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.
Course # (Section)
Title
Day/Times
Instructor
Location
Term
Course Details
AS.004.101 (48)
Reintroduction to Writing: Black Birthing Women
TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Wright, Lisa E.
Krieger Laverty
Spring 2023
Current CDC data states, that Black women are “three to four times more likely to die during or after delivery than are white women.” In this first-year writing course, we will explore Black women’s historical and contemporary birth narratives to question how their history of enslavement, and medical racism continues to inform their birthing realities. Through course readings, discussions, and workshops we will question the varied ways the delegitimization of Black midwives, Black women’s community practices, and contemporary advocates for reproductive and birthing justice, have impacted Black women’s care within and outside of medical institutions. Students will write in a range of genres including personal narratives and/or auto ethnographies, which will allow students to follow a course of inquiry that will lead them to a point of interest to compose a traditional academic paper or a multimodal composition as their final project. Students will support their research questions by using credible sources such as narratives, scholarly articles, and reputed journalism. Potential texts include excerpts by Harriet Jacobs, Margaret Charles Smith, Assata Shakur, Tressie Cottom, Nikky Finney, Beyonce, and reproductive justice advocate, Loretta Ross.
×
Reintroduction to Writing: Black Birthing Women AS.004.101 (48)
Current CDC data states, that Black women are “three to four times more likely to die during or after delivery than are white women.” In this first-year writing course, we will explore Black women’s historical and contemporary birth narratives to question how their history of enslavement, and medical racism continues to inform their birthing realities. Through course readings, discussions, and workshops we will question the varied ways the delegitimization of Black midwives, Black women’s community practices, and contemporary advocates for reproductive and birthing justice, have impacted Black women’s care within and outside of medical institutions. Students will write in a range of genres including personal narratives and/or auto ethnographies, which will allow students to follow a course of inquiry that will lead them to a point of interest to compose a traditional academic paper or a multimodal composition as their final project. Students will support their research questions by using credible sources such as narratives, scholarly articles, and reputed journalism. Potential texts include excerpts by Harriet Jacobs, Margaret Charles Smith, Assata Shakur, Tressie Cottom, Nikky Finney, Beyonce, and reproductive justice advocate, Loretta Ross.
Days/Times: TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Instructor: Wright, Lisa E.
Room: Krieger Laverty
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/15
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.010.336 (01)
Männer und Meister: Artistry and Masculinity in Sixteenth-Century Germany
TTh 4:30PM - 5:45PM
Stolurow, Benjamin Isaac
Gilman 177
Spring 2023
Since the publication of Giorgio Vasari’s Lives (1550), in which the history of art was first conceived as the successive accomplishment of a select group of great men, the discipline of Art History has had a gender problem. Today, feminist scholars continue to grapple with this troubled legacy, working to redress the masculinist biases inherent in disciplinary methods and assumptions while at the same time fighting to recover the value of traditionally overlooked subjects and genres. In the early 1990s, the history of masculinity emerged as an adjunct to traditional feminist history. Aimed at addressing misconceptions about the nature and naturalness of male identity, this subfield has helped open masculinity to critical reevaluation. Drawing on the contributions of contemporary feminist scholarship as well as those of the history of masculinity, this course explores the ways in which a reconsideration of the nature of male identity in the historical past might help us rethink key art historical issues, for example, paradigmatic notions of the Renaissance artist, the nature of copying and competition, and the concepts of creativity, invention, and genius. The course will focus on developments in the German speaking world in the late fifteenth and sixteenth-centuries; as numerous historians have noted, the German speaking lands underwent a crisis of masculinity during this period, in part precipitated by the events of the Protestant Reformation. At the same time, the region witnessed profound changes in the status of the arts and of the artist. In this course, we will explore the ways in which these phenomena were related, and how they contributed to culturally specific notions of the relationship between masculinity and artistry. We will also consider the ways in which a close examination of masculinity in the German Renaissance opens up new avenues of art historical and cultural historical investigation with relevance beyond the period itself.
