Explore the interrelationships between identities, institutions, migration, and displacement.
Critical Diaspora Studies (CDS) is the newest undergraduate major at Johns Hopkins University. A group of undergraduate Hopkins student activists envisioned and designed this unique program while pushing for curricular change to meet the challenges of the present moment.
The CDS major examines the intersections among geographical and cultural areas of study that are often considered separately—such as Asian-American, African diaspora, Indigenous, and Latinx studies. It looks at topics related to diasporic communities and their migrations by comparing different examples, bringing together ideas from various areas around the globe, and focusing on how the insights can be used in real-world applications.
Offered through the Chloe Center for the Critical Study of Racism, Immigration, and Colonialism, this major emphasizes community-engaged research and internships with partners in Baltimore, deepening relationships between students and the city. Students will choose from courses in these tracks: Migration and Borders; Global Indigeneities; Empires, Wars, and Carceralities; and Social Movements, Solidarities, and Citizenship.
This course examines the politics of memory: how power shapes what is available to be remembered, the timing and occasions of memory, who is allowed to remember, and the spaces inside of which remembrance takes place.
History Research Lab: Asian Diaspora in Baltimore
In this class, you’ll help build a set of digital and visual resources on local histories of Baltimore-area Asian diasporic communities. You’ll be trained in research and curatorial tools, such as critical oral history and digital storytelling, and collaborate with local community organizations.
The Trouble With Diversity
This course considers the history of “diversity” and how that concept has been institutionalized in employment, government, and educational settings. Through historical and cultural texts, we’ll cover topics from the arrival of “colorblindness” in the 1890s to the most recent approaches to “Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion.”
Faculty Spotlight
PROF. H. YUMI KIM
Assistant Professor, Department of History
The Asian Diaspora in Baltimore, Documented and Described
History Research Lab: Asian Diaspora in Baltimore, taught by Dr. H. Yumi Kim, represents the meeting of the political inquiries of the organization Critical Responses to Anti-Asian Violence and the student energy behind the push for new curricular offerings that better address the complex and intersecting identities of the increasingly diverse student body.
Address economic challenges across social, cultural, and political contexts.
The moral and political economy major encourages you to think across disciplines to come up with new and integrated approaches to ongoing societal issues. You’ll choose from a number of focus tracks based on a crucial problem, or propose an original focus track tailored to your specific interests.
This course is an intensive introduction to writings that put economic life in its historical, political, ethical, and philosophical contexts.
Research Lab
This class will serve as a venue for you to pursue research projects of your own design. Each seminar will be focused on a loosely defined theme, providing structure, deadlines, and a support system for independent research.
Elements of Macroeconomics
In this introduction to the economic system and economic analysis, you’ll study topics like total national income and output, employment, the price level and inflation, money, the government budget, the national debt, and interest rates.
Faculty Spotlight
PROF. STEVEN TELES
SNF Agora Institute Professor of Political Science
Johns Hopkins receives major funding for new multidisciplinary Center for Economy and Society
The center, part of the university’s SNF Agora Institute, will be dedicated to reimagining the relationships among markets, governments, and citizens.
Empowering students from all areas of study to be engaged global citizens.
What does it take for people to engage productively as informed, skilled, and effective members of democratic communities and the world? The area of civic studies examines why such skills are foundational to making liberal democracy work in pluralistic societies, how such capacities can be nurtured, and the historical and contemporary struggles to realize these principles. It is an applied and interdisciplinary field, incorporating critical reflection, ethical thinking, empirical understanding, historical perspectives, and action for social change within and between societies.
The aim is to equip students with the skills and motivation they need to engage productively in civic life, no matter where they live, or what they do.
Hahrie Han, Inaugural director of the SNF Agora Institute
CLASSES YOU MIGHT TAKE
Introduction to Civic Life
This course introduces the theory and principles of civic life and the rights and responsibilities of active citizenship. We’ll examine the history of and struggles for freedom, inclusion, and civic participation; the role of information, deliberation, and free expression in the public sphere; and the threats and opportunities for global democracy.
Civic Life Seminar
This seminar builds on the foundational questions of civic life discussed in “Introduction to Civic Life” coursewith a heavier emphasis on action: developing and practicing skills that are needed for active citizenship. Students will become well-versed in principles of collective action, communication, and the science of collaboration.
Science and Democracy
What role does scientific expertise play (or not play) in American democracy? And shat role should it play (or not play)? These are the key questions we’ll address in this class, focusing on a wide range of examples such as government responses to public health crises, environmental crises, and war.
