The public health studies major offers a flexible, challenging, and contemporary curriculum that may include coursework in ethics, the natural sciences, policy, economics, or environmental issues, among other areas. Through these varied options, the PHS program provides rigorous preparation for advanced study in public health, law, medicine, and related fields. The program is a beneficial undergraduate pursuit not only for students planning to enter MHS/MPH and PhD programs, but also for premedical and prelaw students.
Public health spans several disciplines dedicated to the improvement of the health and well-being of populations across the globe. This mission broadly focuses on the prevention of illness, disease, and health care inequalities. Core disciplines include epidemiology, environmental health sciences, health policy and management, biostatistics, and social and behavioral aspects of health.
These disciplines draw on a fundamental knowledge of biology, a basic familiarity with social sciences, and an appreciation of socio-economic and cultural variance among different peoples.
Neuroscience seeks to understand the nervous system and its functioning at levels ranging from that of molecules interacting with cell membranes to that of brain systems serving cognitive functions such as language. Dramatic recent progress has been made at all levels, and the field is growing explosively.
At Johns Hopkins, researchers in the departments of biology, biomedical engineering, biophysics, cognitive science, and psychological and brain sciences, as well as at the Krieger Mind/Brain Institute and the School of Medicine in East Baltimore, study the nervous system at many levels. Their presence provides the opportunity for innovative, interdisciplinary programs that offer a broad perspective of the field of neuroscience, as well as more advanced training in one of three areas of concentration: cellular and molecular neuroscience; systems neuroscience; and cognitive neuroscience.
Museums and Society is an exciting interdisciplinary program that introduces Johns Hopkins undergraduates to the institutions that preserve, interpret, and present our material heritage. Students work with a diverse array of faculty, curators, and other specialists; take museum-based courses focused on both collections and outreach; participate in local and regional fieldtrips; and explore career opportunities in culture and the arts.
The Program in Museums and Society is concerned with the institutions that shape knowledge and understanding through the collection, preservation, interpretation, and presentation of objects, artifacts, materials, monuments, and historic sites. Through classroom teaching, research, and real encounters with museums, broadly defined, the program promotes the study of material culture and its place in a wide range of scholarly disciplines. The role of such institutions and their contents in societies both past and present, including but not limited to their political, legal, ethical, and economic significance, is central to the program. In addition to curricular and scholarly activities within the University, the program promotes meaningful connections with local and regional museums.
Students can earn a minor that will complement any major. Course requirements are designed to introduce students to a broad set of historical, theoretical, and practical museum issues and to give them the opportunity to explore museums first-hand.
The Program in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies (LACLxS) at Johns Hopkins University seeks to build interdisciplinary understanding among faculty and students of the histories, cultures, societies, and politics of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
LACLxS courses enhance the Hopkins curriculum by offering students an opportunity to explore the rich political, aesthetic, intellectual, and scientific traditions of Latin America, and by encouraging critical perspectives on Latin America's history and role in the modern world. Workshops by LACLxS-affiliated faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellow complement the curriculum with discussions of current events and ongoing research projects.
The program offers an undergraduate major and minor in Latin American Studies. The program encourages undergraduate students to take an active interest in Latin America; in their course work and extracurricular life, and by engaging their other disciplinary and area interests through summer research and study abroad programs in Latin America.
The program contributes to the professional training of graduate students through interdisciplinary discussions of ongoing research projects, pre-dissertation summer research travel grants, and student initiated exhibitions, conferences, and special events.
The program offers undergraduate and graduate students a variety of opportunities to deepen their appreciation and understanding of Latin America. LACLxS courses and expertise draw on faculty from across the humanities and social sciences.
The Center for Language Education (CLE), established in 1992 as the Language Teaching Center, offers language courses that are not taught in the language and literature departments. Languages currently offered in the CLE are Arabic, Chinese, English for International Teaching Assistants, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, and Russian. The CLE also offers evening, non-credit English as a Second Language courses through its ESL program, as well as an intensive summer English-language program for visiting and pre-college students.
Students can use our languages to fulfill major requirements in anthropology, chemistry, cognitive sciences, East Asian studies, film and media studies, international studies, philosophy, physics, and writing seminars. The center is also responsible for the Language Laboratory, which serves all Homewood campus language programs including French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.
The Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Jewish Studies Program is dedicated to the study of Jewish history, literature, language, politics and religion. Offering an interdisciplinary undergraduate minor, the program provides students with the opportunity to explore more than three millennia of Jewish culture and civilization, from biblical to contemporary times.
With core faculty members in the departments of history, humanities, modern languages and literatures, philosophy, and political science, the program spans a broad array of humanities and social science disciplines. The program is an excellent complement to any major and provides indispensable intellectual training for those interested in the study of cultures and civilizations in which Jews and Judaism play an important role, such as Christianity, Islam, or modernity.
International Studies is an interdisciplinary major drawing on the diverse strengths of the Johns Hopkins University in the fields of political science, history, economics, anthropology, sociology, and languages.
In today's increasingly interconnected world, new challenges and concerns deeply affect every facet of our individual and collective lives. Balancing the need for national security with the importance of protecting individual rights, encouraging the freedom of globalized markets while simultaneously promoting sustainability and preserving the environment, championing democracy throughout the world while remaining sensitive to cultural diversity—these are just some of the debates that shape our globalized society.
