The courses listed below are provided by Student Information Services (SIS). This listing provides a snapshot of immediately available courses within this department and may not be complete. Course registration information can be found at https://sis.jhu.edu/classes/.
Please consult the online course catalog for cross-listed courses and full course information.
Column one has the course number and section. Other columns show the course title, days offered, instructor's name, room number, if the course is cross-referenced with another program, and a option to view additional course information in a pop-up window.
Course # (Section)
Title
Day/Times
Instructor
Room
PosTag(s)
Info
AS.060.372 (01)
"Things of Darkness": Shakespeare and the Legacy of Early Modern Racialization
TTh 3:00PM - 4:15PM
Best, Royce Lee
"Things of Darkness": Shakespeare and the Legacy of Early Modern Racialization AS.060.372 (01)
How and why do Shakespeare's works channel racism and supremacist ideologies? How and why is it that they have also been used for inspiration and aspiration by people of color and thinkers on the political left? This course uses performance history from the Elizabethan moment to the present to explore how early modern topics such as anti-Semitism, bodily monstrosity, blood lineage, colonialism, and religious concession have allowed Shakespeare's plays to function as vehicles for thinking about race across time. Case studies include anti-Semitism in The Merchant of Venice at a time when it was illegal for Jews to be in England; the eighteenthand nineteenth-century blackface traditions of Othello and the careers of Edmund Kean and Ira Aldridge; Duke Ellington's exploration into Shakespeare in his 1957 jazz album Such Sweet Thunder; and Julie Taymor's 1994 Titus Andronicus, which was optioned and championed by Steve Bannon, former executive chairman of Breitbart News. Each unit of the course features an early modem play, readings about the performance tradition of that play, and an article or book chapter on that play.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: TTh 3:00PM - 4:15PM
Instructor: Best, Royce Lee
Room:
Status: Open
Seats Available: 13/18
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.100.301 (01)
America after the Civil Rights Movement
Connolly, Nathan D
HIST-US
America after the Civil Rights Movement AS.100.301 (01)
This course explores the history of late twentieth-century America by examining the social, economic, and political legacies of 1960s civil rights protest for the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times:
Instructor: Connolly, Nathan D
Room:
Status: Open
Seats Available: 14/50
PosTag(s): HIST-US
AS.100.344 (01)
Fictions of History: Black Literature as Historical Texts
Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Mott, Shani T
Fictions of History: Black Literature as Historical Texts AS.100.344 (01)
This course will turn its attention to black historical fiction and consider how contemporary writers of the black world illuminate or distort our understanding of historical events, moments, and people.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Mott, Shani T
Room:
Status: Open
Seats Available: 1/15
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.100.450 (01)
History Research Lab: Histories of Women and the Vote
M 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Jones, Martha Suzanne
HIST-US
History Research Lab: Histories of Women and the Vote AS.100.450 (01)
The year 2020 will mark 100 years since the 19th Amendment guaranteed American women
the right to vote. Or did it? This course will examine the long history of women’s voting rights
in the United States, including the story that extends from a convention at Seneca Falls, NY to
a constitutional amendment. It will also examine alternative stories, especially those of women
of color whose campaigns for the vote did not end in 1920 – and continue until today.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: M 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Jones, Martha Suzanne
Room:
Status: Open
Seats Available: 11/15
PosTag(s): HIST-US
AS.140.227 (01)
Race, Racism and Medicine
TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
White, Alexandre Ilani Rein
INST-GLOBAL
Race, Racism and Medicine AS.140.227 (01)
How can we think about the interconnections between racism, theories of race and the practice of medicine? Living at a moment when racial disparities in health outcomes in the United States are still very stark, this course will provide a historically grounded approach to thinking about the roles that race and racism have played in healthcare, the production of health disparities as well as the role of medicine in the development of racist thought. While much of this course will focus geographically within the United States, this class will also explore global histories of medicine, encountering questions of race and medicine in Africa, the South Pacific and Asia. In addition to the analysis of primary source documents and historical texts, students will also be introduced to theoretical approaches to the study of race and racism from W.E.B. Dubois, Sylvia Wynter, Frantz Fanon and others.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Instructor: White, Alexandre Ilani Rein
Room:
Status: Open
Seats Available: 5/30
PosTag(s): INST-GLOBAL
AS.180.355 (01)
Economics of Poverty/Inequality
TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Moffitt, Robert A
SPOL-UL, INST-ECON
Economics of Poverty/Inequality AS.180.355 (01)
This course focuses on the economics of poverty and inequality. It covers the measurement of poverty and inequality, facts and trends over time, the causes of poverty and inequality with a focus on those related to earnings and the labor market, and public policy toward poverty and inequality, covering both taxation and government expenditure and programs. By the nature of the material, the course is fairly statistical and quantitative. Students should have an intermediate understanding of microeconomic concepts. Basic knowledge of regression analysis is also helpful.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Instructor: Moffitt, Robert A
Room:
Status: Open
Seats Available: 3/32
PosTag(s): SPOL-UL, INST-ECON
AS.190.404 (01)
Race and Debt: Living on Borrowed Time
T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Brendese, Philip Joseph, III.
