Ethiopia played a foundational role in modern-day civilization and culture: as the find site of Lucy, the earliest bipedal hominid, the seat of the Queen of Sheba’s kingdom, the second country in the world to adopt Christianity in the early 4th century CE, and the nexus of exchange between Africa, Europe, and Asia. In fall 2023, The Walters Art Museum will mount the exhibition tentatively titled, Ethiopia at the Crossroads, which addresses Ethiopia’s relationship and artistic exchange with its surrounding cultures, including South Arabia, Nubia, Egypt, Byzantium, Armenia, Italy, and India. It also discusses the impact of Ethiopian art beyond its borders, bringing works of Ethiopian contemporary art into dialogue with the historical Ethiopian art that these artists draw upon in their work. The exhibition covers approximately 1,750 years of Ethiopian history with a special focus on the art of the medieval period, broadly conceived. The course will also offer insights into how a museum exhibition is developed from the initial concept to the physical presentation in the galleries.

• Days/Times: Th 4:30PM - 7:00PM
• Instructor: Sciacca, Christine M
• Room: Gilman 119
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 5/12
• PosTag(s): HART-MED

Drawing from the body of work engaging and recording the Hollywood gunfighter and outlaw folk-hero Clint Eastwood, the course will investigate American cinematic representations of slavery and its absence, the Civil War, and racial formation along the United States’ southwestern frontier in films produced from the 1950s through the contemporary period. A focus on the cultural icon Clint Eastwood enables a close examination of American cinematic fantasies of the frontier, frontier violence and the desire to escape or erase the tensions of race and slavery that have deeply permeated the American cultural consciousness, particularly the creation of American masculine ideals. The course will also take decided note of the national shift from liberal “Great Society Programs” of the 1960s to the conservative “neoliberal” social and cultural ideals in the 1980s and 1990s. Our purpose is to consider the organization and reformation of hegemonic power by way of the complex morality play the western film evokes, typically considering the interstitial geographies between civilization and savagery, belonging and alienation, and metropolitan and colonial outpost. We will privilege in our discussions the contested frontiers of racial dominion.

• Days/Times: F 10:00AM - 10:50AM, MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM
• Instructor: Jackson, Lawrence P
• Room: Gilman 55
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 18/20
• PosTag(s): ENGL-LEC

Drawing from the body of work engaging and recording the Hollywood gunfighter and outlaw folk-hero Clint Eastwood, the course will investigate American cinematic representations of slavery and its absence, the Civil War, and racial formation along the United States’ southwestern frontier in films produced from the 1950s through the contemporary period. A focus on the cultural icon Clint Eastwood enables a close examination of American cinematic fantasies of the frontier, frontier violence and the desire to escape or erase the tensions of race and slavery that have deeply permeated the American cultural consciousness, particularly the creation of American masculine ideals. The course will also take decided note of the national shift from liberal “Great Society Programs” of the 1960s to the conservative “neoliberal” social and cultural ideals in the 1980s and 1990s. Our purpose is to consider the organization and reformation of hegemonic power by way of the complex morality play the western film evokes, typically considering the interstitial geographies between civilization and savagery, belonging and alienation, and metropolitan and colonial outpost. We will privilege in our discussions the contested frontiers of racial dominion.

• Days/Times: MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AM
• Instructor: Jackson, Lawrence P
• Room: Gilman 55
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 17/20
• PosTag(s): ENGL-LEC

Using their speeches, written lectures and published writings and drawing from their biographies, this course will explore the important life work of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. We intend to upend traditional conversations about political radicalism and ethnic politics by analyzing these spokesmen associated most indelibly with black nationalism and racial integration, respectively.

• Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Jackson, Lawrence P
• Room: Gilman 77
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 10/14
• PosTag(s): ENGL-GLOBAL

This course explores the role of science and technology in the making of African histories and politics. We will examine precolonial iron-working, healing, and weaving; the ways guns and railroads functioned as tools of empire; the role of hydroelectric dams in postcolonial nation building; and the rise of digital communication and payment systems in the present. Throughout, we will challenge commonsense distinctions between the material and the spiritual, designers and users, wealth and people.

