Current instructor

Steven Brooke

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.58/5 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

POLISCI 120
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
Awesome professor. Im not a poli sci major (took the class for fun) and was worried about the theory but Professor Brooke does a great job at explaining concepts. You can get an easy A if you just show up to class and listen :)
Rate My Professors ↗
POLISCI 120
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Professor Brooke makes difficult concepts comprehensible. He gives lots of extra credit opportunities to raise your grade, and his grading is very straightforward. The readings do take time and concepts might be confusing, but he goes over them in lecture. Highly recommend PS120 with Dr. Brooke.
Rate My Professors ↗
POLISCI 120
Quality 5/5Difficulty 1/5
The best professor I had here. The lectures are super amazing. He managed to explain the concept very well. The exams are not tough, you just need to understand the materials and organize the notes that you bring to the exams. The readings are quite tough, so please make sure that you read them as early as possible.
Rate My Professors ↗
POLISCI 120
Quality 5/5Difficulty 1/5
Prof Brooke is such a great teacher. He provides numerous extra credit opportunities. Go to the out of class events, there is great food and the speakers are interesting. The readings can be dense but Prof Brooke does a great job of explaining them in lecture.
Rate My Professors ↗
POLISCI 120
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
It is a lot of dense readings, but if you do them and go to lecture it is a lot easier to understand because he is really good at explaining the ideas. You get points from going to lecture-so you should go!- and there are extra credit opportunities as well. He makes it really easy to succeed as long as you do your part!
Rate My Professors ↗
POLISCI 120
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
Professor Brooke is a very passionate and helpful professor. There are only two exams (during class) that were very manageable. Discussion sections were boring but you barely need to participate to get an A, just show up. Lectures have random attendance taken 15 times, after 10 it is extra credit. Also gave 5 other extra credit options, all easy.
Rate My Professors ↗

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

Classes with Steven Brooke

Introduction to politics and governance in the Middle East, covering regional political economy, Islam and democracy, authoritarianism, and political Islam.

Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2021: 3.73 GPA, 93.2% A/AB (n=44 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.62 GPA, 80.9% A/AB (n=47 letter grades).

historical GPA · grades

Fall 2022–Fall 2025

Examines formation, endurance, and collapse of non-democratic regimes globally, covering electoral behavior, political violence, and democratization theories.

Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.33 GPA, 66.7% A/AB (n=24 letter grades).

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2024–Spring 2024 · limited sample

Recorded teaching history

Distinct courses recorded per term

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Spring 2027POLISCI 320Governments and Politics of the Middle East and North Africa
Spring 2027POLISCI 339Non-democracies
Spring 2027POLISCI 698Directed Study
Spring 2027POLISCI 699Directed Study
Spring 2027POLISCI 990Research and Thesis
Spring 2027POLISCI 999Independent Work
Fall 2026POLISCI 120Introduction to Comparative Politics
Fall 2026POLISCI 990Research and Thesis
Fall 2026POLISCI 999Independent Work

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

Instructor identity & provenance
{
  "instructor_uid": "instructor_4ec14673a7f1cf51b3d8a315",
  "source": "enrollment",
  "source_instructor_id": "sbrooke",
  "identity_basis": "netid",
  "identity_status": "source_identified",
  "name": "Steven Brooke",
  "email": "SBROOKE@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": 24,
    "quality": 4.58,
    "difficulty": 2.17,
    "quality_count": 24,
    "difficulty_count": 24,
    "profile_id": "rmp:2549906",
    "source_url": "https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/2549906",
    "match_basis": "exact_name",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 18:30:52.385031+00:00",
    "courses": {
      "course_0a1fb69f6aa31e633df90ce2": {
        "review_count": 24,
        "quality": 4.58,
        "difficulty": 2.17,
        "quality_count": 24,
        "difficulty_count": 24
      }
    },
    "bayesian_quality": 4.161451627498395,
    "prior_mean": 3.65919358049647,
    "prior_weight": 20
  },
  "current": true,
  "courses": [
    {
      "course_uid": "course_0ad086f79f3d4866d9b151ff",
      "course_id": "POLISCI 990",
      "title": "RESEARCH AND THESIS",
      "credits_min": 1,
      "credits_max": 3,
      "gpa": null
    },
    {
      "course_uid": "course_7ca3686bd02a900eeb9fd3ab",
      "course_id": "POLISCI 999",
      "title": "INDEPENDENT WORK",
      "credits_min": 2,
      "credits_max": 3,
      "gpa": null
    },
    {
      "course_uid": "course_865b1bb72dbb40a60d118741",
      "course_id": "POLISCI 699",
      "title": "DIRECTED STUDY",
      "credits_min": 1,
      "credits_max": 4,
      "gpa": 3.762
    },
    {
      "course_uid": "course_9bab67375b725926c4a87bcb",
      "course_id": "POLISCI 339",
      "title": "NON-DEMOCRACIES",
      "credits_min": 3,
      "credits_max": 3,
      "gpa": 3.333
    },
    {
      "course_uid": "course_a21e41a91c68c3a601319097",
      "course_id": "POLISCI 320",
      "title": "GOVERNMENTS AND POLITICS OF THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA",
      "credits_min": 3,
      "credits_max": 4,
      "gpa": 3.639
    },
    {
      "course_uid": "course_a73c3a2aedbf04561a499341",
      "course_id": "POLISCI 698",
      "title": "DIRECTED STUDY",
      "credits_min": 1,
      "credits_max": 4,
      "gpa": null
    }
  ],
  "revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "instructor_url": "/instructors/STEVEN_BROOKE"
}