Courses

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.

Existentialism in Literature and Philosophy
AS.213.374 (01)

This course explores the themes of existentialism, including the meaning of existence, the nature of the self, authenticity and inauthenticity, the inescapability of death, the experience of time, anxiety, freedom and responsibility to others, in literary and philosophical works. It will be examined why these philosophical ideas often seem to demand literary expression, or bear a close relation to literary works. Readings may include writings by Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Tolstoy, Heidegger, Rilke, Kafka, Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Camus, among others. Course will be taught by the Kurrelmeyer Chair in German. Taught in English.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 1/15
  • PosTag(s): GRLL-ENGL

Imagining Revolution and Utopia
AS.300.312 (01)

What form should revolution take, and what should society look like after the revolution? What would happen to the state, family, home, status of women, human interrelations, and everyday life? These questions consumed radicals in 19th century Russia and Europe, and their answers helped to shape the political culture of the 20th century. This course examines theories of revolution and utopia and responses to them in literature, art and film. Primary case study is Russia and the Soviet Union, with a comparative look at influential European works.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 13/18
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Maintaining Social Order: Elements of Conservative Political Philosophy and its Critics
AS.300.313 (01)

The seminar will discuss (primarily German) political philosophy of a broadly "conservative" orientation in relation to three key periods of social and political upheaval: the Reformation, the French Revolution, and the crisis of parliamentary democracy in the Weimar Republic. Readings from these periods of European history will be approached under the common heading of "conservatism" for their shared preoccupation with how traditional sources of social unity are to be replaced following times of dramatic change and conflict. We will explore why different political crises have always led philosophers to reiterate the fundamental question of what binds political communities together. This preoccupation distinguishes the philosophical currents of conservative thought surveyed in this course from other, more familiar conservatisms with purely reactionary agendas that reassert the superiority of a particular religion, culture, or ethnic group, the rule of elites, or the dismantling of the state in favor of free market forces. Each section on conservative thought will conclude with the most relevant critiques from Leftist political opponents. Readings include Hobbes, Burke, de Maistre, Herder, Hegel, Nietzsche, Schmitt, Kant, Marx, Marcuse.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 17/18
  • PosTag(s): INST-PT

Novelist Intellectuals
AS.215.406 (01)

What does a novelist’s op-ed about economics have to do with her literary writing? In what ways does a fiction writer’s essays on the environment inform how we read her novels? What happens when we find the political opinions of a writer objectionable? This undergraduate seminar will consider what the Spanish writer Francisco Ayala termed “novelist intellectuals,” that is, literary writers who actively participate in a society’s public sphere. Considering writers from Madrid to New York, from London to Buenos Aires, we will ask how one should hold a novelist’s fictional and non-fictional writings in the balance and explore ways of reading that allow us to consider the public intellectual side and the aesthetic side of a novelist together.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 13/18
  • PosTag(s): GRLL-ENGL

Introduction to Intellectual History
AS.300.311 (01)

This course offers a conceptual and historical introduction to Intellectual History. What makes the “history of ideas” different from the history of other objects? What, if anything, distinguishes the history of ideas from the history of philosophy? What is it exactly that we call “ideas”? In what sense do they have a history? These are examples of the kind of questions addressed in the course.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 13/25
  • PosTag(s): INST-PT

Berlin Between the Wars: Literature, Art, Music, Film
AS.211.328 (01)

Explore the diverse culture of Berlin during the heyday of modernism. During the Weimar Republic, Berlin became a center for theater, visual arts, film, music, and literature that would have an outsize impact on culture throughout the world and the twentieth century. The thinkers, artists, and writers drawn to interwar Berlin produced a body of work that encapsulates many of the issues of the period: the effect of the modern city on society; “the New Woman”; socialist revolutionary politics; the rise of the Nazis; and economic turmoil. While learning about interwar Berlin's cultural diversity, we will take a special look at works by Jewish writers and artists that engage with the question of ethnic, religious, and national identity in the modern world, specifically in the context of Berlin’s rich Jewish history and the rise of anti-Semitism in the interwar period. All readings will be in translation.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 4/15
  • PosTag(s): GRLL-ENGL, GRLL-GERM, INST-GLOBAL