×
Männer und Meister: Artistry and Masculinity in Sixteenth-Century Germany AS.010.336 (01)
Since the publication of Giorgio Vasari’s Lives (1550), in which the history of art was first conceived as the successive accomplishment of a select group of great men, the discipline of Art History has had a gender problem. Today, feminist scholars continue to grapple with this troubled legacy, working to redress the masculinist biases inherent in disciplinary methods and assumptions while at the same time fighting to recover the value of traditionally overlooked subjects and genres. In the early 1990s, the history of masculinity emerged as an adjunct to traditional feminist history. Aimed at addressing misconceptions about the nature and naturalness of male identity, this subfield has helped open masculinity to critical reevaluation. Drawing on the contributions of contemporary feminist scholarship as well as those of the history of masculinity, this course explores the ways in which a reconsideration of the nature of male identity in the historical past might help us rethink key art historical issues, for example, paradigmatic notions of the Renaissance artist, the nature of copying and competition, and the concepts of creativity, invention, and genius. The course will focus on developments in the German speaking world in the late fifteenth and sixteenth-centuries; as numerous historians have noted, the German speaking lands underwent a crisis of masculinity during this period, in part precipitated by the events of the Protestant Reformation. At the same time, the region witnessed profound changes in the status of the arts and of the artist. In this course, we will explore the ways in which these phenomena were related, and how they contributed to culturally specific notions of the relationship between masculinity and artistry. We will also consider the ways in which a close examination of masculinity in the German Renaissance opens up new avenues of art historical and cultural historical investigation with relevance beyond the period itself.
Days/Times: TTh 4:30PM - 5:45PM
Instructor: Stolurow, Benjamin Isaac
Room: Gilman 177
Status: Open
Seats Available: 12/18
PosTag(s): INST-GLOBAL, HART-RENEM
AS.010.413 (01)
Historical and Conceptual Bases of Art History
M 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Stager, Jennifer M S
Gilman 177
Spring 2023
This course introduces students to the principal methods and theories of art history. Students will work through readings foundational for the discipline, texts that define key methodological consolidations in the twentieth century, and more recent (e.g. feminist, visual studies, global, post-colonial, and/or ecological) critiques and rethinking. Specific texts will vary by instructor, but the course seeks—in any instantiation—to include a plurality of perspectives.
×
Historical and Conceptual Bases of Art History AS.010.413 (01)
This course introduces students to the principal methods and theories of art history. Students will work through readings foundational for the discipline, texts that define key methodological consolidations in the twentieth century, and more recent (e.g. feminist, visual studies, global, post-colonial, and/or ecological) critiques and rethinking. Specific texts will vary by instructor, but the course seeks—in any instantiation—to include a plurality of perspectives.
Days/Times: M 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Stager, Jennifer M S
Room: Gilman 177
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/17
PosTag(s): HART-THRY
AS.010.474 (01)
Picturing Performance
F 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Stager, Jennifer M S
Gilman 177
Spring 2023
Picturing Performance takes up the material traces of ancient Greek performance—the remains of theaters, paintings, masks, and musical instruments, as well as epigraphic, papyrological, and other textual transmissions of these works—alongside contemporary receptions of these performances, which have been such a rich site of reworking. Examples include: the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and Anäis Mitchell’s Hadestown, Euripides’ The Bacchae and Hope Mohr Dance’s Before Bacchae, and Sophocles’ Antigone and Theater of War’s Antigone in Ferguson. These ancient performances engage questions of gender and sexuality, constructions of race, migration, citizenship, and belonging, power, governance, and resistance, disease and collective healing, among the subjects that have also inspired contemporary interpretations. All texts will be read in translation. We will visit museum collections in the region and, where possible, see live performances of these works.
×
Picturing Performance AS.010.474 (01)
Picturing Performance takes up the material traces of ancient Greek performance—the remains of theaters, paintings, masks, and musical instruments, as well as epigraphic, papyrological, and other textual transmissions of these works—alongside contemporary receptions of these performances, which have been such a rich site of reworking. Examples include: the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and Anäis Mitchell’s Hadestown, Euripides’ The Bacchae and Hope Mohr Dance’s Before Bacchae, and Sophocles’ Antigone and Theater of War’s Antigone in Ferguson. These ancient performances engage questions of gender and sexuality, constructions of race, migration, citizenship, and belonging, power, governance, and resistance, disease and collective healing, among the subjects that have also inspired contemporary interpretations. All texts will be read in translation. We will visit museum collections in the region and, where possible, see live performances of these works.
Days/Times: F 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Stager, Jennifer M S
Room: Gilman 177
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/6
PosTag(s): MSCH-HUM, HART-MED
AS.010.481 (01)
Figuration after Formlessness
W 4:30PM - 7:00PM
Schopp, Caroline Lillian
Gilman 177
Spring 2023
What would an art history of modernism look like that sought not to overcome or eliminate painterly figuration, but to attend to displaced and disparaged figures in it? At least since Benjamin Buchloh’s important 1981 warning about a “return to figuration” in European painting, figuration has been linked with questionable, if not highly suspect, aesthetic and political values – from nostalgia to repression. Buchloh inherits this this view from the historical avantgardes, which sought to counter conventions of figuration by developing disparate strategies of abstraction. And it is this view of figuration that guides both formalist and social art histories: For both share an anxiety about the authoritative figure of the human form.
