Undergraduate Courses

The courses listed below are provided by Student Information Services (SIS). This listing provides a snapshot of immediately available courses within this department and may not be complete. Course registration information can be found at https://sis.jhu.edu/classes/.

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

Column one has the course number and section. Other columns show the course title, days offered, instructor's name, room number, if the course is cross-referenced with another program, and a option to view additional course information in a pop-up window.

Course # (Section) Title Day/Times Instructor Room PosTag(s) Info

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.

Intro to History West Art
AS.010.101 (03)

A survey of painting, sculpture, and architecture from Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and medieval culture.

  • Credits: 4.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 6/12
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Intro to History West Art
AS.010.101 (04)

A survey of painting, sculpture, and architecture from Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and medieval culture.

  • Credits: 4.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 10/12
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Art of the Islamic World
AS.010.110 (01)

This course is an introduction to the art of the Islamic world, covering a geography that stretches from Spain to India and a chronology that extends from the seventh century into our own time. Within this rich and varied continuum, we will look at a range of art forms—including architecture, painting, sculpture, ceramics, and calligraphy—in relation to such themes as patronage, production, function, and audience. A number of the artworks will be viewed firsthand in local collections. We will also explore the intersection of Islamic art with today’s political realities.

  • Credits: 4.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 13/19
  • PosTag(s): ISLM-ISLMST

Intro to History West Art
AS.010.101 (01)

A survey of painting, sculpture, and architecture from Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and medieval culture.

  • Credits: 4.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 9/12
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Mirror Mirror: Reflections in Art from Van Eyck to Velázquez
AS.010.212 (01)

Explores the different ways Early Modern painters and printmakers incorporated mirrors and optical reflections into their works for the sake of illusion and metaphor, deception and desire, reflexivity and truth-telling. Connecting sense perception and ethical knowledge, embedded mirror images often made claims about the nature of the self, the powers of art, and the superiority of painting in particular.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 4/19
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Intro to History West Art
AS.010.101 (02)

A survey of painting, sculpture, and architecture from Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and medieval culture.

  • Credits: 4.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 6/12
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Freshman Seminar - Lower, Later, Farther Away: Roman Art Beyond the Center
AS.010.112 (01)

This course will introduce students to the art of the Roman world through art created by and for the Roman lower classes, art created in late antiquity, and art created in the far provinces of the empire. These topics represent a dramatic shift away from the traditional “center” of the study of Roman art (art created for the wealthy and politically privileged citizens of central Italy between the first century BCE and the first century CE), and are leading to new understanding of marginalized groups in the Roman world.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 14/15
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Art since 1945
AS.010.209 (01)

Critical survey of developments in the visual arts primarily in Europe and the United States from 1945 to the present, ranging from painting and sculpture to performance, photography, and video, with emphasis on the critical concepts and the aesthetic, social, and historical implications of new forms of artistic production and dissemination. Visits to the BMA and Special Collections.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Waitlist Only
  • Seats Available: 0/19
  • PosTag(s): HART-MODERN

Leonardo da Vinci: The Renaissance Workshop in the Formation of Scientific Knowledge
AS.010.208 (01)

How does a notary’s son trained as a painter come to claim expertise in the construction of machines and acquire knowledge of the principles of optics, human anatomy, the flight of birds, the dynamics of air and water? The course will focus critically on the myth of Leonardo’s singularity and explore his achievements with regard to the artisanal culture of his time, as well as the problems of authority in the recognition of artisanal knowledge as scientific discovery.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Waitlist Only
  • Seats Available: 0/19
  • PosTag(s): HART-RENBAR, MSCH-HUM

Art of the Islamic World
AS.010.110 (02)

This course is an introduction to the art of the Islamic world, covering a geography that stretches from Spain to India and a chronology that extends from the seventh century into our own time. Within this rich and varied continuum, we will look at a range of art forms—including architecture, painting, sculpture, ceramics, and calligraphy—in relation to such themes as patronage, production, function, and audience. A number of the artworks will be viewed firsthand in local collections. We will also explore the intersection of Islamic art with today’s political realities.