Abstraction
AS.010.203 (01)

This course will examine the elaboration and dissemination of major iterations of “abstract” art at key junctures throughout the twentieth century, with an emphasis primarily on developments in Europe and the Americas. Why abstraction? What were the formal, social, and philosophical stakes of divergent models and paradigms of abstract practice? And what difference do they make in the history and theory of artistic modernism? Class visits to the BMA and Special Collections.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Waitlist Only
  • Seats Available: 0/20
  • PosTag(s): HART-MODERN

The ‘Long Sixties’ in Europe
AS.010.310 (01)

This seminar examines aspects of advanced artistic production that emerged in France, Italy, the Benelux, and German-speaking countries primarily in the years 1945-1972 as constituent elements of the “Long Sixties,” a period of extraordinary and often rapid social transformation. Among our questions: How was the work of art reimagined and repositioned in the wake of World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust, in the context of reconstruction and an emerging consumer society, and in light of the Cold War, decolonization, and other political tensions and cataclysms? How did artists conceive the claims of artistic tradition in a rapidly expanding field of aesthetic practices and possibilities? What were the relations among advanced artistic practices and the “cultural revolutions” generally taken to have come to a head ca. 1968? Integral to this course is a student-curated exhibition of avant-garde materials at the MSE Library, to open in November 2018.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Closed
  • Seats Available: 4/10
  • PosTag(s): HART-MODERN

Freshman Seminar: Babblers, Mumblers & Howlers: Languages of Modernist Fiction: Freshman Seminar
AS.300.219 (01)

Does literature represent reality or create it? Is language just a tool we use to communicate, or is it shaped by our culture, or indeed, is our culture—and even our own experiences—shaped by our language? Modernist writers at the turn of the 20th century grappled with these questions, concerned that literature and in fact language itself was ill-equipped to face the changes occurring at the beginning of a new era of modernity. From symbolist and sound poetry to innovations in stream of consciousness narration and non-syntactic fragmentation, the literature of the time reflected a receding faith in the ability for ordinary spoken language to communicate feeling, meaning, and the authentic self. The task of modernism in turn became the reinvention of a new literary language that could either capture this condition of crisis or seek to overcome it. This course will investigate the various responses and solutions to the crisis of language in Anglo-American and European modernist fiction. Authors to be studied: Virginia Woolf, Andrei Bely, Franz Kafka, Jean Toomer, Filippo Marinetti, Andrei Platonov, Mikhail Bakhtin, Yuri Olesha, et al. All readings will be in English.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 10/15
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Ancient Greek Mythology: Art, Narratives, and Modern Mythmaking
AS.040.121 (01)

This course focuses on major and often intricate myths and mythical patterns of thought as they are reflected in compelling ancient visual and textual narratives. Being one of the greatest treasure troves of the ancient world, these myths will further be considered in light of their rich reception in the medieval and modern world (including their reception in the modern fields of anthropology and philosophy).

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 1/25
  • PosTag(s): n/a

The Modernist Novel: Mann, Woolf, and Joyce
AS.300.319 (01)

In this course, we will survey the major works of three of the greatest, most relentless innovators of the twentieth century – Thomas Mann, Virginia Woolf, and James Joyce – who explored and exploded narrative techniques for depicting what Woolf called the “luminous halo” of life.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 1/20
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Gender and Sexuality Beyond the Global West: Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Art in North Africa and the Middle East
AS.363.329 (01)

This course aims to explore how gender and sexuality is situated in contemporary artistic practices in the geographical Middle East, through concepts of religion, war, revolution, resistance, nation-state, post-colonialism, and neoliberalism, especially as written and observed first-hand by artists, curators and scholars from the Middle East and North Africa region and their diasporas. Every week, under an overarching topic, notions of gender and sexuality will be questioned through works of selected artists across the region, as well as texts that provide the historical, theoretical, sociological and political background.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 13/15
  • PosTag(s): ISLM-ISLMST

