Courses

Please consult the online course catalog for cross-listed courses and full course information.

Course registration information can be found on the JHU Public Course Search. Courses for the upcoming semester can be seen below.

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.

Classics/History of Art Research Lab
AS.010.444 (01)

Antioch Recovery Project investigates mosaics from the ancient city of Antioch (modern Antakya, Turkey, near the border with Syria) now in the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Excavated by an international team of archaeologists in the 1930s, hundreds of ancient mosaics from the cosmopolitan city were subsequently dispersed to museums across the globe, with twenty-four mosaics entering the collection of the BMA. Phase I will focus on the digital documentation and analysis of the mosaic of Narcissus as a prototype for ongoing research bringing together the fragments of ancient Antioch for contemporary beholders. The Greek myth of Narcissus tells the story of a beautiful Theban hunter doomed to love his own reflection and is the origin of the modern psychiatric term “narcissism”. Researching the mythology, materials, conservation history, archival material, historiography, and contemporary reception of the Narcissus mosaic and myth offers extensive opportunities to collaborate with scholars across a range of disciplines at JHU, in the Baltimore museum community, and beyond. Investigators will move between the Baltimore Museum of Art, the CRL processing lab in Gilman Hall, and Special Collections. The course will involve some travel to visit other mosaics from Antioch now in collections at Harvard’s Dumbarton Oaks in Washington D.C., and the Princeton Art Museum in Princeton, New Jersey.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times:
  • Instructor: Stager, Jennifer M S
  • Room:  
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 12/12
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Ancient Greek Civilization
AS.040.111 (01)

The course will introduce students to major aspects of the ancient Greek civilization, with special emphasis placed upon culture, society, archaeology, literature, and philosophy.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
  • Instructor: Smith, Joshua M
  • Room: Gilman 108
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 15/15
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Invitation to Anthropology
AS.070.132 (01)

This introductory course will focus on the theme of “encounter,” which has been central to anthropology’s self-formation. We will focus on the encounter with the other, the colonial encounter and the encounter with the possibility of human extinction to explore how newness comes into the world and how it may be structured by prior violence.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: T 9:00AM - 10:15AM, Th 9:00AM - 10:15AM
  • Instructor: Khan, Naveeda
  • Room: Gilman 50
  • Status: Reserved Open
  • Seats Available: 15/15
  • PosTag(s): ARCH-RELATE

Invitation to Anthropology
AS.070.132 (02)

This introductory course will focus on the theme of “encounter,” which has been central to anthropology’s self-formation. We will focus on the encounter with the other, the colonial encounter and the encounter with the possibility of human extinction to explore how newness comes into the world and how it may be structured by prior violence.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: T 9:00AM - 10:15AM, Th 9:00AM - 10:15AM
  • Instructor: Khan, Naveeda
  • Room: Gilman 50
  • Status: Reserved Open
  • Seats Available: 15/15
  • PosTag(s): ARCH-RELATE

Invitation to Anthropology
AS.070.132 (03)

This introductory course will focus on the theme of “encounter,” which has been central to anthropology’s self-formation. We will focus on the encounter with the other, the colonial encounter and the encounter with the possibility of human extinction to explore how newness comes into the world and how it may be structured by prior violence.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: T 9:00AM - 10:15AM, Th 9:00AM - 10:15AM
  • Instructor: Khan, Naveeda
  • Room: Gilman 50
  • Status: Reserved Open
  • Seats Available: 15/15
  • PosTag(s): ARCH-RELATE

Invitation to Anthropology
AS.070.132 (04)

This introductory course will focus on the theme of “encounter,” which has been central to anthropology’s self-formation. We will focus on the encounter with the other, the colonial encounter and the encounter with the possibility of human extinction to explore how newness comes into the world and how it may be structured by prior violence.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: T 9:00AM - 10:15AM, Th 9:00AM - 10:15AM
  • Instructor: Khan, Naveeda
  • Room: Gilman 50
  • Status: Reserved Open
  • Seats Available: 15/15
  • PosTag(s): ARCH-RELATE

Invitation to Anthropology
AS.070.132 (05)