  • Credits: 4.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Canceled
  • Seats Available: 19/19
  • PosTag(s): ISLM-ISLMST

Freshman Seminar: Representing Roman Power: Sculpture as Political Rhetoric from Republic to Empire
AS.010.222 (01)

Rome created one of the world’s most powerful empires that dominated the Mediterranean from the 3rd century BCE into the 4th century CE. As Rome expanded its borders, its cities saw a proliferation of sculptural monuments that produced a visual political rhetoric and expressed imperial ideologies. This class examines the close relationship between Roman sculpture and politics from the Republic through the Severan principate. Through close visual analysis of the ancient materials and critical readings of scholarship, this course will examine the role of sculpture in the formation, reproduction, and attenuation of imperial rule.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 16/18
  • PosTag(s): HART-ANC

Diplomats, Dealers, and Diggers: The Birth of Archaeology and the Rise of Collecting from the 19th c. to Today
AS.010.307 (01)

The development of archaeology in the Middle East – its history of explorers, diplomats, missionaries and gentlemen-scholars – profoundly shaped the modern world, from the creation of new museums and the antiquities market to international relations and terrorism.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 9/19
  • PosTag(s): ARCH-ARCH

Medieval Art and Architecture of the Holy Land
AS.010.319 (01)

The course focuses on art and architecture in the political and religious contexts of the Middle East, from the 4th to the 14th c. The three monotheistic religions all claimed specific territories -- in particular the city of Jerusalem -- for cult practices. This situation resulted in military conflicts that had an impact of Jewish, Medieval, Byzantine, and Islamic art in the Holy Land. The political conflicts, which still plague the region today, are rooted in the complex situation of the medieval period. The Roman, Arab, Byzantine, and crusader invasions resulted however in exciting eclectic styles that characterize the art and architecture of the region. We will discuss concepts behind political and religious leadership, as they intersect with the power of the arts.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 17/19
  • PosTag(s): ISLM-ISLMST, HART-MED

Problems in Art of the Ancient Americas
AS.010.334 (01)

Following a historical narrative that traces the formation of princely collections in the sixteenth century, to the establishment of national museums in the nineteenth, this course surveys the acts of collecting, preserving, interpreting, and appropriating ancient American art. Draws on case studies from North America, Mesoamerica, and the Andes. Collections study in museums.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Canceled
  • Seats Available: 20/20
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Asia America: Art and Architecture
AS.010.327 (01)

This course examines a set of case studies spanning the last century that will enable us to explore the shifting landscape of Asian transnational art and architecture. Each week will focus on a different artist, group, exhibition, architect, urban space, or site to unpack artists’ and architects’ engagements with the changing landscape of immigration policies, movements to build solidarity with other artists of color, and campaigns for gender and sexual equality. The course will situate these artists within American art, and build an expansive idea of Asia America to include the discussion of artists whose work directly addresses the fluidity of location and the transnational studio practice.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 2/19
  • PosTag(s): HART-NW, HART-MODERN

Art of the Ancient Andes
AS.010.365 (01)

The ancient visual arts of Andean South America and their respective cultural contexts form the basis of this course. In conjunction with the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum students will have access to collections for study.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Waitlist Only
  • Seats Available: 0/25
  • PosTag(s): ARCH-ARCH

Challenge to Painting: Collage, Montage, Assemblage
AS.010.422 (01)

The invention of Cubist collage is generally regarded as a watershed in twentieth-century art. This seminar will examine key junctures in the rapid proliferation and redefinition of collage strategies primarily in Europe and the United States, including but not limited to Futurist “words in liberty”; Dada and Constructivist photomontage; the Surrealist exploration of desire; Situationist "détournement"; and selected varieties of postwar assemblage. Frequent meetings in Special Collections.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 5/8
  • PosTag(s): HART-MODERN

Arts of the Spanish Empire
AS.010.325 (01)

From the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, visual forms and practices linked such far-flung places as Mexico City and Naples, Manila and Lima, Cuzco and Antwerp, Quito and Madrid: all cities in the Spanish Empire. This course is conceived as a voyage, moving city by city to explore objects that connected Spain’s vast holdings. We will investigate how the Spanish Crown and the Catholic Church used visual strategies to consolidate political power and instill religious faith across the world; and, alternatively, we will consider how local conditions, concerns, and resistance reshaped those efforts. This course surveys a diverse range of artistic production: religious paintings and sculptures; maps used for imperial surveillance; luxury goods crafted from shimmering feathers, ceramics, ivory, and precious metals; urban design and architecture from the ports of Europe to the highland outposts of the Andes; ephemeral cityscapes for civic performances. In examining such materials, students will be introduced to the art historical methods and theoretical concerns used to study a wide diversity of objects within an imperial frame.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 16/19
  • PosTag(s): HART-RENBAR