Freshman Seminar: Great Books at Hopkins
AS.360.133 (05)

Freshman Seminar: Students attend lectures by an interdepartmental group of Hopkins faculty and meet for discussion in smaller seminar groups; each of these seminars is led by one of the course faculty. In lectures, panels, multimedia presentations, and curatorial sessions among the University's rare book holdings, we will explore some of the greatest works of the literary and philosophical traditions in Europe and the Americas. Close reading and intensive writing instruction are hallmarks of this course; authors for Fall 2018 include Homer, Boethius, Machiavelli, Shakespeare, Descartes, Aphra Behn, Mary Shelley, Mozart, Douglass, and Woolf.

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

Literature and Philosophy of the Everyday
AS.300.437 (01)

The ordinary, the common, the everyday: why does literary realism consider the experiences of the average individual to be worthy of serious contemplation? In this course, we will read closely a set of novels by Flaubert, Mann, Dickens, Eliot, Zola,Tolstoy, and Woolf from the period between 1850 and 1950 in which the development of realism reaches it climax. These novels transform the conventions for the representation of lives of lower and middle class subjects, revealing such lives as capable of prompting reflection upon deep and serious questions of human existence. Theoretical and philosophical texts on the everyday by Auerbach, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Sartre, Beauvoir, Lefebvre, Certeau, and Wittgenstein will accompany our discussions.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Closed
  • Seats Available: 9/15
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Freshman Seminar: Great Books at Hopkins
AS.360.133 (02)

Freshman Seminar: Students attend lectures by an interdepartmental group of Hopkins faculty and meet for discussion in smaller seminar groups; each of these seminars is led by one of the course faculty. In lectures, panels, multimedia presentations, and curatorial sessions among the University's rare book holdings, we will explore some of the greatest works of the literary and philosophical traditions in Europe and the Americas. Close reading and intensive writing instruction are hallmarks of this course; authors for Fall 2018 include Homer, Boethius, Machiavelli, Shakespeare, Descartes, Aphra Behn, Mary Shelley, Mozart, Douglass, and Woolf.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Closed
  • Seats Available: 3/15
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Freshman Seminar: Great Books at Hopkins
AS.360.133 (01)

Freshman Seminar: Students attend lectures by an interdepartmental group of Hopkins faculty and meet for discussion in smaller seminar groups; each of these seminars is led by one of the course faculty. In lectures, panels, multimedia presentations, and curatorial sessions among the University's rare book holdings, we will explore some of the greatest works of the literary and philosophical traditions in Europe and the Americas. Close reading and intensive writing instruction are hallmarks of this course; authors for Fall 2018 include Homer, Boethius, Machiavelli, Shakespeare, Descartes, Aphra Behn, Mary Shelley, Mozart, Douglass, and Woolf.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Closed
  • Seats Available: 4/15
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Freshman Seminar: Great Books at Hopkins
AS.360.133 (03)

Freshman Seminar: Students attend lectures by an interdepartmental group of Hopkins faculty and meet for discussion in smaller seminar groups; each of these seminars is led by one of the course faculty. In lectures, panels, multimedia presentations, and curatorial sessions among the University's rare book holdings, we will explore some of the greatest works of the literary and philosophical traditions in Europe and the Americas. Close reading and intensive writing instruction are hallmarks of this course; authors for Fall 2018 include Homer, Boethius, Machiavelli, Shakespeare, Descartes, Aphra Behn, Mary Shelley, Mozart, Douglass, and Woolf.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Closed
  • Seats Available: 7/15
  • PosTag(s): n/a

The Tragic Tradition
AS.300.337 (01)