There is no single answer to the issues we face. This is why the key to understanding lies in a multi-disciplinary approach. The International Studies Program offers students a variety of perspectives through which to analyze international events. By learning new languages, studying the history and cultural diversity of various societies across the globe, and understanding the politics and theories of international relations or the dynamics of the world's economy, students gain the tools required to be competitive in a complex global setting.
To narrow an inevitably broad course of study, students are encouraged to identify specific areas of interest and choose a concentration within the International Studies major, whether it is a functional specialization such as international security or a regional focus. Students also have the opportunity to explore their interests in more depth through a senior thesis. The thesis, although mandatory for students wishing to graduate with honors in International Studies, is open as an option to all International Studies majors.
Study abroad is an integral part of the International Studies Program. The program has a variety of options that extend beyond the degree itself, offering a five-year BA/MA program with the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C., or Bologna; a five-year BA/MA program with Sciences Po Paris; junior year programs with SAIS Bologna and Sciences Po Paris; and a wide range of study abroad opportunities across the globe.
Founded in 2007, the Center for Financial Economics (CFE) was jointly conceived by Department of Economics faculty and Johns Hopkins alumni in the finance industry with the goal of producing cutting-edge education and research in finance. In early 2007, this seemed like a good idea. The financial crisis that ensued emphatically underscored the all-pervasive role of finance in the economy and the need for better thinking and training in finance.
From the outset, the founders set out to do something more than create another finance department. The CFE was founded on the principle that both the theory and practice of finance had strayed too far from economic underpinnings. The mission of the center is to bridge the gaps between economics and finance, rocket science and social science, theory and practice, and the broad liberal arts perspective versus finance specialization.
The center’s founding mission to “bridge the gaps” is uniquely well suited to the times. Our students and faculty are in an ideal place to understand and shape the turbulent process now re-making finance in the world’s financial centers, capitals, and research universities.
Film and Media Studies is an undergraduate program incorporating courses in film history, aesthetics, and theory; theory and practice in television, popular culture, and new media; and all aspects of 16mm film and digital video production, including narrative, documentary, animated, and experimental film.
The program’s curriculum is designed to foster critical understanding and historical knowledge of media forms, as well as their relationship to modern cultures, literatures, art, history, and philosophy. Students are afforded the opportunity to apply their analytical and theoretical knowledge to the production and creation of visual texts, a process that is crucial to enhancing their understanding of film, television, and other media.
Our small size allows us to focus on offering undergraduates an unusual amount of hands-on experience, intensive mentoring, and significant individual attention. Students work in a highly collaborative environment in small classes, and are taught by instructors known for their teaching excellence. The majority of our students have gone on to attend the top graduate film schools and to work in the film and media industries.
Majors often participate in the projects of the Hopkins Film Society, including the planning and organization of various film series and events, and the award-winning Johns Hopkins Film Festival. Through the Film Society, students learn to curate and to operate 35mm and 16mm projectors.
Johns Hopkins has a long history of influence in East Asia, and its students and faculty have made enduring contributions to the field of East Asian studies. Majors in East Asian studies engage in intensive language study and work with distinguished faculty on such topics as China in the global economy, nationalism in East Asia, Korean identity in Japan, and women in East Asia.
The East Asian Studies Program offers opportunities for students to pursue a rigorous and exciting interdisciplinary course of study in Baltimore and beyond. Many students choose to study abroad through partner programs in China, Japan, and Korea. Students are welcome to attend our speaker series, view films, and participate in weekly language corners.
Our students can apply for intersession and summer travel grants. We offer a senior thesis honors option, and seminars that bring together research scholars, faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates in a manner that is distinctly Hopkins. Alumni of the program are making their mark around the world in business and finance, academia, law, international development, medicine and public health, engineering, media, public service, and the arts.
The David S. Olton Behavioral Biology Program is an interdepartmental, interdivisional area major for those wishing to study the natural and social sciences in relation to human and animal behavior. The program begins with the fundamental concepts of both the natural sciences and the social sciences. Then the interface between these two areas is explored through specialized courses and electives, and through additional study emphasizing a particular subject. Courses provide a broadly based yet integrated education, focused in the field of behavioral biology.
The Center for Africana Studies pursues broad inquiry into the ideas and experiences of African peoples throughout the world. Its interdisciplinary approach is organized around three major sub-fields: studies in Africa and the African diaspora, African-American studies, and urban studies.
The Center's work spans diverse academic disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, and public health. While its sub-fields possess distinct and distinctive intellectual traditions, they offer exciting possibilities for comparative as well as integrative inquiry.
Through research, coursework, and public programs, the Center seeks to promote fundamental examination and understanding of the commonalities and contrasts among the historical and contemporary experiences of Africans and African Americans, and of the place of African diasporas in both local and global contexts. The Center strives to understand the movement of black peoples from their ancestral homelands to a variety of host lands, as well as expand upon Black Studies research to raise new inquiries into all aspects of African-American experiences, all the while building upon existing Krieger School strengths in the study of Africa.
The Center offers an undergraduate major and minor and provides teaching and research opportunities for graduate students. With an executive board of 10 actively engaged faculty members and a longer list of affiliated faculty, the Center has infused the campus with new intellectual vitality by sponsoring various speaker series, symposia, seminars, and student and faculty discussions, and it has added tremendous breadth and depth to the curriculum in areas that are Africana-related. The Center offers undergraduate courses covering issues in anthropology; English, history; history of art; Latin American studies; political science; public health; music; sociology; and women, gender, and sexuality studies.