Faculty Spotlight
PROF. LILLIANA MASON
Associate Professor of Political Science, SNF Agora Institute
PROF. CONSEULO AMAT
Assistant Professor of Political Science, SNF Agora Institute
SNF Agora Hosts Symposium on Mental Health and Democratic Agency
Experts from Hopkins led explorations of the relationship between mental well-being and democracy at a symposium in Athens.
Prepare for and compete within an expanding marketplace.
The Accounting & Financial Management program prepares students for careers in small companies, major corporations, and consultancies as well as acceptance into graduate programs in accountancy.
Students in all disciplines can complement their major fields of study with this minor. It’s not only relevant if you plan to seek employment but also critical if you plan to attend graduate programs in accounting immediately after completing your undergraduate studies.
This course is designed as an overview of three broad categories: the economic, financial, and corporate context of business activities; the organization and management of firms and organizations; and the marketing and production of goods and services.
Identifying and Capturing Markets
You’ll learn how to identify individual and organizational market needs through entrepreneurial thinking. Exposure to a broad range of organizations—from startups to a variety of industry sectors—will provide insight into the role that marketing plays in an organization’s ability to identify, capture and grow these markets.
Corporate Finance
In this introduction to the financial management of a corporation, you’ll study the following questions: How should a firm decide whether to invest in a new project? How much debt and equity should a firm use to finance its activities? How should a firm pay its investors? How do taxes affect a firm’s investment and financing decisions? What determines the value of a firm?
Faculty Spotlight
JOSHUA REITER
Senior Lecturer, Center for Leadership Education
Students learn how to turn their great ideas into viable business ventures
Course participants develop and pitch ideas in health care, biotech, and wearable technology.
The second-oldest creative writing program in the U.S.
The Writing Seminars program offers a liberal arts education with a concentration in writing. In addition to fiction and poetry, you’ll study literature, philosophy, and history in other departments and demonstrate competency in a foreign language. You’ll compose a portfolio of original writing that not only meets the standards for application to MFA programs, but also serves as the foundation for careers in communication, law, teaching, or other fields where success is a function of skills in close analysis conveyed through lucid and intelligent writing.
In this class, we’ll look exclusively at writing which takes on what hasn’t been seen, and hasn’t been felt. Through reading works of science fiction, magical realism, gothic literature, and speculative fiction, you’ll investigate how the unreal can still speak to our experiences and perceptions of the real and craft your own fantastical worlds through regular writing assignments.
Art of the Personal Essay
This course explores the art and craft of the personal essay from Seneca to Soyinka, Montaigne to Adichie. Through personal narrative exploration, we’ll write about universal themes—family, loss, social justice—through various nonfiction essay forms, such as the braided essay, lyric essay, science essay, or humor essay.
Performing Poetry & Fiction: An Acting Workshop for Writers
This hands-on performance workshop, combining literary and theatrical practice, will look closely at what makes a performance or reading compelling, clear, and resonant. Through textual analysis, vocal technique, and group discussion, you’ll create a pliant and powerful reading style to best serve your work.
Faculty Spotlight
Prof. Danielle Evans
Associate Professor, Writing Seminars
Image: Krieger Arts & Sciences Magazine
Ask the Professor: Danielle Evans
Associate Professor Danielle Evans chats about her writing process and how she drafts her stories.
Poet Andrew Motion doesn’t care for poems that are “too tidy for their own good.” Rather, he wants them to “imitate the mystery and unpredictability of life.”
Catalyze intellectual discussions in which gender and sexuality concerns play important roles.
Join students and faculty from different departments who share an interest and need to address and interrogate their research fields from a queer, feminist, or otherwise gender- and sexuality-inflected perspective. This program encourages and supports initiatives for research projects, events, guest speakers, and curriculum developments emerging from all parts of campus. In our Seminar/Practicum, you can even combine volunteer work in a local social service agency with a seminar that explores the connections between social justice and academic inquiry.
Feminist and Queer Theory: Race, Class, Gender, Sexuality-Intersectional Feminist Theory
We’ll get to know intersectional feminist philosophy through the lens of a Black feminist epistemology, meaning we’ll focus on how the contributions of Black feminist authors can bring out the specific political and philosophical nature of an intersectional theoretical framework.
Gender Justice: From Conflict to Resolution
This course focuses on the potential and limitations of the recent efforts of the international community to introduce a “gendered approach” to conflict resolution, peacebuilding and transitional justice. It examines the fundamental theoretical issues that underlie the “gendered approach” to transitional justice by following the evolution of the gendered approach to peacebuilding through case studies.