This course offers a broad survey of tragic drama in the Western tradition, from its origins in ancient Greece to the twentieth century. In weekly lectures and discussion sections, we will study the specific literary features and historical contexts of a range of different works, and trace the continuities and transformations that shape them into a unified tradition. Key questions and themes throughout the semester will include what counts as tragic, the tragedy of social and political conflict, the bearing of tragedy on the meaning and value of life, the antagonistic relation between world and humans, the promises and dangers of tragedy for contemporary culture. Authors to be studied: Sophocles, Euripides, Seneca, Shakespeare, Racine, Goethe, Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekov, Brecht, Pirandello, and Beckett.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 3/19
  • PosTag(s): GRLL-ENGL

Introduction to Comparative Literature
AS.300.339 (01)

This course offers an introduction to the history, theory, and praxis of comparative literature. We will read texts from some of the founding figures of the discipline and look at the most recent debates in the field, including translation studies, literary theory, and world literature, among others. Particular attention will be given to the methodologies and problems of studying literatures in different linguistic traditions and the relation between literature and other areas of thought and culture, such as philosophy, art history, and psychoanalysis. Case studies in comparative approaches to literature will provide concrete examples to our discussions.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 7/15
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Freshman Seminar:Great Books at Hopkins
AS.360.133 (04)

Freshman Seminar: Students attend lectures by an interdepartmental group of Hopkins faculty and meet for discussion in smaller seminar groups; each of these seminars is led by one of the course faculty. In lectures, panels, multimedia presentations, and curatorial sessions among the University's rare book holdings, we will explore some of the greatest works of the literary and philosophical traditions in Europe and the Americas. Close reading and intensive writing instruction are hallmarks of this course; authors for Fall 2018 include Homer, Boethius, Machiavelli, Shakespeare, Descartes, Aphra Behn, Mary Shelley, Mozart, Douglass, and Woolf.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Closed
  • Seats Available: 3/15
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Cinema and Philosophy
AS.300.399 (01)

Do movies have anything to say about philosophical problems? Why is contemporary philosophy so interested in cinema? What are the most productive ways of bringing films and philosophy into conversation?

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 10/25
  • PosTag(s): FILM-CRITST

The Tragic Tradition
AS.300.337 (02)

This course offers a broad survey of tragic drama in the Western tradition, from its origins in ancient Greece to the twentieth century. In weekly lectures and discussion sections, we will study the specific literary features and historical contexts of a range of different works, and trace the continuities and transformations that shape them into a unified tradition. Key questions and themes throughout the semester will include what counts as tragic, the tragedy of social and political conflict, the bearing of tragedy on the meaning and value of life, the antagonistic relation between world and humans, the promises and dangers of tragedy for contemporary culture. Authors to be studied: Sophocles, Euripides, Seneca, Shakespeare, Racine, Goethe, Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekov, Brecht, Pirandello, and Beckett.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Canceled
  • Seats Available: 19/19
  • PosTag(s): GRLL-ENGL

Introduction to Digital Photography
AS.371.152 (01)

Students learn to use their digital cameras through a variety of documentary, landscape and portrait projects, which will help them develop technical and creative skills. Critiques and slide lectures of historic photographs, which range from postmortem daguerreotypes to postmodern digital imagery, help students develop a personal vision. Students are provided digital SLR cameras and gain proficiency with one-on-one instruction in the field. Basics for print adjustment and output will be covered. Attendance at first class is mandatory. Approval for this course will be considered after enrollment on SIS; no need to email.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Closed
  • Seats Available: 0/10
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Black and White: Digital Darkroom
AS.371.162 (02)

In this digital course, students explore the black-and-white aesthetic. They develop camera skills on numerous field trips including Ladew Topiary Gardens, the Maryland Zoo & Botanical Gardens, and an optional weekend trip to Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware. Students meet frequently for critiques and discussions based on historic and contemporary imagery. They will learn to use Photoshop for image adjustment. Techniques such as high dynamic range, duotone, panorama and infrared will be covered. Students work on a project of their choice and produce a portfolio of ten prints. Digital SLRs are provided. Attendance at 1st class is mandatory. No need to email for approval.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Closed
  • Seats Available: 2/10
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Visual Reality
AS.371.149 (01)

