Advanced Seminar in History
Fall 2023HISTORY 681Senior Honors Thesis
Fall 2023HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2023HISTORY 600Advanced Seminar in History
Spring 2023HISTORY 699Directed Study
Spring 2023HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2022AFRICAN/AFROAMER/ANTHRO/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SOC 277Africa: an Introductory Survey
Fall 2022HISTORY 861Seminar-the History of Africa
Fall 2022HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2022HISTORY 999Independent Work
Spring 2022HISTORY 283Intermediate Honors Seminar-studies in History
Spring 2022HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2021AFRICAN/AFROAMER/ANTHRO/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SOC 277Africa: an Introductory Survey
Fall 2021HISTORY 861Seminar-the History of Africa
Fall 2021HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2020AFRICAN/AFROAMER/ANTHRO/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SOC 277Africa: an Introductory Survey
Fall 2020AFRICAN/ANTHRO/ECON/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI 983Interdepartmental Seminar in African Studies Topics
Fall 2020HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2020HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2019AFRICAN/AFROAMER/ANTHRO/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SOC 277Africa: an Introductory Survey
Fall 2019AFRICAN/ANTHRO/ECON/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI 983Interdepartmental Seminar in African Studies Topics
Fall 2019HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2019HISTORY 999Independent Work
Spring 2019HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2018AFRICAN/AFROAMER/ANTHRO/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SOC 277Africa: an Introductory Survey
Fall 2018AFRICAN/ANTHRO/ECON/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI 983Interdepartmental Seminar in African Studies Topics
Fall 2018HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2018HISTORY 283Intermediate Honors Seminar-studies in History
Spring 2018HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2018HISTORY 999Independent Work
Fall 2017AFRICAN/AFROAMER/ANTHRO/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SOC 277Africa: an Introductory Survey
Fall 2017HISTORY 861Seminar-the History of Africa
Fall 2017HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2017HISTORY 283Intermediate Honors Seminar-studies in History
Spring 2017HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2016AFRICAN/AFROAMER/ANTHRO/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SOC 277Africa: an Introductory Survey
Fall 2016AFRICAN/ANTHRO/ECON/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI 983Interdepartmental Seminar in African Studies Topics
Fall 2016HISTORY 753Seminar-comparative World History
Fall 2016HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2016AFRICAN/ANTHRO/ECON/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI 983Interdepartmental Seminar in African Studies Topics
Spring 2016HISTORY 699Directed Study
Spring 2016HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2016HISTORY 999Independent Work
Fall 2015AFRICAN/AFROAMER/ANTHRO/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SOC 277Africa: an Introductory Survey
Fall 2015HISTORY 283Intermediate Honors Seminar-studies in History
Fall 2015HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2015HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2015HISTORY 999Independent Work
Fall 2014AFRICAN/AFROAMER/ANTHRO/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SOC 277Africa: an Introductory Survey
Fall 2014HISTORY 283Intermediate Honors Seminar-studies in History
Fall 2014HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2014HISTORY 861Seminar-the History of Africa
Spring 2014HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2014HISTSCI/MEDHIST 919Graduate Studies in Medical History
Fall 2013AFRICAN/AFROAMER/ANTHRO/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SOC 277Africa: an Introductory Survey
Fall 2013HISTORY 283Intermediate Honors Seminar-studies in History
Fall 2013HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2013HISTORY 999Independent Work
Spring 2013HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2013HISTORY 999Independent Work
Fall 2012HISTORY 861Seminar-the History of Africa
Fall 2012HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2012AFRICAN/ANTHRO/ECON/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI 983Interdepartmental Seminar in African Studies Topics
Spring 2012HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2012HISTORY 999Independent Work
Fall 2011HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2011HISTORY 600Advanced Seminar in History
Fall 2010HISTORY 861Seminar-the History of Africa
Fall 2010HISTORY 999Independent Work
Spring 2010HISTORY 699Directed Study
Spring 2010HISTORY 861Seminar-the History of Africa
Fall 2009AFRICAN/ANTHRO/ECON/GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI 983Interdepartmental Seminar in African Studies Topics
Fall 2009HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2009HISTORY 999Independent Work
Spring 2009HISTORY 600Advanced Seminar in History
Spring 2009HISTORY 682Senior Honors Thesis
Spring 2009HISTORY 699Directed Study
Spring 2009HISTORY 999Independent Work
Fall 2008HISTORY 681Senior Honors Thesis
Fall 2008HISTORY 999Independent Work
Spring 2008HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2008HISTORY 999Independent Work
Spring 2007HISTORY 682Senior Honors Thesis
Spring 2007HISTORY 692Senior Thesis
Spring 2007HISTORY 699Directed Study
Spring 2007HISTORY 861Seminar-the History of Africa
Spring 2007HISTORY 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2006HISTORY 600Advanced Seminar in History
Fall 2006HISTORY 681Senior Honors Thesis

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

Instructor identity & provenance
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