• Days/Times: TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
• Instructor: Degani, Michael
• Room: Croft Hall G02
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 12/30
• PosTag(s): INST-CP, INST-GLOBAL

Overview of modern South African history, with a focus on the origins of the racial state and the development of black liberation movements.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: Thornberry, Elizabeth
• Room: Bloomberg 176
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 12/16
• PosTag(s): INST-GLOBAL, HIST-AFRICA

A research-intensive seminar, this course uses the rich history of Maryland to approach broader themes in early modern American and global history including colonialism, slavery, revolution, race, gender, and sex.

• Days/Times: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Pearsall, Sarah
• Room: Krieger 302
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 7/12
• PosTag(s): HIST-US

Through archival, literary, and other cultural texts, this course considers the history of “diversity” as both a practice and concept, beginning with the arrival of “colorblindness” in the 1890s and moving through recent approaches to institutionalized multiculturalism.

• Days/Times: T 3:00PM - 5:30PM
• Instructor: Connolly, Nathan D, Mott, Shani T
• Room: Olin 305
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 1/15
• PosTag(s): MSCH-HUM, HIST-US

It is time at Johns Hopkins University to rewrite our own history, one that takes a frank look at how race and racism have shaped the university and its community. This research seminar will build upon the recent revelations about founder Johns Hopkins, his family and their relationships to slave holding. Taught as part of the Hard Histories at Hopkins Project, this seminar will center on new student research into the private and public records of early America, aiming to provide new insights into the nature and extent of Mr. Hopkins involvement in slavery and the lives of those Black Americans whom he held enslaved. Students will read deeply into the history of slavery, will learn new research techniques, and will publish the results of their work as part of the Hard Histories at Hopkins Project. Students will also participate in public seminars where, alongside experts, they will bring this history to broader audiences, including the university community and residents of Baltimore.

• Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Gallon, Kim
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 13/15
• PosTag(s): HIST-MIDEST, INST-NWHIST, HIST-US, HIST-EUROPE

A basic introduction to Egyptian Religion, with a special focus on the nature of the gods and how humans interact with them. We will devote particular time to the Book of the Dead and to the "magical" aspects of religion designed for protective purposes.

• Days/Times: MWF 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: Jasnow, Richard
• Room: Gilman 50
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 4/66
• PosTag(s): ARCH-RELATE

Recommended Course Background: AS.190.214

• Days/Times: M 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Spence, Lester
• Room: Shriver Hall 001
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 7/12
• PosTag(s): INST-AP, POLI-AP

Recommended Course Background: AS.190.340.

• Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Spence, Lester
• Room: Mergenthaler 244
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 12/15
• PosTag(s): INST-AP, POLI-AP

This course brings scholars from Africana studies into conversation with scholars from Public Health to discuss the colonial lineages and racialized effects of projects seeking to improve the health of populations. Students will spend each week listening to a themed, live conversation between Africana and Public Health scholars. They will then unpack the conversation, in relation to course readings, in weekly seminars. The aim of the course is to better understand the racialized and (post)colonial determinants of public health scholarship and policy from the local (Baltimore) to the global.

• Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
• Instructor: Shilliam, Robbie, White, Alexandre Ilani Rein
• Room: Krieger 304
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 1/25
• PosTag(s): POLI-IR

Muslims have been a part of the American fabric since its inception. A key thread in that fabric has been the experiences of enslaved Africans and their descendants, some of whom were Muslims, and who not only added to the dynamism of the American environment, but eventually helped shape American culture, religion, and politics. The history of Islam in America is intertwined with the creation and evolution of African American identity. Contemporary Islam in America cannot be understood without this framing. This course will provide a historical lens for understanding Islam, not as an external faith to the country, but as an internal development of American religion. This course will explicate the history of early Islamic movements in the United States and the subsequent experiences of African-Americans who converted to Islam during the first half of the twentieth century. We will cover the spiritual growth of African American Muslims, their institutional presence, and their enduring impact on American culture writ large and African-American religion and culture more specifically.

• Days/Times: Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Fanusie, Fatimah
• Room: Greenhouse 113
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 5/12
• PosTag(s): INST-GLOBAL

This third-year course focuses on reading, writing, and oral expression. Students will read two complete works by major Brazilian, Portuguese, and/or Afro-Portuguese writers each semester, followed by intense writing and oral discussion on the topics covered. Grammar will be reviewed as necessary. All classes are conducted in Portuguese. Prereq: 210.278, placement test or instructor approval.

