Museums and Society

Understand the institutions that preserve, interpret, and present natural, scientific, and material heritage.

The Museums and Society minor encourages you to explore questions central to the humanities through an investigation of material culture and the institutions that collect, preserve, interpret, and publicly display it. The program’s overarching goals are to promote museum literacy, or the skills necessary to be critical interpreters of these influential institutions; to inspire you to reflect on your major in new ways; and to enable you to be an active, informed member of the broader cultural community now and throughout your life. Many courses include visits to or focused work in local and regional institutions, including on-campus collections.

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CLASSES YOU MIGHT TAKE

The History of Fake News From the Flood to the Apocalypse

“Fake News” is everywhere in both past and present. Explore that history first-hand through Hopkins’ rare book collection of literary and historical forgeries spanning millennia of human history.

Conservation of Material Culture: Art, Artifacts and Heritage Sites

This course introduces the field of art conservation through the study of paintings, paper, books, objects, contemporary sculpture, and historic preservation. Topics covered include: methods of manufacture, agents of deterioration, preservation initiatives, conservation treatment and ethics, and conservation science.

Author/Canon/Archive

Why are some literary works from the past reprinted, anthologized, and considered worthy of study, but not others? Why are some works “lost” and some “rediscovered,” while others simply fall out of favor? Focusing on nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American literary culture, we’ll use rare books and archival materials from Hopkins’ collections to examine the relationship between authorship, stewardship, and status.

Faculty Spotlight

Prof. DANIEL WEISS

Homewood Professor of the Humanities

Image: Krieger Arts & Sciences Magazine

Art Historian Daniel Weiss Returns to Hopkins

Weiss, Krieger School dean from 2002 until 2005, most recently served as president and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Prof. Sanchita Balachandran

Director of the Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum, Associate Teaching Professor, Department of Classics

Image: Jennifer Mikes

Seeing Ancient Color

The class “Ancient Color: The Technologies and Meanings of Color in Antiquity” helps students look at what art may have looked like when it was made hundreds of years ago.

PROF. JENNIFER KINGSLEY

Associate Teaching Professor and Director, Museums and Society

BMA Exhibit Explores the Authority of African Mothers

The class “Ancient Color: The Technologies and Meanings of Color in Antiquity” helps students look at what art may have looked like when it was made hundreds of years ago.

Join the Club

Hopkins students are eager to pursue their interests outside the classroom. With 450+ student-led organizations, here are just a few you could join: