Promote public-facing scholarship and community engagement
Extending the influence of our research beyond the university, translating it into terms meaningful for society, and working with partners outside Johns Hopkins to produce new knowledge, ensures the continued relevance of our scholarship, even as it helps to build trust with the citizens of the Baltimore.
Our strategies
Pursue public scholarship in the social sciences.
The school will continue to promote and support the work of the SNF Agora Institute to strengthen studies of democracy in a broader program of research and teaching and to promote engaged scholarship. These efforts include the newly created Center on Economy and Society, which will, among other things, promote ideological diversity through its new major in moral and political economy. These efforts will reside in the new SNF Agora building but will also find a regular presence in Johns Hopkins’ new Washington, D.C. facility located at 555 Pennsylvania Ave.
Encourage community engagement in the city of Baltimore.
The Krieger School will leverage existing relationships to expand its engagement with the city of Baltimore. The school will continue to support work such as the Ecological Design Collective, the Hard Histories Project, and Inheritance Baltimore while also using the path-breaking methodologies of the Baltimore Social-Environmental Collaborative and 21st Century Cities Initiative to research cities in general.
We intend to strengthen collaborations with the Center for Social Concern which may also enhance our work in the K-12 system where programs such as Writers in Baltimore Schools and BioEYES have proven successful. Opportunities for partnerships also exist with the Baltimore Museum of Art and several other arts institutions, fostering new research and educational opportunities for our entire community.
Support public scholarship in the humanities and the arts.
The Krieger School will explore new opportunities to promote the humanities and the arts. We will advance the potential of the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute as a portal for faculty to present their scholarship to wider audiences. The public-facing work of the institute—particularly in the Humanities in the Village (Baltimore) and Humanities on the Mall (Washington, D.C.) series—offers faculty in the humanities departments opportunities to give talks, seminars, or conferences that address a variety of communities beyond Johns Hopkins. In addition, we will pursue ways for our students to become engaged in creative scholarship in the arts, including the establishment of an Arts Council, whose purpose will be to think through collaborative ways to realize this goal.
Advance public scholarship in the natural sciences.
In addition to increasing partnership with Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures, we will engage our community across the sciences, arts and humanities, and public policy. For example, the recent launch of the James Webb Space Telescope has created an unprecedented opportunity to leverage our relationships with the Space Telescope Science Institute, the Applied Physics Lab, and the Whiting School of Engineering to engage the community in questions about the origin of the universe and life within it. The Krieger School has researchers working in critical areas such as climate change and artificial intelligence, devising new ways to share their findings with multiple audiences.
Educate Krieger School faculty and students in methods of public scholarship.
The Krieger School will continue to provide access to resources such as The OpEd Project (where faculty members receive guidance on writing opinion pieces) to increase the likelihood that our voices will be heard. We are also seeking to develop a cluster of courses aimed at teaching faculty members and graduate students creative ways to bring their scholarship to the public beyond the walls of the university.
Our accomplishments
2024-2025
Building audiences in Washington, D.C.
In 2024-25, the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences participated in a variety of activities at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center. In addition to the two Hopkins Semesters D.C. offered this academic year, KSAS faculty were part of 10 Nexus Awards, which resulted in public events, professional convenings, and courses that highlighted expertise in the Krieger School. We also hosted all manner of programming including the second debate in The Hopkins Forum on the U.S.-China AI arms race, sponsored by the SNF Agora Institute; the Humanities on the Hill series, sponsored by the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute; and a new film series called Stories That Matter, sponsored by the Master of Arts in Film and Media program.
Engaging with the city of Baltimore
The Fall 2024 issue of Arts & Sciences Magazine featured the work that many KSAS departments and faculty do in Baltimore and with Baltimoreans. To these ongoing projects, new initiatives were added during 2024-25. For example, KSAS researchers joined forces with curators at the B&O Railroad Museum to use AI to help them digitize the massive database of employee records dating back to the early 1900s. The Baltimore Area Survey—developed and administered by faculty in the Krieger School’s 21st Century Cities Initiative—garnered local and national publicity with findings from its second annual survey and report. In addition, KSAS faculty and students collaborated with local artists and the Peale Museum to curate an exhibition of materials gathered along the Jones Falls River as an examination of what humans leave behind.
Leading national conversations
The Krieger School aims to elevate its status as a leader in various disciplines across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences by sparking national conversations about today’s pressing issues and big questions. In spring 2025, the Dean’s Office and Alexander Grass Humanities Institute sponsored a series of online discussions, titled Conflict in the Middle East, to explore the longstanding tensions between Israel and Palestine, the political and social implications for both sides, and the broader regional and international impact. A parallel undergraduate course based on the series garnered a waitlist. The Krieger School helped to forge a university partnership with the American Enterprise Institute—a public policy think tank—as part of the university’s broader efforts to engage with a wide range of institutions, especially in Washington, D.C., on questions of public concern. Faculty in the William H. Miller III Departments of Philosophy and Physics and Astronomy held an international conference to bring together researchers from a variety of disciplines to think about the universe in a systematic way.
Bringing KSAS scholarship to the public arena
The research of several of our natural scientists has been featured in the university-wide campaign known as Research Saves Lives and we anticipate that this stream of engagement will continue. In addition, in partnership with the Krieger School Advisory Board, the Dean’s office examined the various communications avenues we use to share news about KSAS faculty with broad audiences, which resulted in several recommendations to increase our reach. This includes efforts to train faculty in media engagement. In 2024-25, three Krieger School faculty were among the first cohort of Provost’s Fellows for Public Engagement. The Krieger School Office of Communications also planned and facilitated media and op-ed training for faculty with the 21st Century Cities Initiative.
2023-2024
Public scholarship in the social sciences
During the past academic year, the SNF Agora Institute introduced two new programs of study through its Center for Economy and Society. In fall 2023, they launched a new minor in Civic Life, to prepare students from all areas of study to be engaged global citizens. In spring 2024, they launched a new major in Moral and Political Economy, that trains students to think about economic problems in social, cultural, moral, and political contexts.
Community engagement in Baltimore
- In December 2023, the 21st Century Cities Initiative published the results of the Baltimore Area Survey, its first annual, representative survey of Baltimore City and Baltimore County residents. Key findings relate to food insecurity, policing, transportation, drug addiction, neighborhoods, public trust, and entrepreneurship.
- The Krieger School strengthened community ties in collaboration with the Center for Social Concern. KSAS extended the grants for the six faculty who participated in the Engaged Scholar Faculty and Community Partner Fellowship Program to continue community-based teaching efforts.
- In December 2023, the Krieger School signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Baltimore Museum of Art aimed at building awareness of the two institutions, enhancing curricular collaborations, and fostering opportunities for research collaborations. Over this academic year, the BMA hosted 108 guided class visits, compared to 39 in the previous academic year.
Public scholarship in the humanities and the arts
With support through the university’s Nexus Awards, the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute (AGHI) expanded its reach into the national capital through a new series titled Humanities on the Mall. Through this endeavor, AGHI partners with D.C.’s East City Bookshop to create a place to convene conversations about lively and important ideas. In addition, AGHI extended the successful Richard Macksey Lecture to host a D.C.-based event and the annual Homewood event.
Public scholarship in the natural sciences
The Cosmic Visions project has created opportunities to probe the history, philosophy, politics, and aesthetics of the humanistic and scientific view of the cosmos. A three-year Johns Hopkins Discovery Award, combined with additional funding from the AGHI, enables the Cosmic Visions program to host an annual conference that brings humanists and scientists together on the Homewood campus to focus on discoveries and questions about findings from the mes, Politico, Nature, and The Washington Post.