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.

The Painting of Modern Life: From the Avant-garde to the Everyday
AS.010.238 (01)

This course offers an introduction to modern European painting. Our point of departure will be Charles Baudelaire’s famous essay, “The Painter of Modern Life” (1863) in which he suggests that painting must engage the tensions that inform everyday life, in all its novelty and banality. We will put this claim to the test by approaching a constellation of key works that unlock different aspects of modern life: freedom and alienation, labor and leisure, metropole and colony, art and life, and the troubled intersections of class, race, and gender. Rather than treating the works we look at as “masterpieces” emblematic of European modernity, we will consider how they contribute to a critique of the idea of Europe and the modern project. Works studied will range from Francisco Goya’s “The Third of May 1808, or ‘The Executions’” to Hannah Höch’s “Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany,” from Édouard Manet’s “Olympia” to Carolee Schneemann’s “Up to and Including Her Limits.”

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
  • Instructor: Schopp, Caroline Lillian
  • Room: Gilman 177
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 11/20
  • PosTag(s): HART-MODERN

Native American Art
AS.010.366 (01)

Visual arts are examined and discussed in their respective social and historical contexts.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times:
  • Instructor: Deleonardis, Lisa
  • Room:  
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 11/20
  • PosTag(s): ARCH-ARCH

Experiencing Medieval Art
AS.010.264 (01)

In the premodern world, the five senses were conceived as central to human perception. This course will explore the significance of the senses in the conception, creation, and reception of the visual art and architecture in the Middle Ages. Medieval objects and buildings were not only meant to be seen, but also to be experienced by touching, tasting, smelling, and hearing. They could elicit multisensory, often performative, or synesthetic responses in the viewers. Each week, we will focus on a specific sense and a related group of images, objects, or buildings to discover how medieval people experienced and interpreted them. To test out these ideas ourselves, we will explore works of art from the collections of Baltimore. Over the course of the semester, we will study sculptures, panel paintings, illuminated manuscripts, reliquaries, stained glass windows, rosaries, censers, spice containers, buildings, and ephemeral objects from Christian, Jewish, and Islamic art.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 3:00PM - 4:15PM
  • Instructor: Staff
  • Room: Gilman 217
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 8/15
  • PosTag(s): HART-MED

Introduction to Art History, Pre-1400
AS.010.101 (02)

This course explores world art and architecture before c. 1400 and introduces art historical concepts and approaches. Works of art from local collections, such as the Walters Art Museum and the Baltimore Museum of Art, as well as local monuments and architecture may be incorporated into the course. Lectures will be supported by weekly sections that will include museum visits, discussion of scholarly readings and primary sources, and exam reviews.

  • Credits: 4.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
  • Instructor: Stager, Jennifer M S
  • Room: Hodson 203
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 8/18
  • PosTag(s): n/a

An Empire’s Diversity: Ottoman Art and Architecture beyond the Imperial Court
AS.010.421 (01)

The established historiography of Ottoman architecture is dominated by the patronage of the sultans and their elites, particularly as it shaped the empire’s third and final capital, Istanbul. While this focus on the “center” and its leadership reflects the Ottoman state’s own hierarchical structure, it also obscures the larger network of places and people that enabled the imperial system to develop and acquire meaning in the first place. This course will explore Ottoman architecture and its patronage from the perspective of these neglected regions and actors, covering such examples as Christian vassal states along the empire’s European borders, Arab lands with existing traditions of Islamic art, the curious persistence of Gothic models in the former Crusader kingdom of Cyprus, and the distinctive architectural practices of non-Muslim minorities within Istanbul itself. Drawn primarily from the early modern and modern periods, our case studies will be treated not as imitations of or deviations from the metropolitan mainstream, but as vital expressions of Ottoman culture that assertively engaged with, and themselves contributed to, the better-known strategies of the sultan’s court. We will also go beyond issues of architecture and patronage and consider these buildings as lived spaces whose associated objects, furnishings, and social and ceremonial activities were no less constitutive of the empire’s diverse architectural landscape.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM
  • Instructor: Rustem, Unver
  • Room: Gilman 177
  • Status: Waitlist Only
  • Seats Available: 0/7
  • PosTag(s): HART-RENEM, INST-GLOBAL

FYS: Mosques, Museums, and the Mind’s Eye: Discovering Islamic Art in Person
AS.001.215 (01)

