| AS.010.369 (01) |
The American Art Museum: Origins, Mission, and Civic Purpose |
M 4:30PM - 7:00PM |
Weiss, Daniel H |
Gilman 55 |
Spring 2026 |
- Description: This course will explore the American art museum as a distinctive cultural and political idea. Tracing its origins to the ancient world, the American art museum was descended more immediately from institutions created during the European Enlightenment, but differing with regard to overall mission and civic purpose. This course will explore the various roles played by museums in American society, focusing on programmatic content, organizational design, funding and operating practices, and the particular issues that have arisen in recent years in the areas of cultural property restitution, collection development, special exhibitions, governance and funding, and the larger question of civic purpose.
- Credits: 3.00
- Status: Closed
- Seats Available: 0/15
- Tags: HART-MODERN, ARCH-RELATE, AGRI-ELECT
|
| AS.100.271 (01) |
Documenting & Digitizing Black Louisiana: Sources, Tools and Contexts |
MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM |
Burri, Margaret N; Johnson, Jessica Marie; McGinn, Emily |
Macaulay 101 |
Spring 2026 |
- Description: Documenting & Digitizing Black Louisiana: Sources, Tools and Contexts is an experiential, team-based, community-engaged undergraduate seminar that combines secondary literature on the history of colonial Louisiana as well as the digital humanities, with intensive deep readings of a selection of translated documents. Seminar sessions will include gatherings with research teams of faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students, with a special emphasis workshops, with and hosted by scholars at JHU and beyond (including team members at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans. Students with interests in Black history, in multimedia content creation, in digital infrastructure, in manuscript documents, in translation and languages, in public history, social justice and community engagement will find much to learn in this course.
- Credits: 3.00
- Status: Closed
- Seats Available: 17/18
- Tags: HIST-AFRICA, HIST-LATAM, HIST-US, ARCH-RELATE, AGRI-ELECT
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| AS.389.155 (91DC) |
The History of "Fake News" from The Flood to The Apocalypse |
M 11:30AM - 2:00PM |
Havens, Earle A |
|
Spring 2026 |
- Description: A sweeping historical engagement with fakes, lies, and forgeries from the ancient world to the digital age, explored through JHU’s Bibliotheca Fictiva collection of rare books and manuscripts—the largest research collection on this subject in the world. Topics include ancient papyri, biblical apocrypha, medieval manuscript forgeries, archaeological and textual forgeries of the Renaissance, false travelogues of the Age of Exploration, pecuniary forgery in the 19th century, art forgery, and the advent of “fake news” in the digital era.
- Credits: 3.00
- Status: Closed
- Seats Available: 15/15
- Tags: n/a
|
| AS.389.202 (01) |
Introduction to the Museum: Issues and Ideas |
F 1:30PM - 4:00PM |
Forloney, Robert |
Gilman 300 |
Spring 2026 |
- Description: American museums today face ongoing practical, political and ethical challenges, including economic difficulties, technology and globalization, ongoing debates over the ownership and interpretation of culture and pressure to demonstrate their social value. This course considers how museums are answering these challenges and projects into the future. In addition to class discussions and group work, we will visit a number of different cultural institutions to discuss best practices in interpretation, how culture is represented in a variety of manners, the history of collection acquisition, analyze visitor experiences, how sites approach advocacy and civic engagement, among other topics related to the weekly readings.
- Credits: 3.00
- Status: Closed
- Seats Available: 0/15
- Tags: PMUS-INTRO, ARCH-ARCH, CES-ELECT
|
| AS.389.250 (01) |
Introduction to Conservation |
Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM |
Jarvis, Jennifer |
BLC 5017 |
Spring 2026 |
- Description: This course will introduce you to the theoretical and practical underpinnings of the conservation profession: who gets to be a conservator, where we work and how. There will be a hands-on opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge to document and stabilize items from JHU Special Collections. Topics include but are not limited to: what are the origins of the conservation profession and how has it evolved? What challenges do conservators face today? How do conservators contribute to institutional goals of preservation, access, research and learning?