INST-PT
Race and Debt: Living on Borrowed Time AS.190.404 (01)
This is an advanced undergraduate seminar that explores how racial stigma functions as a marker of being always already in debt. In view of the legacies of settler-colonialism, imperialism and chattel slavery, how is it that those from whom so much has been taken are nevertheless regarded as perpetually in debt? We shall examine the moral, economic and racialized logics of power through which a range of political subjects come to be regarded as ungrateful “takers” as opposed to “makers,” and owing a debt to society. In so doing, we will investigate how temporality functions as a tool of power by considering how the indebted are made vulnerable to precarity, discipline, and disposability—in effect, forced to live life on borrowed time.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Brendese, Philip Joseph, III.
Room:
Status: Open
Seats Available: 7/15
PosTag(s): INST-PT
AS.190.384 (02)
Urban Politics & Policy
M 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Spence, Lester
INST-AP
Urban Politics & Policy AS.190.384 (02)
An analysis of public policy and policy-making for American Cities. Special attention will be given to the subject of urban crime and law enforcement, poverty and welfare, and intergovernmental relations. Cross-listed with Africana Studies
Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: M 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Spence, Lester
Room:
Status: Open
Seats Available: 6/27
PosTag(s): INST-AP
AS.070.241 (01)
African Cities
T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Degani, Michael
INST-GLOBAL
African Cities AS.070.241 (01)
Over the past two decades, African cities have absorbed rapid population increase without accompanying economic growth. Students will review the major challenges of this mode of urbanization and explore the vibrant ways residents have sought to meet them. Following anthropology’s commitment to lived experience, we will track these issues through the twists and turns of everyday life, and consider what they may say about urbanity more broadly in the 21st century. Topics include livelihood, the built environment, conflict and membership, and popular culture.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Degani, Michael
Room:
Status: Open
Seats Available: 6/18
PosTag(s): INST-GLOBAL
AS.100.123 (01)
Introduction to African History: Diversity, Mobility, Innovation
TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM
Thornberry, Elizabeth
HIST-AFRICA
Introduction to African History: Diversity, Mobility, Innovation AS.100.123 (01)
An introduction to African history with emphasis on diversity, mobility, and innovation. Considers both early and modern times.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM
Instructor: Thornberry, Elizabeth
Room:
Status: Open
Seats Available: 11/38
PosTag(s): HIST-AFRICA
AS.190.437 (01)
Race and Ethnic Politics in the United States
Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Weaver, Vesla
INST-AP
Race and Ethnic Politics in the United States AS.190.437 (01)
Race has been and continues to be centrally important to American political life and development. In this course, we will engage with the major debates around racial politics in the United States, with a substantial focus on how policies and practices of citizenship, immigration law, social provision, and criminal justice policy shaped and continue to shape racial formation, group-based identities, and group position; debates around the content and meaning of political representation and the responsiveness of the political system to American minority groups; debates about how racial prejudice has shifted and its importance in understanding American political behavior; the prospects for contestation or coalitions among groups; the “struggle with difference” within groups as they deal with the interplay of race and class, citizenship status, and issues that disproportionately affect a subset of their members; and debates about how new groups and issues are reshaping the meaning and practice of race in the United States.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Weaver, Vesla
Room:
Status: Open
Seats Available: 5/18
PosTag(s): INST-AP
AS.211.394 (01)
Brazilian Culture & Civilization
MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
De Azeredo Cerqueira, Flavia Christina
INST-NWHIST, INST-GLOBAL, GRLL-ENGL
Brazilian Culture & Civilization AS.211.394 (01)
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.
Section 01: 3 credits in ENGLISH
Section 02: 4 credits in Portuguese (instructor’s permission required)
Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Instructor: De Azeredo Cerqueira, Flavia Christina
Room:
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/32
PosTag(s): INST-NWHIST, INST-GLOBAL, GRLL-ENGL
AS.363.306 (01)
Feminist and Queer Theory: Race, Class, Gender, Sexuality-Intersectional Feminist Theory
M 4:00PM - 6:30PM
Hussein, Rima
Feminist and Queer Theory: Race, Class, Gender, Sexuality-Intersectional Feminist Theory AS.363.306 (01)
In this course, we will get to know intersectional feminist philosophy through the lens of a Black feminist epistemology. What does this mean? That means that we will focus on how the contributions of Black feminist authors can bring out the specific political and philosophical nature of an intersectional theoretical framework.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: M 4:00PM - 6:30PM
Instructor: Hussein, Rima
Room:
Status: Open
Seats Available: 4/18
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.230.205 (01)
Introduction to Social Statistics
MW 1:30PM - 2:45PM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AM
Reese, Michael Joseph, Jr.
Introduction to Social Statistics AS.230.205 (01)
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.