• Days/Times: MWF 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: De Azeredo Cerqueira, Flavia Christina
• Room: Gilman 10
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 2/10
• PosTag(s): MLL-PORT

Race and ethnicity have played a prominent role in American society and continue to do so, as demonstrated by interracial and interethnic gaps in economic and educational achievement, residence, political power, family structure, crime, and health. Using a sociological framework, we will explore the historical significance of race and its development as a social construction, assess the causes and consequences of intergroup inequalities and explore potential solutions.

• Days/Times: MW 4:30PM - 5:45PM
• Instructor: Greif, Meredith
• Room: Bloomberg 276
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 3/20
• PosTag(s): INST-AP

An introduction to Urban Health with Baltimore as a case study: wellbeing, nutrition, education, violence and city-wide geographic variation. Lectures by JH Faculty, local government/service providers and advocates.

• Days/Times: T 4:30PM - 5:45PM
• Instructor: Leaf, Philip
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 21/50
• PosTag(s): n/a

An introduction to Urban Health with Baltimore as a case study: wellbeing, nutrition, education, violence and city-wide geographic variation. Lectures by JH Faculty, local government/service providers and advocates.

• Days/Times: T 4:30PM - 5:45PM
• Instructor: Leaf, Philip
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 19/30
• PosTag(s): n/a

An introduction to Urban Health with Baltimore as a case study: wellbeing, nutrition, education, violence and city-wide geographic variation. Lectures by JH Faculty, local government/service providers and advocates.

• Days/Times: T 4:30PM - 5:45PM
• Instructor: Leaf, Philip
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 36/40
• PosTag(s): n/a

An introduction to Urban Health with Baltimore as a case study: wellbeing, nutrition, education, violence and city-wide geographic variation. Lectures by JH Faculty, local government/service providers and advocates.

• Days/Times: T 4:30PM - 5:45PM
• Instructor: Leaf, Philip
• Room:  
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 32/60
• PosTag(s): n/a

This course introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of African American Studies, with attention to the literature, film, culture, history, and politics of black life in the United States. Our reading list will likely include texts by David Walker, Frederick Douglass, Frances E.W. Harper, Sutton Griggs, W.E.B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, Amiri Baraka, Toni Morrison, and others.

• Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
• Instructor: Nurhussein, Nadia
• Room: Maryland 217
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 5/18
• PosTag(s): ENGL-GLOBAL

In Anti-Black Racism and Black Freedom Struggles: History, Theory, and Culture, students will learn about key historical, intellectual, and political aspects of white supremacy as a system or racial domination, and anti-black racism as a central feature of that global system. This class will explore the historical forms that white supremacy has taken—from colonialism and plantation slavery to Jim Crow, gentrification, and mass incarceration—racial ideologies, and how modern political systems have hinged on racial oppression. Most important, we will explore how black people have responded to the structures and ideologies of white supremacy, their thinking about freedom, being, and rights, and their efforts to fit into the worlds in which they found themselves, to improve those societies, and those projects that sought radical alternatives to the an anti-black world.

• Days/Times: MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 1:30PM - 2:20PM
• Instructor: Makalani, Minkah
• Room: Gilman 17
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 26/40
• PosTag(s): n/a

This seminar will explore some of the pivotal historical and contemporary connections between the US and Liberia since the first Black American settlers arrived in West Africa with the American Colonization Society in 1822. This course asks: What are implications of these stories of migration and reception for how we make sense of global anti-Blackness in the contemporary moment? How does performance provoke new questions about shared histories of those impacted by colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade? Why is a more in-depth understanding of 19th century Black political thought and the precolonial West African indigenous category necessary for developing theory on the political economy of race today? Through the lens of performance studies, students will analyze the documents in the American Colonization Society archive, to reimagine these early encounters as informed by historical documentation including folklore and pan-Africanist theory. Through exploring a range of historical and contemporary materials that center the problematic “indigenous/settler” binary, students will engage in a dramaturgical process which presents powerful possibilities for unlearning historical misrepresentations. In particular, students will develop theater-based projects that interrogate the spatio-temporal connections between the stories of both, free Blacks and those who were enslaved in Maryland and manumitted to go to Liberia, and the contemporary politics of Liberia-US migration.