This introductory course will focus on the theme of “encounter,” which has been central to anthropology’s self-formation. We will focus on the encounter with the other, the colonial encounter and the encounter with the possibility of human extinction to explore how newness comes into the world and how it may be structured by prior violence.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: T 9:00AM - 10:15AM, Th 9:00AM - 10:15AM
  • Instructor: Khan, Naveeda
  • Room: Gilman 50
  • Status: Reserved Open
  • Seats Available: 15/15
  • PosTag(s): ARCH-RELATE

Ethnographies
AS.070.273 (01)

This course explores the craft of ethnography as a mode of research and writing fundamental to anthropology. Through the close reading of several ethnographic works, we will consider the intertwining of description and argumentation; and through various observation and writing exercises, we will develop a practical understanding of the ethnographic method of transferring social worlds from the field to the text.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
  • Instructor: Procupez, Valeria
  • Room:  
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 12/12
  • PosTag(s): ARCH-RELATE

Ancient Middle Eastern Civilizations
AS.130.101 (01)

Review of important issues in ancient Near Eastern history and culture from the Neolithic era to the Persian period. Included will be an examination of the Neolithic agricultural revolution, the emergence of cities, states and writing, and formation of empires. Cultures such as Sumer and Akkad, Egypt, the Hittites, Israelites, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians will be discussed.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 1:30PM - 2:45PM
  • Instructor: Schwartz, Glenn M
  • Room: Shaffer 304
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 18/18
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Gods and Monsters in Ancient Egypt
AS.130.126 (01)

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.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MWF 11:00AM - 11:50AM
  • Instructor: Jasnow, Richard
  • Room: Krieger 170
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 60/60
  • PosTag(s): n/a

A (Virtual) Visit to the Louvre Museum: Introduction to the Material Culture of Ancient Egypt
AS.130.153 (01)

This course will present the Egyptological collections of the musée du Louvre in Paris, room by room, as in a real visit. From the Predynastic period, in the 4th millennium BC, to Roman time, the iconic “masterpieces” of this world-renowned art museum, as well as its little-known artifacts, will allow us to explore the history and material culture of ancient Egypt. We will also learn to observe, describe and analyze archaeological objects, in a global manner and without establishing a hierarchy between them, while questioning their place in the museum and its particular language. The objective will be to go beyond the objects themselves and answer, in fine, the following questions: What do these objects tell us about the men and women who produced them, exchanged them, used them, and lived among them in antiquity? What do they also reveal about those who discovered them in Egypt, several millennia later, about those who collected them and sometimes traded them, and what does this say about the relations between Egypt and the Western countries over time? The courses will be complemented by one visit to the JHAM and one visit to the Walters Art Museum; Dr. Aude Semat, curator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) will also give a lecture about the Egyptian Collections at the MET.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 4:30PM - 5:45PM
  • Instructor: Arnette, Marie-Lys
  • Room: Gilman 130G
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 15/15
  • PosTag(s): NEAS-ARTARC, ARCH-ARCH

Clapping Rivers, Talking Snakes: Nature in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Middle East
AS.130.250 (01)

How did ancient people relate to their environment—the animals, plants, landscapes, and weather with which they interacted? How have modern binary conceptions of ‘nature’ and ‘culture’ or ‘human’ and ‘animal’ influenced our interpretation of ancient texts (along with ancient societies)? What is “the zoological gaze?” This course will focus on these questions and more as it investigates conceptions of nature in the texts of the Hebrew Bible, as well as texts and material culture from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), and the Levant (modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, and Jordan). We will interrogate various interpretive lenses, including Posthumanism, Animal Studies, and Metaphor Theory, as we explore themes such as creation, nature and divinity, and animals in rituals, legal texts, and prophecies, among others. No previous familiarity with Hebrew language or the Hebrew Bible is needed.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 3:00PM - 4:15PM
  • Instructor: Cooper, Stephanie Lynn
  • Room:  
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 15/15
  • PosTag(s): NEAS-HISCUL, ENVS-MAJOR, ARCH-RELATE

Introduction to Global Environmental Change
AS.270.103 (01)