Credits: 4.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: MW 1:30PM - 2:45PM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AM
Instructor: Reese, Michael Joseph, Jr.
Room:
Status: Open
Seats Available: 1/18
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.230.205 (02)
Introduction to Social Statistics
MW 1:30PM - 2:45PM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
Reese, Michael Joseph, Jr.
Introduction to Social Statistics AS.230.205 (02)
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.
Credits: 4.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: MW 1:30PM - 2:45PM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
Instructor: Reese, Michael Joseph, Jr.
Room:
Status: Open
Seats Available: 1/18
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.220.422 (01)
Readings in Fiction: Race, Passing, and Performance
Th 3:00PM - 5:30PM
Evans, Danielle V
WRIT-FICT
Readings in Fiction: Race, Passing, and Performance AS.220.422 (01)
This course will explore the context and craft of racial passing texts in the U.S, asking students to think critically about literal passing narratives and their persistence over time, and more broadly about how we write about cultural passing, codeswitching, and identity as conscious performance. We’ll start with texts that ground us in the genre—Chopin, Larsen, Fauset, Ellison, and Morrison—and read our way into contemporary texts, potentially including work by Danzy Senna, Mat Johnson, Brit Bennett, Min Jin Lee, and Marcelo Hernandez Castillo. Students will write a critical paper, a craft paper, and a short story or novella.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: Th 3:00PM - 5:30PM
Instructor: Evans, Danielle V
Room:
Status: Open
Seats Available: 4/15
PosTag(s): WRIT-FICT
AS.230.244 (01)
Race and Ethnicity in American Society
TTh 4:30PM - 5:45PM
Greif, Meredith
INST-AP, SPOL-UL
Race and Ethnicity in American Society AS.230.244 (01)
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.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: TTh 4:30PM - 5:45PM
Instructor: Greif, Meredith
Room:
Status: Open
Seats Available: 1/18
PosTag(s): INST-AP, SPOL-UL
AS.230.313 (01)
Space, Place, Poverty & Race: Sociological Perspectives on Neighborhoods & Public Housing
T 3:00PM - 5:30PM
Deluca, Stefanie
Space, Place, Poverty & Race: Sociological Perspectives on Neighborhoods & Public Housing AS.230.313 (01)
Is a neighborhood just a grouping of individuals living in the same place, or do neighborhoods have collective meanings and impacts on children and families? We will capitalize on research methodologies used to define and describe neighborhoods and their effects on economic and educational outcomes. These include case studies, census data, surveys, quasi/experimental data. Focus is on how research measures neighborhood effects and incorporates community level processes into models of social causation (e.g., social capital/control, community efficacy, civic engagement). Also examined: patterns in residential mobility, segregation, and preferences within black and white populations; development of housing policy in the U.S.; programs to determine how neighborhoods affect issues of social importance. Statistics and public policy background is helpful but not required.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: T 3:00PM - 5:30PM
Instructor: Deluca, Stefanie
Room:
Status: Open
Seats Available: 4/18
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.230.304 (01)
(Making Space For) Black Thought
W 3:00PM - 5:30PM
White, Alexandre Ilani Rein
INST-PT
(Making Space For) Black Thought AS.230.304 (01)
How do we think about the power relations at work in the scholarship we read and in the important texts we consider essential to our educational experience? This course will critically investigate the role that concepts of race and racism have played in formulating dominant perceptions of who can be the producers of knowledge and what constitutes authoritative knowledge itself. We will consider how and why thinkers and scholarship produced outside of Europe and North America are too often ignored for their scholarly contributions and the dynamics that lead to this situation. We will also explore how and why new and important perspectives emerge from engaging and centering voices from beyond traditional canonical works. With a particular focus on the forms of knowledge arising from European Enlightenment approaches to concepts of thought reason and objective knowledge, this course will critically engage students with a wide range of thinkers such asGWF Hegel, W.E.B. Du Bois, Angela Davis, Ralph Trouillot, Sadiya Hartman, Walter Rodney, Derek Walcott, Sylvia Wynter and Frantz Fanon. This course will focus largely on thinkers engaging within the Black Atlantic and black diaspora traditions to question how we might consider voices and thought from beyond Eurocentric positions in our own scholarly practice.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: W 3:00PM - 5:30PM
Instructor: White, Alexandre Ilani Rein
Room:
Status: Open
Seats Available: 3/15
PosTag(s): INST-PT
AS.362.115 (01)
Introduction to Police and Prisons
MW 3:00PM - 4:15PM
Schrader, Stuart Laurence
INST-CP, INST-AP
Introduction to Police and Prisons AS.362.115 (01)
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.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: MW 3:00PM - 4:15PM
Instructor: Schrader, Stuart Laurence
Room:
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/18
PosTag(s): INST-CP, INST-AP
AS.362.112 (01)
Introduction to Africana Studies
WF 1:30PM - 2:45PM
Mott, Shani T
Introduction to Africana Studies AS.362.112 (01)
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.