• Days/Times: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Blanks Jones, Jasmine
• Room: Mergenthaler 252
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 13/15
• PosTag(s): n/a

How are museums responding to the pressures to be more equitable, inclusive, and accessible towards public audiences and their staff? Students go behind the scenes of the Smithsonian, Baltimore Museum of Industry and Baltimore Museum of Art to meet with working groups and staff charged with transforming their institutions. Includes site visits, hands-on experiences and research on best practices.

• Days/Times: F 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Kingsley, Jennifer P
• Room: Gilman 277
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 8/15
• PosTag(s): PMUS-INTRO, ARCH-RELATE

In partnership with Mount Auburn Cemetery in Baltimore, owned and operated by the Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church, this community-engaged course will address the African American cemetery in general, and the Mount Auburn Cemetery in particular, as a place of multiple meanings: a sacred site of private mourning, a public place of commemoration, a representation of racism, an historic accomplishment. This course will require on-site research that contributes to the cemetery’s interests.

• Days/Times: Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Dean, Gabrielle
• Room: BLC 2030
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 6/10
• PosTag(s): PMUS-PRAC

Students learn to conduct, analyze, and interpret their own oral histories as they contribute to a wide-ranging project documenting queer worldmaking in the Baltimore-Washington D.C. region. We engage with scholarship from performance studies, queer of color critique, LGBTQ history, and public humanities to consider the politics of storytelling and the promises of public-facing oral history projects. Students have the option of developing podcasts, multimedia projects, and public humanities proposals as their final assignment.

• Days/Times: TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
• Instructor: Plaster, Joseph
• Room: Gilman 75
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 1/17
• PosTag(s): n/a

This First-Year Seminar carefully considers the lives and works of two globally famous Black Baltimoreans: the abolitionist and statesman Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), and the premier jazz vocalist Billie Holiday (1915-1959). While we will explore key writings and performances of their work, the course also wants to use their historical lives in Baltimore to enrich our knowledge of the city and archival resources that reveal its past. During the semester we will consult a variety of primary resources like newspapers, novels, photographs, rare documents, correspondence, and recorded sound to investigate the complex and intraracial world of Baltimore in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Among the questions we will be considering: How did the city’s black abolitionist and religious networks contribute to Frederick Douglass’s evolution as a journalist and politician? What was the role of Chesapeake Bay black musical culture—ragtime, marching bands, banjo and fiddle ditties, and riverboat music—in the creation of Billie Holiday’s unique stylistic expression and singing? In what manner did Baltimore’s racial segregation and racism define her life and art? Students are required to visit three archival repositories during scheduled in-class trips, including a visit to the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. The final project is an archive-laden digital story map.

• Days/Times: W 12:00PM - 2:30PM
• Instructor: Jackson, Lawrence P
• Room: Mergenthaler 266
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 2/12
• PosTag(s): n/a

Over the past decade, cities have become more important than ever before. Protests against policing, against increasing inequality, as well as attempts to rollback societal shifts all have the city as its core. While some suggest these struggles represent larger struggles over the relationship between labor and capital, Black Radical thinkers connect these struggles to anti-black racism. In the wake of one world challenging movement – Black Lives Matter – and one world altering crisis – the Covid-19 pandemic - this First-Year Seminar will reflect critically on these two traditions of thinking about the city by using Baltimore as a case study. This class will be taught alongside similar courses at other universities, offering students a deep dive into Baltimore.

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
• Instructor: Spence, Lester
• Room: Gilman 134
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/12
• PosTag(s): n/a

An introduction to the African past since 1880.

• Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
• Instructor: Gondola, Didier Didier
• Room: Gilman 17
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 8/40
• PosTag(s): INST-GLOBAL, HIST-AFRICA

This course introduces students to the defining social, political, and cultural moments that reflect the experience of African Americans in the United States, 1896 – present. Topics include the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Freedom Struggle, African American politics, urban rebellion, mass incarceration, Hip Hop culture, the current movement for Black Lives, and more.

• Days/Times: TTh 1:30PM - 2:45PM
• Instructor: Wright Rigueur, Leah M
• Room: Gilman 75
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 1/20
• PosTag(s): HIST-US

This course explores the rich history of West Africa and its place in the broader world. Topics include the environmental history of the Sahara desert, West African empires, and the rise of Nollywood and contemporary culture.