- Credits: 3.00
- Status: Closed
- Seats Available: 0/10
- Tags: PMUS-INTRO, PMUS-PRAC, ARCH-ARCH
|
| AS.389.303 (01) |
A World of Things |
T 4:30PM - 7:00PM |
Kingsley, Jennifer P |
Mergenthaler 431 |
Spring 2026 |
- Description: This course aims to make the object a focus point for understanding museums and what they do, and to consider the museum as a site for investigating the interaction between humans and things. At the center of the course is a tension between the idea that things are subject to human will, on the one hand, and indications that things can and do evade human attempts to control them, on the other. Readings from scholars across many disciplines, from anthropology to political science, will stimulate our looking, thinking, and discussion. Every session includes hands-on activities to help us think through the key concepts of the readings.
- Credits: 3.00
- Status: Closed
- Seats Available: 2/10
- Tags: ARCH-ARCH
|
| AS.389.305 (01) |
Oral History: Recording Voices Today for the Archives of Tomorrow |
Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM |
Roome, Kristine |
Gilman 10 |
Spring 2026 |
- Description: Oral Histories are a means by which history is both generated and preserved. Talking to and recording people in their own voices is immensely valuable but also brings challenges. This course equips students with the theoretical framework, methods and an awareness of the ethics of making and interpreting oral histories and provides hands-on experience researching, designing and creating an archival record of our time to professional standards. Our project focuses on Baltimore's Confederate monuments. We will interview key stakeholders in debates that led to their removal and in ongoing conversations about what to do with them now.
- Credits: 3.00
- Status: Closed
- Seats Available: 0/10
- Tags: MSCH-HUM, CDS-SSMC, ARCH-RELATE
|
| AS.389.314 (01) |
Researching the Africana Archive: Black Cemetery Stories |
T 1:30PM - 4:00PM |
Dean, Gabrielle |
|
Spring 2026 |
- Description: This course addresses the historic role of the African American cemetery as sacred and political space, with important links to other Black institutions. Operating in partnership with Mount Auburn Cemetery in Baltimore, owned and operated by the Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church, we will visit the cemetery and related locations in Baltimore throughout the semester. Our collective goal is to research and share stories that further the interests of these important and vulnerable sites.
- Credits: 3.00
- Status: Canceled
- Seats Available: 8/8
- Tags: PMUS-PRAC, ARCH-RELATE, MSCH-HUM, CDS-SSMC
|
| AS.389.333 (01) |
The Curator is on the Case: Museum Research Methods in Practice |
W 1:30PM - 4:00PM |
Kingsley, Jennifer P |
Hmwd House Wine Cllr |
Spring 2026 |
- Description: How do art curators solve the puzzles posed by the collections they care for? This course invites students to work hands on with a collection of early modern paintings recently donated to the university. Students will learn to investigate art like a curator, from material and technical examination through provenance research and the reconstruction of object contexts. Students will share their research findings with public audiences in the form of an exhibition to be installed in the renovated MSEL library.
- Credits: 3.00
- Status: Closed
- Seats Available: 2/10
- Tags: PMUS-PRAC, ARCH-RELATE
|
| AS.389.445 (01) |
The Political Lives of Dead Bodies |
M 1:30PM - 4:00PM |
Hester, Jessica Leigh; Lans, Aja Marie |
Gilman 55 |
Spring 2026 |
- Description: Taking its name from the work of scholar Katherine Verdery, who investigates why and how certain corpses took on a political life in post-Soviet Eastern Europe, this course examines ways that human bodies have been collected, displayed, concealed and disappeared across cemeteries, museums, universities and other sites. We will trace various valuations (and devaluations) imposed on bodies across the life course and examine how some bodies are made to matter more than others in both life and death. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives across anthropology, Black studies, history of medicine and more, we will engage with case studies from across the globe, from the 18th century to the present day.
- Credits: 3.00
- Status: Closed
- Seats Available: 0/12
- Tags: HIST-US, HIST-EUROPE, CDS-SSMC, ARCH-ARCH, MSCH-HUM
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| AS.389.502 (01) |
Independent Study- Museum and Society |
|
Kingsley, Jennifer P |
|
Spring 2026 |
- Description: Independent research under a faculty mentor.