In art, "Realism" is a simulation of visual reality. But art can also simulate alternative realities, those realities or truths which exist only in daydreams or nightmares. In this class, we will learn to explore and create representations of these additional moments of existence. This will require thinking creatively or "outside the box," a useful skill in any field. Using a variety of media, students are asked to solve problems to which there is no one correct answer.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Closed
  • Seats Available: 3/12
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Documentary Photography
AS.371.303 (01)

In this course, we will explore different genres of documentary photography including: the fine art document, photojournalism, social documentary photography, the photo essay and photography of propaganda. Field trips offer opportunities to work in the field. Students will work on a semester-long photo-documentary project on a subject of their choice. Camera experience is a plus, but not a prerequisite. Students will be loaned a digital SLR for the semester.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Closed
  • Seats Available: 1/10
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Photoshop/Digital Darkroom
AS.371.151 (01)

Photoshop is not only the digital darkroom for processing images created with digital cameras; it is also a creative application for making original artwork. In this course, students use Photoshop software as a tool to produce images from a fine art perspective, working on projects that demand creative thinking while gaining technical expertise. Students will make archival prints, have regular critiques, and attend lectures on the history of the manipulated image and its place in culture. We will look at art movements which inspire digital artists, including 19th-century collage, dada, surrealism, and the zeitgeist of Hollywood films. Students must have a digital SLR camera. Prior knowledge of Photoshop is not required. Attendance at first class is mandatory. Approval for this course will be considered after enrollment on SIS; no need to email.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Closed
  • Seats Available: 1/10
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Documentary Photography
AS.371.303 (02)

In this course, we will explore different genres of documentary photography including: the fine art document, photojournalism, social documentary photography, the photo essay and photography of propaganda. Field trips offer opportunities to work in the field. Students will work on a semester-long photo-documentary project on a subject of their choice. Camera experience is a plus, but not a prerequisite. Students will be loaned a digital SLR for the semester.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Closed
  • Seats Available: 1/10
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Black and White: Digital Darkroom
AS.371.162 (01)