Ecofeminist Debates: Gender and Sexuality Beyond the Global West
This course develops an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to introduce ecofeminism through a special focus on its inflections in non-western contexts. Through class discussions and sustained writing engagement, we’ll develop an understanding of the history of ecofeminism, including theoretical debates linking gender perspectives with political mobilization, as well as ecofeminism’s enduring influence on new intellectual and political movements.
Faculty Spotlight
Jeannine Heynes
Director of Women and Gender Resources
Conference Focuses on Mental Health, Well-Being of Women of Color
Networking event brings together current and former students, faculty, and staff to share their experiences with mental health and discuss ways to promote well-being.
Examine art through contemporary and historical perspectives.
With classes like drawing, painting, jewelry, Screenprinting, digital photography, fiber art, mixed media, and a range of special topics courses, you can develop your skills and examine art through contemporary and historical perspectives. Our Center for the Visual Arts hosts different exhibits, conversations with visiting artists, and connects you with study abroad programs so you can be exposed to art of all forms and cultures.
The fabric of the universe, a wrinkle in time and space—our physical universe is frequently described through fiber metaphors. Fiber processes are algorithmic. They grow exponentially, they fold, they tear, they wrinkle. These processes function as a pliable plane that can be bent, stretched, and turned inside out. This course offers students an opportunity to explore fiber processes through this sculptural lens. Topics include knitting, crochet, basketry, and lace as they come together to form sculptural armatures and objects. Together we will explore the physical properties of fiber and textiles and how they take up space and function in our world.
Introduction to Jewelry and Small Metals
This course will provide students with the basic skills needed to design and fabricate their own jewelry and/or small sculptures. Offered at the Baltimore Jewelry Center, a metal and jewelry makers-space, this class will cover piercing, filing, finishing, fabricating, soldering, forming, basic stone setting, and basic embellishment techniques as well as simple clasps. Designed for beginning sculpture, metals, or jewelry students, the projects may include a pierced pendant or brooch, a hollow constructed ring, a linked bracelet or necklace with clasp, and a bezel-set pendant or brooch. Students will become familiar with the safety, use, and maintenance of studio equipment and hand tools. No prior experience is required.
Oil Painting
This course is designed as an introduction to the tools, techniques, and concepts of basic painting for the serious student. Studio assignments focus on developing strong observation and rendering skills focusing on issues of light, color, and composition while experimenting with traditional and contemporary practices in painting. Lectures and a museum trip give students an art historical context in which they place their own discoveries as beginning painters. Oil paint will be used. No previous experience is necessary.
Faculty Spotlight
JOHN STECK JR.
Senior Lecturer and Photography Coordinator, Center for Visual Arts
A Silver Memory
On view at Moreau Gallery, John Steck Jr., a visual artist and educator in Baltimore, MD, uses light-sensitive emulsions to create photographs that fade and form over time. Steck Jr., a maker of photographic images and ephemeral objects, addresses our complex relationship with time, memory, and impermanence in his upcoming solo exhibition. This exhibition will be held at the Moreau Center for the Arts at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, IN through September 26, 2024.
Steck has exhibited across twenty states and five countries. His most recent solo exhibition, In the Shadow of the Bloom, was at the Hartman Gallery at Bradley University, in Peoria, IL. In the summer of 2023, he exhibited and presented at Yamaguchi University in Japan as part of Time and Measure, the 18th Triennial Conference for the International Society for the Study of Time. He has been included in over fifty publications, including a feature in Art21 Magazine as part of an article on the ephemeral nature of art. Steck has also attended artist residencies in Iceland, Ireland, Canada, and throughout the States. In 2016 he received a Fellowship Award from the Vermont Studio Center and in 2018 was a recipient of the IAP grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs.
Trusting the Process at the Center for Visual Arts
For almost half a century, the Johns Hopkins Center for Visual Arts (CVA) has offered students a kind of learning not typically found in labs, archives, or lecture halls.
Create performances of credibility, power, imagination, and spontaneity.
The theatre arts and studies minor offers a comprehensive approach to acting, directing, and playwriting, along with the fundamentals of technical direction, play production, play analysis, theatre management, and theatre history.
For those who seek careers in the arts, the acting and directing workshops, playwriting courses, and independent study opportunities provide rigorous training in acting and other theatre crafts, as well as an appreciation for and an understanding of the history of dramatic arts, its cultural significance, and the industries it has produced. Even if you aren’t pursuing a career in theatre arts, our courses offer a broader perspective and an understanding of societal traditions and culture that can be applied in any field.