- Credits: 1.00 - 3.00
- Status: Closed
- Seats Available: 5/5
- Tags: n/a
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| AS.001.261 (01) |
FYS: Museum Matters |
Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM |
Kingsley, Jennifer P |
Hmwd House Wine Cllr |
Fall 2026 |
- Description: Museums are crucibles, places where public memory, identity, and cultural values are debated, hammered out and refined. This First-Year Seminar examines this premise through guided discussion, close looking at exhibitions past and present, written reflection, and visits that go behind the scenes of many of Baltimore's history, art, industry, and science museums. Just what is a museum and how does it compare to other sorts of cultural institutions? What responsibilities do museums have to their communities? to their collections? How do they balance the two? How are they adapting to broader social, economic, and cultural changes? And what is their future? Learn how to decode museums. Discover the varied roles they play in the life of a city like Baltimore.
- Credits: 3.00
- Status: Open
- Seats Available: 12/12
- Tags: n/a
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| AS.004.101 (31) |
Reintroduction to Writing: Exploring Multiple Literacies |
MW 3:00PM - 4:15PM |
Vinyard, Deirdre Will |
Gilman 413 |
Fall 2026 |
- Description: In this process-based composition course, we will write in a variety of genres for a number of audiences while exploring what it means to move among and through the multiple literacies in our lives. We will read texts which examine the ways that our literacies shape our experience in the world and the ways that we are shaped by our language. We will examine these ideas in both U.S. and international contexts. In addition, we will explore scholarly works on writing theory as it applies to our own writing and language identities. Writing assignments will include literacy narratives, documented essays, reflections, and reading responses. We will engage in frequent peer review activities striving to become excellent readers of others' work.
- Credits: 3.00
- Status: Reserved Open
- Seats Available: 12/12
- Tags: n/a
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| AS.010.447 (01) |
Art and the Body in the Ancient Americas |
TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM |
Earley, Caitlin |
Gilman 177 |
Fall 2026 |
- Description: What is a body, and how do bodies make meaning in art? This course investigates the concept of the body and its expression in Indigenous art from the Ancient Americas. As a site of human experience, a node of relational exchanges, and an expressive and constructive force, the body offers us a window into ways of being and understanding in the Americas. What can the way the body is created, represented, and manipulated tell us about attitudes toward power, religion, and the structure of the world? We will consider case studies from three cultural groups: the Moche, the Maya, and the Aztec. Our investigation is focused on the human body, and explores bodies that are living, dead, gendered, fragmented, multiple, and divine.
- Credits: 3.00
- Status: Waitlist Only
- Seats Available: 0/7
- Tags: HART-ANC, ARCH-ARCH
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| AS.060.410 (01) |
Art and Literature of Revolution in the Americas |
W 4:30PM - 7:00PM |
Feinsod, Harris; Joyce, Robin |
Gilman 186 |
Fall 2026 |
- Description: This course asks how early 20th-century writers and artists in the US, Latin America, and the Caribbean have pictured and imagined the histories of revolution in the Atlantic world. How did the Haitian and Mexican revolutions spur the art of the Harlem Renaissance? How did the writers and artists of the Black diaspora arrive at new histories of self-emancipation? Writers and artists to be considered include Elizabeth Catlett, Alejo Carpentier, Mariano Azuela,The course will be taught in the study room at the Baltimore Museum of Art, and students will participate in the research for and production of an upcoming museum exhibition at the museum.
- Credits: 3.00
- Status: Waitlist Only
- Seats Available: 0/12
- Tags: ENGL-GLOBAL
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| AS.389.155 (91DC) |
The History of "Fake News" from The Flood to The Apocalypse |
M 11:30AM - 2:00PM |
Havens, Earle A |
555 Penn 632 |
Fall 2026 |
- Description: A sweeping historical engagement with fakes, lies, and forgeries from the ancient world to the digital age, explored through JHU’s Bibliotheca Fictiva collection of rare books and manuscripts—the largest research collection on this subject in the world. Topics include ancient papyri, biblical apocrypha, medieval manuscript forgeries, archaeological and textual forgeries of the Renaissance, false travelogues of the Age of Exploration, pecuniary forgery in the 19th century, art forgery, and the advent of “fake news” in the digital era.