This seminar invites an alternative perspective on the artistic project of figuration. We look at modern and contemporary practices of figuration that cannot so easily be dismissed as retrogressive or authoritarian. These practices suggest ways of thinking the figure without an appeal to its coherent visibility or sovereign standing. We will read broadly in the contemporary critical theory, feminist and queer theory, Black thought, and critical disability studies that share this investment (e.g. Butler, Cavarero, Garland-Thomson, Halberstam, Hartman, Honig, Sharpe, Wynter). We will critically reconsider Rosalind Krauss and Yve-Alain Bois’ project Formless: A User’s Guide, along with the turn of the twenty-first century debates about abjection, feminism, and “body art” it engaged. Artists under discussion include Maria Lassnig, Ana Mendieta, Alina Szapocznikow, Kara Walker, and Hannah Wilke, amongst others. For the final research paper, graduate students are encouraged to bring their own archives to the questions addressed in the seminar.
×
Figuration after Formlessness AS.010.481 (01)
What would an art history of modernism look like that sought not to overcome or eliminate painterly figuration, but to attend to displaced and disparaged figures in it? At least since Benjamin Buchloh’s important 1981 warning about a “return to figuration” in European painting, figuration has been linked with questionable, if not highly suspect, aesthetic and political values – from nostalgia to repression. Buchloh inherits this this view from the historical avantgardes, which sought to counter conventions of figuration by developing disparate strategies of abstraction. And it is this view of figuration that guides both formalist and social art histories: For both share an anxiety about the authoritative figure of the human form.
This seminar invites an alternative perspective on the artistic project of figuration. We look at modern and contemporary practices of figuration that cannot so easily be dismissed as retrogressive or authoritarian. These practices suggest ways of thinking the figure without an appeal to its coherent visibility or sovereign standing. We will read broadly in the contemporary critical theory, feminist and queer theory, Black thought, and critical disability studies that share this investment (e.g. Butler, Cavarero, Garland-Thomson, Halberstam, Hartman, Honig, Sharpe, Wynter). We will critically reconsider Rosalind Krauss and Yve-Alain Bois’ project Formless: A User’s Guide, along with the turn of the twenty-first century debates about abjection, feminism, and “body art” it engaged. Artists under discussion include Maria Lassnig, Ana Mendieta, Alina Szapocznikow, Kara Walker, and Hannah Wilke, amongst others. For the final research paper, graduate students are encouraged to bring their own archives to the questions addressed in the seminar.
Days/Times: W 4:30PM - 7:00PM
Instructor: Schopp, Caroline Lillian
Room: Gilman 177
Status: Open
Seats Available: 1/5
PosTag(s): HART-MODERN
AS.061.389 (01)
Women Making Movies (Europe)
T 7:30PM - 10:00PM Screenings, TTh 4:30PM - 5:45PM
Mason, Laura
Hodson 303
Spring 2023
This course introduces students to some of the most exciting female directors of the 21st century, asking how gender shaped the production and reception of their films. Do particular directors attribute any significance to the fact of being a woman? Does a director's gender shape her choice of subject or how she represents it? Does wider knowledge of works directed by women change our sense of the canon and authorship? Covers non-U.S. films, strongly encouraged for FMS majors and minors. Cross-listed with WGS. No pre-requisite.
×
Women Making Movies (Europe) AS.061.389 (01)
This course introduces students to some of the most exciting female directors of the 21st century, asking how gender shaped the production and reception of their films. Do particular directors attribute any significance to the fact of being a woman? Does a director's gender shape her choice of subject or how she represents it? Does wider knowledge of works directed by women change our sense of the canon and authorship? Covers non-U.S. films, strongly encouraged for FMS majors and minors. Cross-listed with WGS. No pre-requisite.
Days/Times: T 7:30PM - 10:00PM Screenings, TTh 4:30PM - 5:45PM
Instructor: Mason, Laura
Room: Hodson 303
Status: Open
Seats Available: 2/15
PosTag(s): FILM-CRITST
AS.100.218 (01)
Paris Noire: Black American Women in the City of Lights
T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Pilatte, Malaurie Jacqueline
Latrobe 107
Spring 2023
This class explores the construction and articulation of Black womanhood between the anglophone and francophone worlds in the 19th and 20th century. Through a study of secondary and primary sources, we will follow African American women across the Atlantic and analyze their experiences with France and the French language.
×
Paris Noire: Black American Women in the City of Lights AS.100.218 (01)
This class explores the construction and articulation of Black womanhood between the anglophone and francophone worlds in the 19th and 20th century. Through a study of secondary and primary sources, we will follow African American women across the Atlantic and analyze their experiences with France and the French language.
Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Pilatte, Malaurie Jacqueline
Room: Latrobe 107
Status: Open
Seats Available: 2/15
PosTag(s): HIST-US, HIST-EUROPE, INST-GLOBAL
AS.100.252 (01)
Sex and the American City
TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Gill Peterson, Jules
Greenhouse 113
Spring 2023
Why are cities associated with sex and vice? Are cities a natural refuge for LGBT people? This course explores the role of American cities in the history of sexuality.
×
Sex and the American City AS.100.252 (01)
Why are cities associated with sex and vice? Are cities a natural refuge for LGBT people? This course explores the role of American cities in the history of sexuality.
Days/Times: TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Instructor: Gill Peterson, Jules
Room: Greenhouse 113
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 1/12
PosTag(s): HIST-US
AS.100.396 (01)
The Gender Binary and American Empire
TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM
Gill Peterson, Jules
Gilman 10
Spring 2023
This seminar explores how the sex and gender binary was produced through US colonialism since the nineteenth century. Topics include domestic settler colonialism, as well as Hawaii, the Caribbean, and Asia.
×
The Gender Binary and American Empire AS.100.396 (01)
This seminar explores how the sex and gender binary was produced through US colonialism since the nineteenth century. Topics include domestic settler colonialism, as well as Hawaii, the Caribbean, and Asia.
Witchcraft, magic, carnivals, riots, folk tales, gender roles; fertility cults and violence especially in Britain, Germany, France, and Italy.
×
Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe AS.100.426 (01)
Witchcraft, magic, carnivals, riots, folk tales, gender roles; fertility cults and violence especially in Britain, Germany, France, and Italy.
Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Instructor: Marshall, John W
Room: Gilman 308
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/25
PosTag(s): INST-GLOBAL, HIST-EUROPE
AS.100.450 (03)
History Research Lab: Discovering Hard Histories at Hopkins
W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Jones, Martha Suzanne
Smokler Center 213
Spring 2023
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.
×
History Research Lab: Discovering Hard Histories at Hopkins AS.100.450 (03)
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.
Giving Birth and Coming to Life in Ancient Egypt: The Tree and the Fruit
MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Arnette, Marie-Lys
Gilman 130G
Spring 2023
Childbirth is an event that is highly cultural, and is accompanied by gestures and beliefs that say a lot about the society in which they can be observed. This class will be based on Ancient Egyptian texts (translated), images and objects related to beliefs and practices surrounding pregnancy, birth-giving and the first moments of human life. We will discover the Egyptian views on procreation, the objects, the spells and the formulas used to protect pregnancy and childbirth – one of the most dangerous moments in a woman’s life –,
the divine entities invoked, the reactions caused by non-ordinary births (for example, twins), and the purification rites that punctuate the post-partum period. Finally, we will see that the first biological birth is a model on which many beliefs about life after death are based.
Several guest researchers will present birth and childbirth in other ancient societies in order to broaden the discussion and establish comparisons.
×
Giving Birth and Coming to Life in Ancient Egypt: The Tree and the Fruit AS.130.154 (01)
Childbirth is an event that is highly cultural, and is accompanied by gestures and beliefs that say a lot about the society in which they can be observed. This class will be based on Ancient Egyptian texts (translated), images and objects related to beliefs and practices surrounding pregnancy, birth-giving and the first moments of human life. We will discover the Egyptian views on procreation, the objects, the spells and the formulas used to protect pregnancy and childbirth – one of the most dangerous moments in a woman’s life –,
the divine entities invoked, the reactions caused by non-ordinary births (for example, twins), and the purification rites that punctuate the post-partum period. Finally, we will see that the first biological birth is a model on which many beliefs about life after death are based.
Several guest researchers will present birth and childbirth in other ancient societies in order to broaden the discussion and establish comparisons.
Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Instructor: Arnette, Marie-Lys
Room: Gilman 130G
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/15
PosTag(s): NEAS-HISCUL, MSCH-HUM
AS.145.222 (01)
Bodies in Flux: Medicine, Gender, and Sexuality in the Modern Middle East
TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Bayoumi, Soha Hassan
Hodson 305
Spring 2023
This course examines how bodies, genders, and sexualities in the modern Middle East, from the nineteenth century to the present, have been shaped and represented via changing and competing discourses. Through a variety of historical, ethnographic, sociological, media, and literary readings, the course investigates dynamic representations of bodies in flux: colonized bodies, medicalized bodies, gendered bodies, sexualized bodies, (re)productive bodies, aging bodies, and bodies in revolt. The course pays special attention to science, technology, and medicine in their interaction with cultures, laws, and religious practices. Some of the topics covered include analyzing histories of and discourses on gender, sexuality, health and disease, reproduction, genital cutting, and gender-based violence.