Jade, Turquoise, Feathers, and Gold: Valued Materials in Aztec Art
AS.010.332 (01)

This seminar (which meets twice weekly) introduces students to the art of the Aztec Empire (1428-1521 CE) through the lens of the production of art from valued materials. The issue of value—how it is constructed, conceptualized, and deployed—provides key insights into the political, religious, economic, and conceptual life of a society. Throughout this course, we will examine these questions by focusing on the major themes of art’s social functions, materiality and artistic process, historicity, and cross-cultural exchange. Special emphasis will be placed on in-person examination of objects in local museum collections and the study of writings by indigenous authors.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 12/18
  • PosTag(s): HART-NW, ARCH-ARCH

Classics Research Lab: The Symonds Project
AS.040.420 (01)

This course gives participants a unique opportunity to engage directly in empirical research and its interpretation and dissemination. Topics vary. This semester’s offering is organized around a project to reconstruct digitally the library of the nineteenth-century writer John Addington Symonds, author of one of the first studies of ancient sexuality. No prerequisites, but potential students should contact instructor for permission to enroll.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Approval Required
  • Seats Available: 6/12
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Obsessed with the Past: the Art and Architecture of Medieval Rome
AS.010.431 (01)

In antiquity, Rome became the capital of an empire, its growing status reflected in its sophisticated urban planning, its architecture, and the arts. While an abundance of studies explores the revival of this glorious past in the Renaissance, this seminar discusses various ways of the reception of antiquity during the medieval period. We address the practice of using "spolia" in medieval architecture, the appropriation of ancient pagan buildings for the performance of Christian cult practices, the continuation of making (cult)images and their veneration, the meaning and specific visuality of Latin script (paleography and epigraphy) in later medieval art. We discuss the revival and systematic study of ancient knowledge (f. ex. medicine, astronomy, and the liberal arts), in complex allegorical murals. As we aim to reconstruct the art and architecture of medieval Rome, this course discusses ideas and concepts behind different forms of re-building and picturing the past, as they intersect with the self-referential character of a city that is obsessed with its own history.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 5/8
  • PosTag(s): HART-MED

Workshop in Object Analysis: Ancient Americas Collection
AS.010.390 (01)

Direct analysis of ancient Americas objects in the JHU Archaeology Museum to include methods and theory of description, classification, cataloging, exhibition.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 4/10
  • PosTag(s): HART-ANC, ARCH-ARCH

The Art of War and Peace in Ancient Mesopotamia
AS.130.219 (01)

Ancient Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, Syria, and Iran, is the “cradle of civilization.” It witnessed new inventions previously unknown to the ancient world: urban cities, writing systems, kingship, and empires. This course examines the close relationship between war and peace and art in ancient Mesopotamia (ancient Sumer, Babylonia, and Assyria) from 3500 to 539 BCE. During the semester students will be introduced to the art, architecture, and archaeology of ancient Mesopotamia. This course is aimed at students without a previous background in art historical or archaeological approaches to Mesopotamia, but more advanced students are welcome.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 14/18
  • PosTag(s): NEAS-ARTARC, ARCH-ARCH

Art and Colonialism: Nineteenth-century India
AS.010.424 (01)

This seminar explores the technologies of colonial power, from small ephemeral watercolor images of religious processions to massive multi-volume photographic projects documenting the “people of India,” and extending to the establishment of new urban and architectural spaces, archaeological museums, and art schools, the circulation of diplomatic art collections, and the commissioning of survey data. We will engage with the anti-colonial movements of resistance and uprising that took place across this century, examining the central participation of modern artists with these political movements, and explore the way this period fundamentally shaped the foundations for the study of South Asian art and archaeology. Readings will include colonial and postcolonial theory, Orientalism, historiography; we will be actively working with materials in the library’s Special Collections.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 8/10
  • PosTag(s): HART-NW, HART-MODERN

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. Cross-listed with History and History of Art.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 17/30
  • PosTag(s): HIST-EUROPE, ARCH-ARCH

Reading through Things: Early Modern Chinese Medicine, Technology, and Art
AS.100.331 (01)

This course introduces the history of late imperial China from the perspective of medicine, technology, and the arts.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 3/18
  • PosTag(s): HIST-ASIA, INST-GLOBAL