An introduction to the science behind global environmental issues. Earth systems, biogeochemical cycles, and the interrelationships between the living and nonliving world are explored, along with applications to climate change, biodiversity loss, and other issues of global significance.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
  • Instructor: Gnanadesikan, Anand; Zaitchik, Benjamin
  • Room: Olin 305
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 110/110
  • PosTag(s): ARCH-RELATE, ENVS-MAJOR, ENVS-MINOR

Introduction to Geographic Information Systems and Geospatial Analysis
AS.270.205 (01)

The course provides a broad introduction to the principles and practice of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and related tools of Geospatial Analysis. Topics will include history of GIS, GIS data structures, data acquisition and merging, database management, spatial analysis, and GIS applications. In addition, students will get hands-on experience working with GIS software.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: M 1:30PM - 4:00PM
  • Instructor: Chen, Xin
  • Room: Maryland 104
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 25/25
  • PosTag(s): ENVS-MINOR, ARCH-RELATE, ENVS-MAJOR

The Dynamic Earth: An Introduction to Geology
AS.270.220 (01)

Basic concepts in geology, including plate tectonics; Earth’s internal structure; geologic time; minerals; formation of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks; development of faults, folds and earthquakes; geomagnetism. Corequisite (for EPS Majors): AS.270.221; optional for others. The course is introductory and open to undergraduates at all levels; freshmen are encouraged to enroll.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 1:30PM - 2:45PM
  • Instructor: Lewis, Kevin; Viete, Daniel R
  • Room: Olin 247
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 50/50
  • PosTag(s): ENVS-MINOR, ENVS-MAJOR, ARCH-RELATE

Trade Networks of the Ancient Near East: Laboratory Analysis
AS.360.411 (01)

Trade and exchange, and the social interactions they foster, are long-standing center-points of interest to archaeologists. For the ancient Near East, trade has been proposed as a key factor in the rise of the world’s earliest cities in southern Mesopotamia. During their earliest stages of development, cities in southern Mesopotamia were destination points for exotic raw materials and high-value trade goods, including copper and softstone (chlorite) from ancient Magan (present day Oman and the United Arab Emirates). This course will examine theories and methods for studying ancient trade, with a specific focus on copper and chlorite from Oman. Students will learn some of the key methods archaeologists use to analyze ancient metal and stone, and will conduct some of their own analysis in laboratories at Johns Hopkins, including the Spatial Observation Lab for Archaeological Research (SOLAR) in Gilman Hall 135.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: F 1:30PM - 4:00PM
  • Instructor: Harrower, Michael James
  • Room: Bloomberg 168
  • Status: Approval Required
  • Seats Available: 8/8
  • PosTag(s): NEAS-ARTARC

Engendering Archaeology: Gender and Sexuality Beyond the Modern Global West
AS.363.331 (01)

Modern understandings of our gendered selves are deeply rooted in narratives of human history. While research on the ancient world, like archaeology, is often upheld as a way of objectively observing the development of humanity over time, all too often, scholars and the public both impose modern concepts of gender and sexuality onto the archaeological study of the past. This class will introduce students to anthropological archaeology, as well as feminist and queer theories as tools for questioning popular narratives surrounding the development of gendered behaviors in the ancient past. Specifically, we will investigate stories about gender and sexuality in the scholarship of 1) evolutionary biology, 2) early community and societal formations, and 3) ancient identity. We will engage oft-repeated stories about the evolutionary and historical ancestries of gender and return to archaeological evidence with the intellectual tools and knowledge to complicate popular myths about the historicity of gender. We will thereby expand our understanding of human identities and behavior by incorporating alternative archaeological narratives influenced by intersectional feminist, nonbinary, and queer perspectives. Importantly, this class will also prompt students to reflect upon how stories of the ancient past inform and create their own modern experiences of gender, identity, and sexuality.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: F 1:30PM - 4:00PM
  • Instructor: Poolman, Laurel Ames
  • Room: Gilman 17
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 12/12
  • PosTag(s): MSCH-HUM, ARCH-ARCH

Introduction to the Museum: Past and Present
AS.389.201 (01)