×
Bodies in Flux: Medicine, Gender, and Sexuality in the Modern Middle East AS.145.222 (01)
This course examines how bodies, genders, and sexualities in the modern Middle East, from the nineteenth century to the present, have been shaped and represented via changing and competing discourses. Through a variety of historical, ethnographic, sociological, media, and literary readings, the course investigates dynamic representations of bodies in flux: colonized bodies, medicalized bodies, gendered bodies, sexualized bodies, (re)productive bodies, aging bodies, and bodies in revolt. The course pays special attention to science, technology, and medicine in their interaction with cultures, laws, and religious practices. Some of the topics covered include analyzing histories of and discourses on gender, sexuality, health and disease, reproduction, genital cutting, and gender-based violence.
Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Instructor: Bayoumi, Soha Hassan
Room: Hodson 305
Status: Open
Seats Available: 1/18
PosTag(s): MSCH-HUM
AS.150.436 (01)
Philosophy of Gender
MW 3:00PM - 4:15PM
Taylor, Elanor J.
Smokler Center 301
Spring 2023
In this class we will examine philosophical questions about gender, and about the intersections between gender and other social categories including race, class and sexuality. We will focus specifically on questions about the metaphysics of gender and other social categories.
×
Philosophy of Gender AS.150.436 (01)
In this class we will examine philosophical questions about gender, and about the intersections between gender and other social categories including race, class and sexuality. We will focus specifically on questions about the metaphysics of gender and other social categories.
Days/Times: MW 3:00PM - 4:15PM
Instructor: Taylor, Elanor J.
Room: Smokler Center 301
Status: Open
Seats Available: 5/20
PosTag(s): PHIL-MIND, MSCH-HUM
AS.211.224 (01)
Made in Italy: Italian style in context
MW 4:30PM - 5:45PM
Proietti, Leonardo
Krieger 180
Spring 2023
Italy and the “Italian style” have become synonym of exquisite taste, class, and elegance thanks to the quality of Italian craftsmanship. This course will explore some of the major factors that contributed to the rise of Italian fashion and Italian industrial design as iconic all around the world. The classes will focus on the main protagonists and art movements that influenced the development of Italian style. We will analyze trends, clothing, and style not only in a historical context, but also through a critical apparatus that will include themes related to gender, culture, power, and politics.
The course is taught in English. No knowledge of Italian is required, but those who can read in Italian will have an opportunity to do so. Everyone will learn some Italian words and expressions.
×
Made in Italy: Italian style in context AS.211.224 (01)
Italy and the “Italian style” have become synonym of exquisite taste, class, and elegance thanks to the quality of Italian craftsmanship. This course will explore some of the major factors that contributed to the rise of Italian fashion and Italian industrial design as iconic all around the world. The classes will focus on the main protagonists and art movements that influenced the development of Italian style. We will analyze trends, clothing, and style not only in a historical context, but also through a critical apparatus that will include themes related to gender, culture, power, and politics.
The course is taught in English. No knowledge of Italian is required, but those who can read in Italian will have an opportunity to do so. Everyone will learn some Italian words and expressions.
Days/Times: MW 4:30PM - 5:45PM
Instructor: Proietti, Leonardo
Room: Krieger 180
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/40
PosTag(s): INST-GLOBAL, MLL-ENGL, MLL-ITAL
AS.212.436 (01)
Cultures of Love
MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Russo, Elena
Gilman 381
Spring 2023
From the time of its invention in the Hispano-Arabic world, as a kind of counterfeit religion, love has been a paradoxical, transgressive phenomenon: mystical, adulterous, con game, parlor game, alienation or self-affirmation. We’ll explore a few crucial moments in its long history, from Socrates's female teacher Diotima to the reality show Love is Blind, and we'll bring a literary, sociological and anthropological approach to the challenges posed by love's protean discourse. Works by Plato, Saint Augustine, Ibn Hazm, the abbess Héloïse, Sartre, Beauvoir, Barthes, Ernaux, Houellebecq, and others. Readings and discussion in French.
×
Cultures of Love AS.212.436 (01)
From the time of its invention in the Hispano-Arabic world, as a kind of counterfeit religion, love has been a paradoxical, transgressive phenomenon: mystical, adulterous, con game, parlor game, alienation or self-affirmation. We’ll explore a few crucial moments in its long history, from Socrates's female teacher Diotima to the reality show Love is Blind, and we'll bring a literary, sociological and anthropological approach to the challenges posed by love's protean discourse. Works by Plato, Saint Augustine, Ibn Hazm, the abbess Héloïse, Sartre, Beauvoir, Barthes, Ernaux, Houellebecq, and others. Readings and discussion in French.
Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Instructor: Russo, Elena
Room: Gilman 381
Status: Open
Seats Available: 8/15
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.225.318 (01)
21st Century Female Playwrights
TTh 3:00PM - 4:15PM
Denithorne, Margaret
Merrick 105
Spring 2023
This is a writing intensive class exploring the current wealth of women playwrights, including Pulitzer Prize winners: Wendy Wasserstein, Paula Vogel, Lynn Nottage, and Jackie Sibblies Drury (2019 Prize for FAIRVIEW). We will discuss Script Analysis and read (and see) plays by numerous writers including Claire Barron, Kia Corthron, Theresa Rebeck, Sarah Ruhl, Danai Gurira, Caleen Sinnette Jennings, and Hansol Jung. This class will include a mid-term and a Final Paper.
×
21st Century Female Playwrights AS.225.318 (01)
This is a writing intensive class exploring the current wealth of women playwrights, including Pulitzer Prize winners: Wendy Wasserstein, Paula Vogel, Lynn Nottage, and Jackie Sibblies Drury (2019 Prize for FAIRVIEW). We will discuss Script Analysis and read (and see) plays by numerous writers including Claire Barron, Kia Corthron, Theresa Rebeck, Sarah Ruhl, Danai Gurira, Caleen Sinnette Jennings, and Hansol Jung. This class will include a mid-term and a Final Paper.
Days/Times: TTh 3:00PM - 4:15PM
Instructor: Denithorne, Margaret
Room: Merrick 105
Status: Open
Seats Available: 2/14
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.290.330 (01)
Human Sexuality
T 6:30PM - 9:00PM
Kraft, Chris S
Ames 218
Spring 2023
Course focuses on sexual development, sexuality across the lifespan, gender identity, sexual attraction and arousal, sexually transmitted disease, and the history of commercial sex workers and pornography. Please note that the use of electronic devices is not permitted during this class, in order to promote the full interactive potential of this engaging seminar-style offering. Open to Juniors & Seniors within the following majors/minors: Behavioral Biology; Biology; Cognitive Science; Medicine, Science & the Humanities; Molecular & Cellular Bio; Neuroscience; Psychological & Brain Sciences; Public Health; Sociology; Study of Women, Gender, & Sexuality.
Students may receive credit for either AS.290.330 or AS.290.420, but not both.
×
Human Sexuality AS.290.330 (01)
Course focuses on sexual development, sexuality across the lifespan, gender identity, sexual attraction and arousal, sexually transmitted disease, and the history of commercial sex workers and pornography. Please note that the use of electronic devices is not permitted during this class, in order to promote the full interactive potential of this engaging seminar-style offering. Open to Juniors & Seniors within the following majors/minors: Behavioral Biology; Biology; Cognitive Science; Medicine, Science & the Humanities; Molecular & Cellular Bio; Neuroscience; Psychological & Brain Sciences; Public Health; Sociology; Study of Women, Gender, & Sexuality.
Students may receive credit for either AS.290.330 or AS.290.420, but not both.
Days/Times: T 6:30PM - 9:00PM
Instructor: Kraft, Chris S
Room: Ames 218
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/30
PosTag(s): BEHB-SOCSCI, MSCH-HUM
AS.310.319 (01)
Gender & Sexuality in Korea and Asia
W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Reizman, Laura
Mergenthaler 266
Spring 2023
Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach, this course examines the role that gender and sexuality play within primarily the South Korean polity and in Asia. Drawing on queer studies, feminist studies, and critical Asian studies, the class will offer a foundational framework from which to analyze how social constructs around gender and sexuality play a major part in the marginalization of communities and their access to rights and representation. We will explore questions of kinship, family, love, and intimacy as they pertain to the larger thematics of the course.
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Gender & Sexuality in Korea and Asia AS.310.319 (01)
Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach, this course examines the role that gender and sexuality play within primarily the South Korean polity and in Asia. Drawing on queer studies, feminist studies, and critical Asian studies, the class will offer a foundational framework from which to analyze how social constructs around gender and sexuality play a major part in the marginalization of communities and their access to rights and representation. We will explore questions of kinship, family, love, and intimacy as they pertain to the larger thematics of the course.
Days/Times: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Reizman, Laura
Room: Mergenthaler 266
Status: Open
Seats Available: 9/15
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.363.335 (01)
Gender and Friendship: The Poetics and Politics of Sex
MW 3:00PM - 4:15PM
Higgins, CJ
Gilman 77
Spring 2023
How far does it make sense to say, as Harry Burns put it in When Harry Met Sally, “that men and women can’t be friends”? What presumptions of female and male friendships underlie such a claim? Does it even make sense to talk of a distinctive difference between male and female friendships? Beginning with tracts on friendship from the Western philosophical tradition, and then weaving between sociological analyses and representations of friendship in literature and film, we will explore in this course how gender inflects friendship as we live it. Assignments include two 6-8 page papers and a short summary of readings due each week.