- Credits: 3.00
- Status: Open
- Seats Available: 12/12
- Tags: n/a
|
| AS.389.201 (01) |
Introduction to the Museum: Past and Present |
TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM |
Kingsley, Jennifer P |
Gilman 219 |
Fall 2026 |
- Description: 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.
- Credits: 3.00
- Status: Open
- Seats Available: 16/25
- Tags: HIST-EUROPE, ARCH-ARCH, PMUS-INTRO, MSCH-HUM, ARCH-RELATE, CDS-SSMC
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| AS.389.220 (01) |
Queer Sixties |
W 1:30PM - 4:00PM |
Plaster, Joseph |
|
Fall 2026 |
- Description: Introduction to U.S. queer and trans politics and culture in the period building up to the gay liberation movement. The course highlights the significance of homophile organizing, drag and leather communities, trans activism, bar- and street-based publics, experimental film, and subcultural practices. It examines how we, as a culture, have come to narrate queer and trans history and investigates the ways archival practices shape those narrations. Students will learn to conduct historical research in online and analog archives, finding and integrating primary and secondary sources to write original research about the past.
- Credits: 3.00
- Status: Open
- Seats Available: 12/15
- Tags: CDS-SSMC
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| AS.389.270 (01) |
Baltimore Museum of Art Teaching Apprentice Program |
|
Staff |
|
Fall 2026 |
- Description: This program offers students a structured introduction to object-based pedagogy and the principles of gallery teaching. Through weekly seminars led by museum educators and curators, students develop the analytical, interpretive, and facilitation skills necessary to design and lead developmentally appropriate tours for K–12 audiences. The course combines close study of works of art with guided practice in tour planning, individual and peer reflection, and iterative refinement, which will culminate in the delivery of a public tour at the end of the semester.
Permission required. Undergraduates from all academic disciplines are encouraged to apply. Students who successfully complete the Fall semester may be invited to join the Museum’s teaching roster and lead designated school tours in the Spring.
- Credits: 1.00
- Status: Approval Required
- Seats Available: 3/10
- Tags: n/a
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| AS.389.313 (01) |
Data and the Digital in Museums |
TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM |
McGinn, Emily |
BLC 4040 |
Fall 2026 |
- Description: Digital media play an increasingly significant role in museums from how museums share and narrate their collections online to the use of AI to catalog things and create metadata about them. This class explores critically how digital tools work to tell stories and invites students to unpack the resulting museum narratives. Students will learn by doing, creating a digital exhibit of five museum objects using Omeka and later transforming their exhibits by creating data of their own design to tell a new story about their objects. This new narrative will apply critical perspectives considered in the course such as, but not limited to, repatriation, critical cataloging, and geo-politics.
- Credits: 3.00
- Status: Open
- Seats Available: 8/15
- Tags: PMUS-PRAC, MSCH-HUM, ARCH-RELATE
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| AS.389.380 (01) |
Museums on Campus: Creative Approaches to Audience Engagement |
MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM |
Finkelstein, Lori |
Hmwd House Wine Cllr |
Fall 2026 |
- Description: This course will engage students in the fundamentals of museum audience engagement through creating and marketing a series of mini-installations around campus related to Homewood Museum. By “busting out” of the actual museum building, participants in this course will be charged with creating exciting opportunities for the museum to better connect with students, faculty, and the larger JHU community. The course will offer students real-world immersion in museum work and will use as its jumping off point a recently written report on how Homewood Museum could improve its public perception and grow its visitor base.
- Credits: 3.00
- Status: Waitlist Only
- Seats Available: 0/12
- Tags: ARCH-RELATE
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| AS.389.502 (01) |
Independent Study- Museum and Society |
|
Kingsley, Jennifer P |
|
Fall 2026 |
- Description: Independent research under a faculty mentor.
- Credits: 1.00 - 3.00
- Status: Approval Required
- Seats Available: 5/5
- Tags: n/a
|