Feminist and Queer Theory: Race, Class, Gender, Sexuality-Intersectional Feminist Theory
We’ll get to know intersectional feminist philosophy through the lens of a Black feminist epistemology, meaning we’ll focus on how the contributions of Black feminist authors can bring out the specific political and philosophical nature of an intersectional theoretical framework.
Gender Justice: From Conflict to Resolution
This course focuses on the potential and limitations of the recent efforts of the international community to introduce a “gendered approach” to conflict resolution, peacebuilding and transitional justice. It examines the fundamental theoretical issues that underlie the “gendered approach” to transitional justice by following the evolution of the gendered approach to peacebuilding through case studies.
Ecofeminist Debates: Gender and Sexuality Beyond the Global West
This course develops an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to introduce ecofeminism through a special focus on its inflections in non-western contexts. Through class discussions and sustained writing engagement, we’ll develop an understanding of the history of ecofeminism, including theoretical debates linking gender perspectives with political mobilization, as well as ecofeminism’s enduring influence on new intellectual and political movements.
Faculty Spotlight
Jeannine Heynes
Director of Women and Gender Resources
Conference Focuses on Mental Health, Well-Being of Women of Color
Networking event brings together current and former students, faculty, and staff to share their experiences with mental health and discuss ways to promote well-being.
Venturing beyond the confines of traditional engineering coursework.
Systems engineering is trans-disciplinary and collaborative, connecting mathematics, engineering, social and physical sciences, and medicine. This program provides the tools required to envision solutions to big-picture problems in a range of applications. You’ll gain significant experience in collaborative problem solving that will serve you in a broad range of careers, including those related to future energy infrastructure, smart cities, decision-making in healthcare, data mining and decision making, and cybersecurity of infrastructure.
Solving the challenges our society faces—resilient cities, human safety and security, decision-making and healthcare, energy infrastructure, and space exploration and habitation, among others—will require an interdisciplinary approach. This course will look to the past, studying the engineering solutions developed by ancient civilizations, and at the current state of affairs, in preparation for designing solutions to the grand challenges of the future.
Intro to Mathematical Decision Making
This first course in mathematical decision-making and optimization uses quantitative approaches to problem solving. We introduce mathematical modeling and its formulations, solutions methods, output analysis, and hands-on solution techniques.
Natural Disaster Risk Modeling
This course will introduce the student to disaster risk modeling process, including: structure of catastrophe models and uses in loss estimation and mitigation, study and modeling of hazards (esp. hurricanes and earthquakes; also flood, landslide, and volcanic), vulnerability assessment including simulation of building damage, and estimation of post-disaster injuries and casualties.
Faculty Spotlight
PROF. YURY DVORKIN
Associate Research Professor, Department of Civil and Systems Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Yury Dvorkin Discusses Inflation Reduction Act’s Effect on Renewable Energy
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is considered by many to be the largest investment in the fight against climate change ever made by the federal government.
With a wide range of courses from introductory through conversation and composition to civilization, you’ll improve your language skills while developing the ability to interpret historical, political, and social contexts. Our literature programs use both historical and critical-theoretical perspectives and emphasize the close reading of texts and modern theories of literary criticism, particularly those based on contemporary philosophy, psychoanalysis, anthropology, and linguistics. As a Spanish minor, you’ll be able to gain a truly immersive experience through internship opportunities, where you’ll receive credit for work done outside the university through the Community Based Learning–Spanish Language Practicum course, and opportunities to study abroad and do research.
Feminist and Queer Theory: Race, Class, Gender, Sexuality-Intersectional Feminist Theory
We’ll get to know intersectional feminist philosophy through the lens of a Black feminist epistemology, meaning we’ll focus on how the contributions of Black feminist authors can bring out the specific political and philosophical nature of an intersectional theoretical framework.
Gender Justice: From Conflict to Resolution
This course focuses on the potential and limitations of the recent efforts of the international community to introduce a “gendered approach” to conflict resolution, peacebuilding and transitional justice. It examines the fundamental theoretical issues that underlie the “gendered approach” to transitional justice by following the evolution of the gendered approach to peacebuilding through case studies.
Ecofeminist Debates: Gender and Sexuality Beyond the Global West
This course develops an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to introduce ecofeminism through a special focus on its inflections in non-western contexts. Through class discussions and sustained writing engagement, we’ll develop an understanding of the history of ecofeminism, including theoretical debates linking gender perspectives with political mobilization, as well as ecofeminism’s enduring influence on new intellectual and political movements.
Faculty Spotlight
Jeannine Heynes
Director of Women and Gender Resources
Conference Focuses on Mental Health, Well-Being of Women of Color
Networking event brings together current and former students, faculty, and staff to share their experiences with mental health and discuss ways to promote well-being.