Despite its association with distant regions and time periods, Islamic art has a flourishing presence in today’s America, represented by rich museum collections, modern buildings designed in historical styles, and vibrant scholarly networks. This seminar explores how we, from the vantage point of twenty-first-century Baltimore, might experience works of Islamic art in ways that are informed by their own cultural contexts while also acknowledging the challenges involved in bridging this gap. We will spend much of the course engaging with objects and architecture in person, with visits planned to the recently reinstalled Islamic galleries at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, the Islamic Center of Washington, DC, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. You will be invited to handle artifacts in person and to try your hand at calligraphy, one of the most distinctive and esteemed Islamic artforms. In the classroom setting, we will read and discuss translations of primary sources written by historical practitioners and consumers of Islamic art, along with examples of modern scholarship that seek to understand the Islamic tradition from a variety of perspectives. As well as learning about such perspectives, you will be encouraged to develop and share—in presentations and written assignments—your own ideas about Islamic art, building on the close, firsthand encounters that run throughout the seminar.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
  • Instructor: Rustem, Unver
  • Room: Gilman 177
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 12/12
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Women, Gender, and Sexuality: An Introduction to the History of Chinese Art
AS.010.290 (01)

An introduction to Chinese Art, with a focus on the (often absence of) women, through the lens of gender and sexuality.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
  • Instructor: Liu, Yinxing
  • Room: Gilman 177
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 5/15
  • PosTag(s): INST-GLOBAL, HART-MODERN

Introduction to Printmaking before 1900: From the Workshop to the Museum
AS.010.370 (01)

This 300-level class will introduce the students to the cultural, theoretical, and technical history of printmaking. With emphasis placed on close object-based study, classes will be split between local collections, studios, and the classroom.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM
  • Instructor: Staff
  • Room: Gilman 177
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 12/15
  • PosTag(s): HART-RENBAR

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

The Antioch Recovery Project is an ongoing, iterative research lab course dedicated to the study of mosaics from the city of Antioch-on-the-Orontes and its surroundings (modern Antakya, Turkey). Led by principal investigator Jennifer Stager, ARP works in collaboration with a number of experts at Hopkins and in the Baltimore area, as well as with the global community of Antioch researchers to explore the mosaics across three distinct moments: ancient Antioch, the early 20th century excavations, and collection afterlives. No experience necessary.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
  • Instructor: Stager, Jennifer M S
  • Room: Gilman 77
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 4/12
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Humanities Research Lab: The Dutch Americas
AS.360.410 (01)

The Dutch East India Company, or VOC, is historically and art historically well documented and firmly understood. But the Dutch also had significant holdings to the west via the Dutch West India Company, or WIC. They operated and held outposts in the present-day United States (New York/New Amsterdam), Caribbean (Surinam, Curaçao, Bonaire), Latin America (Brazil), and West Africa. Despite the abundance of materials associated with the WIC from this wide geography, these have been scarcely assessed by art historians, and a defined and comprehensive corpus has never been assembled. This class will act as a research lab in which to do so. In research teams, students will map artworks and objects created from that broad, transnational cultural ambit—categories that might include maps, landscape paintings, still life paintings featuring American flora and fauna, botanical illustrations, plantation architecture, luxury objects made from precious raw materials gathered in the Americas, the urban environment of slavery—and develop individual research questions around them. The class will run with a partner lab in the form of a course led by Professor Stephanie Porras at Tulane University. The course will feature speakers; and there is potential for funded travel to conduct research. We will start at the ground level; no previous knowledge about the field is required. Students from all disciplines are welcome.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: M 1:30PM - 4:00PM
  • Instructor: Hyman, Aaron M.
  • Room: Gilman 277
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 2/8
  • PosTag(s): HART-RENEM

Introduction to Art History, Pre-1400
AS.010.101 (01)

This course explores world art and architecture before c. 1400 and introduces art historical concepts and approaches. Works of art from local collections, such as the Walters Art Museum and the Baltimore Museum of Art, as well as local monuments and architecture may be incorporated into the course. Lectures will be supported by weekly sections that will include museum visits, discussion of scholarly readings and primary sources, and exam reviews.

  • Credits: 4.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AM
  • Instructor: Stager, Jennifer M S
  • Room: Hodson 203
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 15/18
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Rembrandt
AS.010.256 (01)

Perhaps no artist has so captivated the art historical imagination as Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69). This course will provide students with an in-depth look at the artist’s life and work, but it will also use Rembrandt as a lens to examine critical themes/topics of artistic production in the Dutch Republic over the course of the seventeenth century. These topics will include: artistic training, studio practice, collecting and the art market, (self-)portraiture, authorship and artistic biography, genre, printmaking, technical mastery and meta-pictoriality, and global expansion/artistic exchange with non-European cultures.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
  • Instructor: Hyman, Aaron M.
  • Room: Gilman 177
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 7/19
  • PosTag(s): n/a

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

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

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
  • Instructor: Kingsley, Jennifer P
  • Room: Krieger 300
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 12/25
  • PosTag(s): HIST-EUROPE, ARCH-ARCH, PMUS-INTRO, MSCH-HUM, INST-GLOBAL