In this digital course, students explore the black-and-white aesthetic. They develop camera skills on numerous field trips including Ladew Topiary Gardens, the Maryland Zoo & Botanical Gardens, and an optional weekend trip to Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware. Students meet frequently for critiques and discussions based on historic and contemporary imagery. They will learn to use Photoshop for image adjustment. Techniques such as high dynamic range, duotone, panorama and infrared will be covered. Students work on a project of their choice and produce a portfolio of ten prints. Digital SLRs are provided. Attendance at 1st class is mandatory. No need to email for approval.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Closed
  • Seats Available: 1/10
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Course # (Section) Title Day/Times Instructor Room PosTag(s) Info
AS.213.374 (01)Existentialism in Literature and PhilosophyTTh 1:30PM - 2:45PMGosetti, Jennifer AnnaGilman 277GRLL-ENGL
AS.300.312 (01)Imagining Revolution and UtopiaW 1:30PM - 4:00PMEakin Moss, AnneShaffer 3
AS.300.313 (01)Maintaining Social Order: Elements of Conservative Political Philosophy and its CriticsMW 1:30PM - 2:45PMCarmel, Samantha LynneGilman 208INST-PT
AS.215.406 (01)Novelist IntellectualsM 1:30PM - 4:00PMSeguin, Becquer D GRLL-ENGL
AS.300.311 (01)Introduction to Intellectual HistoryTTh 12:00PM - 1:15PMMarrati, Paola, Sirin, HaleGilman 208INST-PT
AS.211.328 (01)Berlin Between the Wars: Literature, Art, Music, FilmW 1:30PM - 4:00PMSpinner, Samuel JacobBloomberg 172GRLL-ENGL, GRLL-GERM, INST-GLOBAL
AS.010.203 (01)AbstractionTTh 10:30AM - 11:45AMWarnock, MollyGilman 177HART-MODERN
AS.010.310 (01)The ‘Long Sixties’ in EuropeTTh 3:00PM - 4:15PMWarnock, MollyGilman 134HART-MODERN
AS.300.219 (01)Freshman Seminar: Babblers, Mumblers & Howlers: Languages of Modernist Fiction: Freshman SeminarTTh 2:00PM - 3:15PMStein, Benjamin EGilman 79
AS.040.121 (01)Ancient Greek Mythology: Art, Narratives, and Modern MythmakingTTh 1:30PM - 2:45PMYatromanolakis, DimitriosMaryland 202
AS.300.319 (01)The Modernist Novel: Mann, Woolf, and JoyceWF 12:00PM - 1:15PMOng, Yi-PingGilman 208
AS.363.329 (01)Gender and Sexuality Beyond the Global West: Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Art in North Africa and the Middle EastW 2:00PM - 4:30PMInce, Ezgi ISLM-ISLMST
AS.360.133 (05)Freshman Seminar: Great Books at HopkinsTTh 12:00PM - 1:15PMWeiss, Susan ForscherLevering Arellano
AS.300.437 (01)Literature and Philosophy of the EverydayF 1:30PM - 4:00PMOng, Yi-PingGilman 208
AS.360.133 (02)Freshman Seminar: Great Books at HopkinsTTh 12:00PM - 1:15PMEgginton, WilliamLevering Arellano
AS.360.133 (01)Freshman Seminar: Great Books at HopkinsTTh 12:00PM - 1:15PMDaniel, AndrewLevering Arellano
AS.360.133 (03)Freshman Seminar: Great Books at HopkinsTTh 12:00PM - 1:15PMWeiss, Susan ForscherLevering Arellano
AS.300.337 (01)The Tragic TraditionMW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AMLisi, LeonardoGilman 208GRLL-ENGL
AS.300.339 (01)Introduction to Comparative LiteratureTTh 10:30AM - 11:45AMLisi, LeonardoGilman 208
AS.360.133 (04)Freshman Seminar:Great Books at HopkinsTTh 12:00PM - 1:15PMRefini, EugenioLevering Arellano
AS.300.399 (01)Cinema and PhilosophyMW 3:00PM - 4:15PMMarrati, Paola, McCreary, Michael DGilman 208FILM-CRITST
AS.300.337 (02)The Tragic TraditionMW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AMLisi, Leonardo GRLL-ENGL
AS.371.152 (01)Introduction to Digital PhotographyT 10:00AM - 12:50PMEhrenfeld, HowardMattin Center 204
AS.371.162 (02)Black and White: Digital DarkroomW 2:00PM - 4:50PMBerger, Phyllis AMattin Center 204
AS.371.149 (01)Visual RealityT 2:00PM - 5:00PMBakker, D.S.Mattin Center 201
AS.371.303 (01)Documentary PhotographyF 10:00AM - 12:50PMBerger, Phyllis AMattin Center 204
AS.371.151 (01)Photoshop/Digital DarkroomM 10:00AM - 12:50PMEhrenfeld, HowardMattin Center 204
AS.371.303 (02)Documentary PhotographyF 2:00PM - 4:50PMBerger, Phyllis AMattin Center 204
AS.371.162 (01)Black and White: Digital DarkroomW 10:00AM - 12:50PMBerger, Phyllis AMattin Center 204

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.

Witchcraft and Demonology in Literature and the Arts
AS.211.477 (01)

Who were the witches? Why were they persecuted for hundreds of years? Why were women identified as the witches par excellence? How many witches were put to death between 1400 and 1800? What traits did European witch-mythologies share with other societies? After the witch-hunts ended, how did “The Witch” go from being “monstrous” to being “admirable” and even “sexy”? Answers are found in history and anthropology, but also in theology,literature, folklore, music, and the visual arts, including cinema.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 2/70
  • PosTag(s): GRLL-ENGL, GRLL-ITAL

The Authoritarian Image: Russian Cinema from Stalin to Putin
AS.300.331 (01)

Vladimir Putin’s charismatic authority has a deep history in Russian culture. We’ll investigate that history through cinema, which Lenin called “the most important of the arts.” While Soviet cinema often served as immersive propaganda, directors also found ways to question authority and power. Films to be screened range from Sergei Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible (1944) to the 2013 documentary Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer. This course will combine study of Russian and Soviet culture from the end of World War II to the present with study of film history, style, and technique.