This course surveys museums, from their origins to their most contemporary forms, in the context of broader historical, intellectual, and cultural trends including the social movements of the 20th century. Anthropology, art, history, and science museums are considered. Crosslisted with Archaeology, History, History of Art, International Studies and Medicine, Science & Humanities.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
  • Instructor: Kingsley, Jennifer P
  • Room: Krieger 300
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 25/25
  • PosTag(s): HIST-EUROPE, ARCH-ARCH, PMUS-INTRO, MSCH-HUM, INST-GLOBAL

Course # (Section) Title Day/Times Instructor Room PosTag(s) Info
AS.010.444 (01)Classics/History of Art Research LabStager, Jennifer M S 
AS.040.111 (01)Ancient Greek CivilizationTTh 12:00PM - 1:15PMSmith, Joshua MGilman 108
AS.070.132 (01)Invitation to AnthropologyT 9:00AM - 10:15AM, Th 9:00AM - 10:15AMKhan, NaveedaGilman 50ARCH-RELATE
AS.070.132 (02)Invitation to AnthropologyT 9:00AM - 10:15AM, Th 9:00AM - 10:15AMKhan, NaveedaGilman 50ARCH-RELATE
AS.070.132 (03)Invitation to AnthropologyT 9:00AM - 10:15AM, Th 9:00AM - 10:15AMKhan, NaveedaGilman 50ARCH-RELATE
AS.070.132 (04)Invitation to AnthropologyT 9:00AM - 10:15AM, Th 9:00AM - 10:15AMKhan, NaveedaGilman 50ARCH-RELATE
AS.070.132 (05)Invitation to AnthropologyT 9:00AM - 10:15AM, Th 9:00AM - 10:15AMKhan, NaveedaGilman 50ARCH-RELATE
AS.070.273 (01)EthnographiesT 1:30PM - 4:00PMProcupez, Valeria ARCH-RELATE
AS.130.101 (01)Ancient Middle Eastern CivilizationsTTh 1:30PM - 2:45PMSchwartz, Glenn MShaffer 304
AS.130.126 (01)Gods and Monsters in Ancient EgyptMWF 11:00AM - 11:50AMJasnow, RichardKrieger 170
AS.130.153 (01)A (Virtual) Visit to the Louvre Museum: Introduction to the Material Culture of Ancient EgyptMW 4:30PM - 5:45PMArnette, Marie-LysGilman 130GNEAS-ARTARC, ARCH-ARCH
AS.130.250 (01)Clapping Rivers, Talking Snakes: Nature in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Middle EastTTh 3:00PM - 4:15PMCooper, Stephanie Lynn NEAS-HISCUL, ENVS-MAJOR, ARCH-RELATE
AS.270.103 (01)Introduction to Global Environmental ChangeTTh 10:30AM - 11:45AMGnanadesikan, Anand; Zaitchik, BenjaminOlin 305ARCH-RELATE, ENVS-MAJOR, ENVS-MINOR
AS.270.205 (01)Introduction to Geographic Information Systems and Geospatial AnalysisM 1:30PM - 4:00PMChen, XinMaryland 104ENVS-MINOR, ARCH-RELATE, ENVS-MAJOR
AS.270.220 (01)The Dynamic Earth: An Introduction to GeologyTTh 1:30PM - 2:45PMLewis, Kevin; Viete, Daniel ROlin 247ENVS-MINOR, ENVS-MAJOR, ARCH-RELATE
AS.360.411 (01)Trade Networks of the Ancient Near East: Laboratory AnalysisF 1:30PM - 4:00PMHarrower, Michael JamesBloomberg 168NEAS-ARTARC
AS.363.331 (01)Engendering Archaeology: Gender and Sexuality Beyond the Modern Global WestF 1:30PM - 4:00PMPoolman, Laurel AmesGilman 17MSCH-HUM, ARCH-ARCH
AS.389.201 (01)Introduction to the Museum: Past and PresentTTh 10:30AM - 11:45AMKingsley, Jennifer PKrieger 300HIST-EUROPE, ARCH-ARCH, PMUS-INTRO, MSCH-HUM, INST-GLOBAL