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Gender and Friendship: The Poetics and Politics of Sex AS.363.335 (01)
How far does it make sense to say, as Harry Burns put it in When Harry Met Sally, “that men and women can’t be friends”? What presumptions of female and male friendships underlie such a claim? Does it even make sense to talk of a distinctive difference between male and female friendships? Beginning with tracts on friendship from the Western philosophical tradition, and then weaving between sociological analyses and representations of friendship in literature and film, we will explore in this course how gender inflects friendship as we live it. Assignments include two 6-8 page papers and a short summary of readings due each week.
Days/Times: MW 3:00PM - 4:15PM
Instructor: Higgins, CJ
Room: Gilman 77
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/12
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.363.341 (01)
Making Modern Gender
MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Harmon, Brad G; Pahl, Katrin
Croft Hall G02
Spring 2023
Gender as we know it is not timeless. Today, gender roles and the assumption that there are only two genders are contested and debated. With the binary gender system thus perhaps nearing its end, we might wonder if it had a beginning. In fact, the idea that there are two sexes and that they not only assume different roles in society but also exhibit different character traits, has emerged historically around 1800. Early German Romanticism played a seminal role in the making of modern gender and modern sexuality. For the first time, woman was considered not a lesser version of man, but a different being with a value of her own. The idea of gender complementation emerged, and this idea, in turn, imposed heterosexuality more forcefully than ever. In this course, we will trace the history of anatomy and explore the role of literature and the other arts in the making and unmaking of gender.
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Making Modern Gender AS.363.341 (01)
Gender as we know it is not timeless. Today, gender roles and the assumption that there are only two genders are contested and debated. With the binary gender system thus perhaps nearing its end, we might wonder if it had a beginning. In fact, the idea that there are two sexes and that they not only assume different roles in society but also exhibit different character traits, has emerged historically around 1800. Early German Romanticism played a seminal role in the making of modern gender and modern sexuality. For the first time, woman was considered not a lesser version of man, but a different being with a value of her own. The idea of gender complementation emerged, and this idea, in turn, imposed heterosexuality more forcefully than ever. In this course, we will trace the history of anatomy and explore the role of literature and the other arts in the making and unmaking of gender.
Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Instructor: Harmon, Brad G; Pahl, Katrin
Room: Croft Hall G02
Status: Open
Seats Available: 4/30
PosTag(s): INST-GLOBAL, MSCH-HUM
AS.363.346 (01)
Queer Performativity
TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM
Plaster, Joseph
Gilman 186
Spring 2023
Introduces students to the intersections of queer theory, performance studies, and LGBTQ history with a focus on “queer worldmaking:” the ways in which performances—both theatrical and everyday rituals—have the ability to establish alternative views of the world. Case studies include the ballroom scene in Baltimore and beyond, migratory street youth subcultures, and queer nightlife. This course also offers a unique lens on the archive and historical research by approaching embodied memory, gestures, and ritual as systems for learning, storing, and transmitting cultural knowledge.
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Queer Performativity AS.363.346 (01)
Introduces students to the intersections of queer theory, performance studies, and LGBTQ history with a focus on “queer worldmaking:” the ways in which performances—both theatrical and everyday rituals—have the ability to establish alternative views of the world. Case studies include the ballroom scene in Baltimore and beyond, migratory street youth subcultures, and queer nightlife. This course also offers a unique lens on the archive and historical research by approaching embodied memory, gestures, and ritual as systems for learning, storing, and transmitting cultural knowledge.
Days/Times: TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM
Instructor: Plaster, Joseph
Room: Gilman 186
Status: Open
Seats Available: 3/13
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.363.353 (01)
Genealogy of Sexual Morals
MW 1:30PM - 2:45PM
Higgins, CJ
Gilman 77
Spring 2023
Apart from ethical questions about how we have sex, perhaps most familiar from the contemporary discourse on consent, there are questions of how ethical positions on sex have evolved over the course of history. Taking Nietzsche’s method in his Genealogy of Morals as our starting point, as well as Foucault’s application of this method in his History of Sexuality, we will then examine sexual taboos both past and present: gay sex, public sex, BDSM, pedophilia, bestiality, prostitution, digital sex, pornography, incest, and rape. Assignments include two 6-8 page papers and a short summary of readings due each week.