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

Gendered Voices
AS.211.374 (01)

The course will explore the notion of ‘voice’ in order to show how poetry, literature, philosophy, and music have been dealing with it throughout the ages. In particular, by focusing on classical figures such as the Sirens, Circe and Echo, as well as by considering the seminal discussions of the 'voice' in Plato and Aristotle, the course will address the gendered nature of the voice as a tool to seduce and manipulate the human mind. More specifically, the course will discuss the ways in which male, female, queer, gendered and un-gendered voices embody different functions. Course materials include classical, medieval and early modern sources as well as later rewritings of myths concerned with the voice by authors such as Jules Verne, Karen Blixen, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, and Italo Calvino. A selection of theoretical works (e.g. Cavarero, Silverman, Dollar, Butler) will also be discussed. The course is taught in English and all materials will be available in English translation; Italian majors and minors should enroll in section 2.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 4/14
  • PosTag(s): GRLL-ENGL, GRLL-ITAL

Great Minds
AS.300.102 (01)

Introductory survey of foundational texts of modern Western literature and thought. This semester will include works by René Descartes, Max Weber, W. E. B. Du Bois, Virginia Woolf, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt, Theodor Adorno, Michel Foucault, Cora Diamond, and Stanley Cavell. The course is taught in lectures and seminar discussions led by the course faculty.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Waitlist Only
  • Seats Available: 1/25
  • PosTag(s): INST-PT

Gendered Voices
AS.211.374 (02)

The course will explore the notion of ‘voice’ in order to show how poetry, literature, philosophy, and music have been dealing with it throughout the ages. In particular, by focusing on classical figures such as the Sirens, Circe and Echo, as well as by considering the seminal discussions of the 'voice' in Plato and Aristotle, the course will address the gendered nature of the voice as a tool to seduce and manipulate the human mind. More specifically, the course will discuss the ways in which male, female, queer, gendered and un-gendered voices embody different functions. Course materials include classical, medieval and early modern sources as well as later rewritings of myths concerned with the voice by authors such as Jules Verne, Karen Blixen, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, and Italo Calvino. A selection of theoretical works (e.g. Cavarero, Silverman, Dollar, Butler) will also be discussed. The course is taught in English and all materials will be available in English translation; Italian majors and minors should enroll in section 2.

  • Credits: 4.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 4/5
  • PosTag(s): GRLL-ENGL, GRLL-ITAL

Old World/New World Women
AS.060.388 (01)

The course considers the transatlantic writing of three women in the early modern period, Anne Bradstreet, Aphra Behn, and Phillis Wheatley. We will consider issues of identity, spatiality, religion, commerce, enforced labor, sexuality, race, and gender, along with literary tradition, formal analysis and poetics. We will read a good deal of these early women writers. Foremost in our mind will be the question of how perceptions of space and time are mediated through the global experiences of early modernity.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Waitlist Only
  • Seats Available: 0/18
  • PosTag(s): ENGL-PR1800

Monsters, Ghosts, and Golems
AS.211.347 (01)

Modern Jewish literature and film is full of monsters, ghosts, golems, dybbuks, and other occult creatures. We will study the rich religious and folkloric traditions that these works draw on in order to better understand why Yiddish, German, Hebrew, and English literature from the 19th century to the present and why film from its beginnings are so full of the occult and the supernatural. We will pay special attention to the ways that monsters, spirits, and the like were deployed in modernist literature and film, in order to ask and answer major questions about modernity: what are the social and aesthetic consequences of technology and automation? what aspects of human nature are revealed by new insights into the psyche? All readings in English.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 4/15
  • PosTag(s): GRLL-ENGL

Reflections on Modernity
AS.213.423 (01)