Course # (Section) Title Day/Times Instructor Room PosTag(s) Info
AS.010.101 (03)Intro to History West ArtMW 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PMStager, Jennifer M SHodson 311
AS.010.101 (04)Intro to History West ArtMW 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PMStager, Jennifer M SHodson 311
AS.010.110 (01)Art of the Islamic WorldTTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 1:00PM - 1:50PMRustem, UnverGilman 55ISLM-ISLMST
AS.010.101 (01)Intro to History West ArtMW 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AMStager, Jennifer M SHodson 311
AS.010.212 (01)Mirror Mirror: Reflections in Art from Van Eyck to VelázquezTTh 12:00PM - 1:15PMMerback, MitchellGilman 177
AS.010.101 (02)Intro to History West ArtMW 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AMStager, Jennifer M SHodson 311
AS.010.112 (01)Freshman Seminar - Lower, Later, Farther Away: Roman Art Beyond the CenterTTh 4:30PM - 5:45PMBevis, Elizabeth AllisonBloomberg 168
AS.010.209 (01)Art since 1945TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AMWarnock, MollyGilman 119HART-MODERN
AS.010.208 (01)Leonardo da Vinci: The Renaissance Workshop in the Formation of Scientific KnowledgeTTh 1:30PM - 2:45PMCampbell, StephenGilman 119HART-RENBAR, MSCH-HUM
AS.010.110 (02)Art of the Islamic WorldTTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 2:00PM - 2:50PMRustem, UnverGilman 55ISLM-ISLMST
AS.010.222 (01)Freshman Seminar: Representing Roman Power: Sculpture as Political Rhetoric from Republic to EmpireMW 3:00PM - 4:15PMMiranda, Amy ChristineHodson 315HART-ANC
AS.010.307 (01)Diplomats, Dealers, and Diggers: The Birth of Archaeology and the Rise of Collecting from the 19th c. to TodayMW 1:30PM - 2:45PMFeldman, MarianGilman 119ARCH-ARCH
AS.010.319 (01)Medieval Art and Architecture of the Holy LandMW 12:00PM - 1:15PMZchomelidse, NinoGilman 177ISLM-ISLMST, HART-MED
AS.010.334 (01)Problems in Art of the Ancient AmericasTTh 3:00PM - 4:15PMStaff 
AS.010.327 (01)Asia America: Art and ArchitectureMW 12:00PM - 1:15PMBrown, Rebecca MaryGilman 119HART-NW, HART-MODERN
AS.010.365 (01)Art of the Ancient AndesTTh 10:30AM - 11:45AMDeleonardis, LisaHodson 216ARCH-ARCH
AS.010.422 (01)Challenge to Painting: Collage, Montage, AssemblageT 3:00PM - 5:30PMWarnock, MollyGilman 177HART-MODERN
AS.010.325 (01)Arts of the Spanish EmpireMW 3:00PM - 4:15PMHyman, Aaron M.Gilman 119HART-RENBAR
AS.010.332 (01)Jade, Turquoise, Feathers, and Gold: Valued Materials in Aztec ArtTTh 3:00PM - 4:15PMCaplan, Allison NGilman 119HART-NW, ARCH-ARCH
AS.040.420 (01)Classics Research Lab: The Symonds ProjectTTh 3:00PM - 4:15PMButler, Michael Shane, Dean, GabrielleGilman 108
AS.010.431 (01)Obsessed with the Past: the Art and Architecture of Medieval RomeM 4:00PM - 6:30PMZchomelidse, NinoGilman 177HART-MED
AS.010.390 (01)Workshop in Object Analysis: Ancient Americas CollectionTTh 1:30PM - 2:45PMDeleonardis, LisaGilman 150AHART-ANC, ARCH-ARCH
AS.130.219 (01)The Art of War and Peace in Ancient MesopotamiaMW 4:30PM - 5:45PMTaylor, Avary KathrynGilman 219NEAS-ARTARC, ARCH-ARCH
AS.010.424 (01)Art and Colonialism: Nineteenth-century IndiaM 1:30PM - 4:00PMBrown, Rebecca MaryGilman 177HART-NW, HART-MODERN
AS.389.201 (01)Introduction to the Museum: Past and PresentTTh 12:00PM - 1:15PMKingsley, Jennifer PShriver Hall 104HIST-EUROPE, ARCH-ARCH
AS.100.331 (01)Reading through Things: Early Modern Chinese Medicine, Technology, and ArtTTh 9:00AM - 10:15AMJi, XiaoqianGilman 413HIST-ASIA, INST-GLOBAL