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Genealogy of Sexual Morals AS.363.353 (01)
Apart from ethical questions about how we have sex, perhaps most familiar from the contemporary discourse on consent, there are questions of how ethical positions on sex have evolved over the course of history. Taking Nietzsche’s method in his Genealogy of Morals as our starting point, as well as Foucault’s application of this method in his History of Sexuality, we will then examine sexual taboos both past and present: gay sex, public sex, BDSM, pedophilia, bestiality, prostitution, digital sex, pornography, incest, and rape. Assignments include two 6-8 page papers and a short summary of readings due each week.
Days/Times: MW 1:30PM - 2:45PM
Instructor: Higgins, CJ
Room: Gilman 77
Status: Open
Seats Available: 2/12
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.363.360 (01)
Popular Sexual Knowledge in the 20th Century: Sexology, Obscenity, Pornography
T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Giardini, Jo Aurelio
Maryland 217
Spring 2023
This seminar course will investigate three interconnected areas which shaped public understandings of sexuality in the 20th century: the scientific discipline of sexology and its popular publications; legal debates around obscenity and public morality; and the production of pornographic and erotic aesthetic material, including literature, photography, and film. How did these domains produce a shifting sense of sexual knowledge across the 20th century, and how was popular knowledge regulated, challenged, resisted, and subverted? Students will be introduced to historical and critical perspectives on these areas, and will cover areas of debate influenced by queer, feminist, trans, and labour oriented methods. We will study material related to the production of normative sexualities and their relationship to radicalization and class, the historical restriction of access to sexual knowledge, and the appropriation of pornographic aesthetics by experimental artists and writers, among other subjects. Sexological readings may include selections from Freud, the Kinsey Report, Masters & Johnson, John Money, Anne Fausto-Sterling, and Gayle Rubin, and time will be spent discussing research emerging from Johns Hopkins' Gender Identity Clinic (1965-1979). We will read several works which were subject to legal proceedings seeking to restrict their publication, including Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ and selections from James Joyces ‘Ulysses’. A variety of feminist and queer perspectives on erotic representation will be discussed in class, but students should be prepared to engage with materials which feature explicit scenes.
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Popular Sexual Knowledge in the 20th Century: Sexology, Obscenity, Pornography AS.363.360 (01)
This seminar course will investigate three interconnected areas which shaped public understandings of sexuality in the 20th century: the scientific discipline of sexology and its popular publications; legal debates around obscenity and public morality; and the production of pornographic and erotic aesthetic material, including literature, photography, and film. How did these domains produce a shifting sense of sexual knowledge across the 20th century, and how was popular knowledge regulated, challenged, resisted, and subverted? Students will be introduced to historical and critical perspectives on these areas, and will cover areas of debate influenced by queer, feminist, trans, and labour oriented methods. We will study material related to the production of normative sexualities and their relationship to radicalization and class, the historical restriction of access to sexual knowledge, and the appropriation of pornographic aesthetics by experimental artists and writers, among other subjects. Sexological readings may include selections from Freud, the Kinsey Report, Masters & Johnson, John Money, Anne Fausto-Sterling, and Gayle Rubin, and time will be spent discussing research emerging from Johns Hopkins' Gender Identity Clinic (1965-1979). We will read several works which were subject to legal proceedings seeking to restrict their publication, including Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ and selections from James Joyces ‘Ulysses’. A variety of feminist and queer perspectives on erotic representation will be discussed in class, but students should be prepared to engage with materials which feature explicit scenes.
Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Giardini, Jo Aurelio
Room: Maryland 217
Status: Open
Seats Available: 3/15
PosTag(s): MSCH-HUM
AS.389.420 (01)
Curatorial Seminar: Touch and Tactility in 20th century American art
Th 3:00PM - 5:30PM
Anderson, Virginia M.G.; Kingsley, Jennifer P
Greenhouse 113
Spring 2023
As part of an ongoing collaboration with the Baltimore Museum of Art, students are invited to contribute to a special exhibition about touch and tactility in 20th century American art. Research artists such as Jasper Johns, Yoko Ono, Betye Saar, Felix Gonzalex-Torres, create thematic installations, and conceptualize museum interpretation to activate the tactile dimensions of art.
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Curatorial Seminar: Touch and Tactility in 20th century American art AS.389.420 (01)
As part of an ongoing collaboration with the Baltimore Museum of Art, students are invited to contribute to a special exhibition about touch and tactility in 20th century American art. Research artists such as Jasper Johns, Yoko Ono, Betye Saar, Felix Gonzalex-Torres, create thematic installations, and conceptualize museum interpretation to activate the tactile dimensions of art.
Days/Times: Th 3:00PM - 5:30PM
Instructor: Anderson, Virginia M.G.; Kingsley, Jennifer P