Museum Education for Today's Audiences
AS.389.341 (01)

Go behind the scenes of the Baltimore Museum of Art's Education Department and develop and implement programs for college students in conjunction with an exhibition about women and art in early modern Europe.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: F 1:30PM - 4:00PM
  • Instructor: Kingsley, Jennifer P
  • Room: Greenhouse 113
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 6/12
  • PosTag(s): PMUS-PRAC

What is in a Landscape
AS.010.468 (01)

This is a seminar on the histories and theories of the art of landscape as knowledge, medium, and contesting field of power and identity.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: M 1:30PM - 4:00PM
  • Instructor: Liu, Yinxing
  • Room: Gilman 177
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 2/7
  • PosTag(s): ARCH-RELATE

Quarried, Sculpted, Carved: Lifecycles of Mesoamerican Sculpture
AS.010.469 (01)

Stelae, altars, colossal heads, thrones, figures, lintels. This course considers how artists created these stone monuments in Mesoamerica, the historical region that encompasses Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras, and El Salvador. Sculptors meticulously carved stone blocks to shape and then scribes expertly incised their surfaces with hieroglyphic text or iconography. These stone monuments were then transported and moved into position, their physical placements structuring social hierarchy and mediating interactions with the divine. In reviewing recent literature within the fields of art history and material studies, we will explore the full cycle of production for monumental works of art.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: M 4:30PM - 7:00PM
  • Instructor: Popovici, Catherine H
  • Room: Gilman 177
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 4/15
  • PosTag(s): HART-ANC, ARCH-ARCH

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

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

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 4:30PM - 5:45PM
  • Instructor: Arnette, Marie-Lys
  • Room: Gilman 130G
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 3/15
  • PosTag(s): NEAS-ARTARC, ARCH-ARCH

Course # (Section) Title Day/Times Instructor Room PosTag(s) Info
AS.010.238 (01)The Painting of Modern Life: From the Avant-garde to the EverydayTTh 10:30AM - 11:45AMSchopp, Caroline LillianGilman 177HART-MODERN
AS.010.366 (01)Native American ArtDeleonardis, Lisa ARCH-ARCH
AS.010.264 (01)Experiencing Medieval ArtMW 3:00PM - 4:15PMStaffGilman 217HART-MED
AS.010.101 (02)Introduction to Art History, Pre-1400MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AMStager, Jennifer M SHodson 203
AS.010.421 (01)An Empire’s Diversity: Ottoman Art and Architecture beyond the Imperial CourtTh 1:30PM - 4:00PMRustem, UnverGilman 177HART-RENEM, INST-GLOBAL
AS.001.215 (01)FYS: Mosques, Museums, and the Mind’s Eye: Discovering Islamic Art in PersonW 1:30PM - 4:00PMRustem, UnverGilman 177
AS.010.290 (01)Women, Gender, and Sexuality: An Introduction to the History of Chinese ArtMW 12:00PM - 1:15PMLiu, YinxingGilman 177INST-GLOBAL, HART-MODERN
AS.010.370 (01)Introduction to Printmaking before 1900: From the Workshop to the MuseumTTh 9:00AM - 10:15AMStaffGilman 177HART-RENBAR
AS.010.444 (01)Classics/History of Art Research LabW 1:30PM - 4:00PMStager, Jennifer M SGilman 77
AS.360.410 (01)Humanities Research Lab: The Dutch AmericasM 1:30PM - 4:00PMHyman, Aaron M.Gilman 277HART-RENEM
AS.010.101 (01)Introduction to Art History, Pre-1400MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AMStager, Jennifer M SHodson 203
AS.010.256 (01)RembrandtTTh 12:00PM - 1:15PMHyman, Aaron M.Gilman 177
AS.389.201 (01)Introduction to the Museum: Past and PresentTTh 10:30AM - 11:45AMKingsley, Jennifer PKrieger 300HIST-EUROPE, ARCH-ARCH, PMUS-INTRO, MSCH-HUM, INST-GLOBAL
AS.389.341 (01)Museum Education for Today's AudiencesF 1:30PM - 4:00PMKingsley, Jennifer PGreenhouse 113PMUS-PRAC
AS.010.468 (01)What is in a LandscapeM 1:30PM - 4:00PMLiu, YinxingGilman 177ARCH-RELATE
AS.010.469 (01)Quarried, Sculpted, Carved: Lifecycles of Mesoamerican SculptureM 4:30PM - 7:00PMPopovici, Catherine HGilman 177HART-ANC, ARCH-ARCH
AS.130.153 (01)A (Virtual) Visit to the Louvre Museum: Introduction to the Material Culture of Ancient EgyptMW 4:30PM - 5:45PMArnette, Marie-LysGilman 130GNEAS-ARTARC, ARCH-ARCH