Humanities

Here, you won’t just take in knowledge. You’ll create it.

The humanities anchor on the study of arts, cultures, community, and the self as fundamental to understanding the human experience. Students who decide to pursue humanities here take advantage of being at the top-funded research institution to pursue ambitious scholarship—with access to resources like our Archaeological Museum, Film Centre, dedicated research labs, and humanities-focused research grants.

Humanities Research Spotlight

The Writers Room at Hopkins

Where budding scriptwriters learn that creating your next binge-watch is a team sport.

Students Trace Overlooked History in Sacred Places

The Hopkins course Researching the Africana Archive: Black Cemetery Stories brings together a community of scholars to discover, recover, and maintain Baltimore’s Black cemeteries.

A Forgotten Era of Filmmaking Finds a New Home at Hopkins

The Sheridan Libraries has acquired the Academic Film Archive of North America, an eclectic collection of more than 7,600 vintage 16-mm films.

How Public Humanities Programs Break Down Barriers

An emerging field, the public humanities is raising awareness about social justice issues and leading to meaningful collaborations between Johns Hopkins University and local communities.

Beinecke Scholarship Will Support Student's Study of Indigenous Art History

Kendra Brewer earns scholarship that funds graduate study in the arts, humanities, and social science.

An Interdisciplinary Approach

Through our flexible curriculum, our students are encouraged to deepen their interests and explore new ones. You’ll choose from courses across academic areas between our Krieger School of Arts & Sciences and our Whiting School of Engineering so you can expand your knowledge, dig deeper into topics that interest you, and discover connections at the intersection of disciplines.

HUMANITIES RESEARCH CLUSTERS

The most exciting topics in the humanities don’t always fit neatly into one academic department or discipline. Humanities Research Clusters are a way for students from different specialties to talk about big, multifaceted ideas in a productive and student-led environment.

EXPLORE HUMANITIES RESEARCH CLUSTERS

LEARN ALONGSIDE THE VERY BEST

Our BDP Summer Program offers Hopkins undergraduates the opportunity to work with one of our Bloomberg Distinguished Professors (BDPs) full-time for 10 weeks over the summer. The professors are all preeminent scholars whose work merges at least two traditional academic disciplines

LEARN MORE ABOUT BLOOMBERG DISTINGUISHED PROFESSORS

Majors and Minors

Majors

Minors

The humanities are not really about edification or seeing how resplendent the human spirit is, although that’s certainly part of it. It’s learning to be an effective citizen in dealing with information, with narratives; learning how to recognize when they’re true and when they’re false, learning how to compare them with other narratives of the same sort, and to make a decision about them.

MARK CHRISTIAN THOMPSON, Chair and Professor of English

Research Opportunities

As the #1 research university in the nation, we provide our undergraduates with resources and funding to pursue their ambitions.

The Alexander Grass Humanities Institute is a focal point for the 13 world-renowned humanities departments at Hopkins, and sponsors scholarly meetings, public events, student fellowships, and research projects.
Classics Research Lab is a research “laboratory” in which students can engage in direct, empirical research connected to the current work of the faculty member in charge.
The Office of Undergraduate Research, Scholarly & Creative Activity (URSCA) assists undergraduate students with creating, planning, and undertaking a hands-on research project.
Students across all fields of the humanities have the opportunity to share their work at our Richard Macksey National Undergraduate Humanities Research Symposium—the first and only national conference of its kind.
The Dean’s Undergraduate Research Awards (DURA) is available for undergraduates working on independent research projects that draw on primary source materials in the rare book, manuscript, and archival collections of the Sheridan Libraries.

The Krieger School of Arts & Sciences’ departments, programs, and centers often offer their own research awards or funding opportunities.

See What Our Humanities Alumni Are Up To

Sal Gentile ’08

Philosophy and Writing Seminars

Late Night Laughs

A pillow salesman isn’t exactly synonymous with “political pundit,” but in “A Closer Look,” a popular segment on NBC’s Late Night With Seth Meyers, it’s regular comedy gold. Off camera, the segment came together thanks to Sal Gentile, A&S ’08, who has been with the show since 2014.

Rachel Schnalzer ’15

English and Political Science

Traveling, Writing, and Finding a Career in Digital Media

Rachel Schnalzer ’15 is an editor at the Los Angeles Times, but has worked at Baltimore magazine, BuzzFeed, and more as a writer, producer, editor, and digital journalist.

Asma Naeem ’91

Art History and Political Science

Image by André Chung

Bringing Fairness Into Art History

As chief curator of the Baltimore Museum of Art, alum Asma Naeem thinks art can—and should—be used to tell a broader, more inclusive narrative of our shared history.

Lionel Foster ’02

Writing Seminars

Sharing His Love for Storytelling

Lionel Foster ’02 created the Baldwin Prize to spark a new generation of young writers at his high school alma mater, Baltimore City College.

Emma Needell ’12

Film and Media Studies

‘Life Rendered’ Is an Exploration of Inner Identity

Emma Needell ’12 is celebrating her directorial debut for her short film, Life Rendered, at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Join the Club

Hopkins students pursue their interests outside the classroom. If you’re fascinated by the humanities, you might consider getting involved in these student organizations.