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
• Instructor: Keegan, Thomas
• Room: Gilman 400
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 2/18
• PosTag(s): HIST-AFRICA, INST-GLOBAL

This course will turn to known and not-so-known black writers during the early to mid-twentieth century who defied literary expectation and wrote stories that featured or focused on whiteness. We will consider what whiteness offered black writers and the political work that their literary experimentations did for a white American publishing industry.

• Days/Times: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Mott, Shani T
• Room: Shriver Hall 104
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 1/15
• PosTag(s): HIST-US

Introduction to the grammar and writing system of the classical language of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom (ca. 2055-1650 B.C.). In the second semester, literary texts and royal inscriptions will be read. Course meets with AS.133.600.

• Days/Times: MW 1:30PM - 2:45PM
• Instructor: Jasnow, Richard
• Room: MSE Library Eisenberg
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 2/5
• PosTag(s): AFRS-DIASPO

Did you know that Brazil is very similar to the United States? This course is intended as an introduction to the culture and civilization of Brazil. It is designed to provide students with basic information about Brazilian history, politics, economy, art, literature, popular culture, theater, cinema, and music. The course will focus on how Indigenous, Asian, African, and European cultural influences have interacted to create the new and unique civilization that is Brazil today. The course is taught in English, but ONE extra credit will be given to students who wish to do the course work in Portuguese. Those wishing to do the course work in English for 3 credits should register for section 01. Those wishing to earn 4 credits by doing the course work in Portuguese should register for section 02. The sections will be taught simultaneously. Section 01: 3 credits Section 02: 4 credits (instructor’s permission required). No Prereq. THERE IS NO FINAL EXAM.

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
• Instructor: De Azeredo Cerqueira, Flavia Christina
• Room: Gilman 219
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/15
• PosTag(s): INST-NWHIST, INST-GLOBAL, GRLL-ENGL

Across the 20th century, mainstream and avant-garde French culture was deeply impacted by the presence of African American musicians and performing artists hailing from the jazz tradition. From the Josephine Baker craze of the 1920s to the second post-war which welcomed the innovations of bebop and sixties-era free improvisation, metropolitan France proved a space where expatriate and exiled Black Americans could both perpetuate the tradition and innovate by turns. At the same time, French tastemakers, critics, and musicians eager to adopt new forms and styles debated the extent to which American jazz music in its various strains could be “made French.” This course in transcultural French studies will feature readings in music criticism, history, and literature, as well as frequent close listening. It will culminate in a local concert reflecting France’s continued connection to and support of jazz and related improvised musics. Though some background in French language and in musical notation is desirable (students are encouraged to engage in original-source research), all core course readings will be provided in English. Discussion in English.

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
• Instructor: Schilling, Derek
• Room: Gilman 479
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 2/19
• PosTag(s): INST-GLOBAL

A survey of the history of the Black Performer and Performance. In exploring the art of storytelling from ancient African civilizations, students will critically engage and discuss the origins, aesthetics, characteristics, and practices of Black performers, and their often-unacknowledged contributions and influence upon mainstream performance throughout the history of the world.

• Days/Times: M 4:30PM - 7:00PM
• Instructor: Taylor, Gerrad Alex
• Room: Krieger 300
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 3/17
• PosTag(s): n/a

This course will introduce students to the application of statistical techniques commonly used in sociological analysis. Topics include measures of central tendency and dispersion, probability theory, confidence intervals, chi-square, anova, and regression analysis. Hands-on computer experience with statistical software and analysis of data from various fields of social research. Special Note: Required for IS GSCD track students.

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AM
• Instructor: Reese, Mike J
• Room: BLC 5015
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 11/20
• PosTag(s): n/a

This course will introduce students to the application of statistical techniques commonly used in sociological analysis. Topics include measures of central tendency and dispersion, probability theory, confidence intervals, chi-square, anova, and regression analysis. Hands-on computer experience with statistical software and analysis of data from various fields of social research. Special Note: Required for IS GSCD track students.

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: Reese, Mike J
• Room: BLC 5015
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 13/20
• PosTag(s): n/a

Recent national conversations about racial segregation, inequality and the affordable housing crisis raise many important questions—this course focuses on several of these questions, through the lens of urban sociology and housing policy. There are three main areas we will focus on in the course: 1) Understanding the role of racial segregation, neighborhood and housing effects on children and family life; 2) Research methods for studying urban poverty and neighborhoods; and 3) Programs, policies and initiatives designed to house the poor, alleviate concentrated spatial poverty, and increase residential choice. We will primarily focus on issues related to urban poverty in large cities, comparing the patterns of residential mobility and neighborhood characteristics for white and Black Americans. We will utilize archival data, qualitative interviews, census data, and quasi/experimental data to gather evidence about neighborhoods, housing, and policies, as well as their impacts. We will also explore interactive online applications that facilitate the study of neighborhoods (e.g. American Community Survey, GIS with Social Explorer). A statistics/public policy background is helpful, but not required.

• Days/Times: W 3:00PM - 5:30PM
• Instructor: Deluca, Stefanie
• Room: Krieger 180
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 6/15
• PosTag(s): n/a

Policing has become a primary way that many Americans see and experience government, particularly those from race-class subjugated communities, and has been a site of resistance and freedom struggles since the first Reconstruction. In this undergraduate seminar, we will survey key debates around policing and social movements, with a particular focus on research that takes institutional development, history, and racial orders seriously. A core preoccupation of this course will be to understand the ways in which policing “makes race” and how debates about crime, surveillance, and safety were often debates about black inclusion and equality. We will explore changes in the racial logics of policing over time, debates over how policing helped construct the racial order, and the consequences of several shifts in policing for communities. From broken windows policing in New York to the emergence of the new vagrancy-style banishment laws in urban Seattle to the men who live under constant surveillance in Philadelphia and to the large share of blacks in Ferguson with outstanding warrants for ‘failure to appear”, these policies and policing regimes have helped remake the government in the eyes of the urban poor. How does exposure to criminal justice interventions shape political learning, racial lifeworlds, and community social capital? The course will include a range of methods (ethnography, historical analysis, quantitative and qualitative).

• Days/Times: Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Weaver, Vesla
• Room: Krieger 302
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 14/18
• PosTag(s): n/a

An introduction to Urban Health with Baltimore as a case study: wellbeing, nutrition, education, violence and city-wide geographic variation. Lectures by JH Faculty, local government/service providers and advocates.

• Days/Times: T 4:30PM - 5:20PM
• Instructor: Leaf, Philip
• Room: Remsen Hall 101
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 117/160
• PosTag(s): MSCH-HUM

What is Anti-Racism? How do we identify racism’s presence and effects, and how do we direct social and civic resources to end it? In this Freshman Seminar, students will learn from a series of faculty experts and invited guests about the history, workings, and legacies of racism. They’ll also study present-day and past approaches – attempted and theorized – to abolish racism in the modern world.

• Days/Times: TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM
• Instructor: Connolly, Nathan D
• Room: Gilman 219
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 13/19
• PosTag(s): HIST-US

This course introduces students to the field of Africana Studies. It focuses on the historical experience, intellectual ideas, theories, and cultural production of African-descended people. We will consider how people of the black diaspora remember and encounter Africa. We will explore, too, how such people have lived, spoken, written, and produced art about colonialism and enslavement, gender and mobility, violence and pleasure. This course will be thematically organized and invite you to center your own stories about black people within your understanding of the modern world and its making.

• Days/Times: TTh 1:30PM - 2:45PM
• Instructor: Mott, Shani T
• Room: Krieger Laverty
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 2/15
• PosTag(s): n/a

This introductory course will examine policing and prisons in the United States and beyond, with a focus on racial inequality. It will consist of three parts. First, we will define key concepts in police and prison studies. Then, we will explore the contemporary state of prisons and policing in the United States and look at debates around the rise of “mass incarceration” and aggressive forms of policing in the final third of the 20th century. Third, we will explore policing and prison in other parts of the globe in the contemporary moment, highlighting similarities and differences from the U.S. case. What can studying the instruments of social control in other societies reveal about our own? Students will develop an understanding of major trends, keywords, and debates in the literature on policing and prisons, with particular reference to race and racism.

• Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
• Instructor: Schrader, Stuart Laurence
• Room: Maryland 202
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/18
• PosTag(s): INST-CP, INST-AP