Taught in English. Reflections on Modernity takes up the problems conflicts, and possibilities of modernity in aesthetic, literary, and philosophical texts. Questions about the modern self, our relationship to nature, to urban experience, to history and language, and the role of the artist and writer in reflecting on modern life. Texts include works by such authors as Kant, Nietzsche, Baudelaire, Weber, Rilke, Hofmannsthal, Simmel, Heidegger, Habermas, Foucault.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 5/15
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Why Poetry Matters: Poets Between Lies and Truth in the English and Italian Renaissance
AS.211.351 (01)

Does poetry participate in the quest for truth and knowledge? How does it compare to other such disciplines as history or philosophy? Are poets liars or do they have a deeper gaze on reality than anyone else? To answer these questions, this course studies poetry’s role within the different fields of human learning in the Renaissance. We will focus on the English and Italian tradition, reading texts by John Milton and Torquato Tasso, and explore the classical roots of the debate around poetry (Aristotle, Plato, Horace). We will then examine the relationship between science and literature through the work of Galileo Galilei. We will also study rare and ancient books in our library. The course is taught in English. All readings will be in English, but the original texts will also be available.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 11/12
  • PosTag(s): GRLL-ENGL, GRLL-ITAL

Museums and Identity
AS.211.329 (01)

The museum boom of the last half-century has centered largely around museums dedicated to the culture and history of identity groups, including national, ethnic, religious, and minority groups. In this course we will examine such museums and consider their long history through a comparison of the theory and practice of Jewish museums with other identity museums. We will study the various museological traditions that engage identity, including the collection of art and antiquities, ethnographic exhibitions, history museums, heritage museums, art museums, and other museums of culture. Some of the questions we will ask include: what are museums for and who are they for? how do museums shape identity? and how do the various types of museums relate to one another? Our primary work will be to examine a variety of contemporary examples around the world with visits to local museums including the Jewish Museum of Maryland, the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Museum of the American Indian.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Waitlist Only
  • Seats Available: 0/12
  • PosTag(s): GRLL-ENGL, INST-GLOBAL

Forms of Moral Community: The Contemporary World Novel
AS.300.336 (01)

Literary and philosophical imaginations of moral community in the post-WWII period (1950-2001). Texts include: Coetzee, Disgrace; McEwan, Atonement;Achebe, Things Fall Apart; Ishiguro, An Artist of the Floating World; Roy, The God of Small Things; Lessing, The Grass is Singing; Mistry, A Fine Balance;Morrison, Beloved; and essays by Levi, Strawson, Adorno, Murdoch, Beauvoir and Barthes on the deep uncertainty over moral community after the crisis of World War II. Close attention to novelistic style and narrative will inform our study of the philosophical questions that animate these works. What does it means to acknowledge another person’s humanity? Who are the members of a moral community? Why do we hold one another responsible for our actions? How do fundamental moral emotions such as contempt, humiliation, compassion, gratitude, forgiveness, and regret reveal the limits of a moral community?

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 6/15
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Documentary Photography
AS.371.303 (01)

In this course, we will explore different genres of documentary photography including: the fine art document, photojournalism, social documentary photography, the photo essay and photography of propaganda. Field trips offer opportunities to explore Baltimore neighborhoods such as The East Side, Station North and Baltimore’s old Chinatown. Students will work on a semester-long photo-documentary project on a subject of their choice. Camera experience is a plus, but not a prerequisite. Digital SLR are available on loan for the semester. Attendance in first class is mandatory.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Approval Required
  • Seats Available: 0/10
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Photoshop/Digital Darkroom
AS.371.151 (01)

Photoshop is not only the digital darkroom for processing images created with digital cameras; it is also a creative application for making original artwork. In this course, students use Photoshop software as a tool to produce images from a fine art perspective, working on projects that demand creative thinking while gaining technical expertise. Students will make archival prints, have regular critiques, and attend lectures on the history of the manipulated image and its place in culture. We will look at art movements which inspire digital artists, including 19th-century collage, dada, surrealism, and the zeitgeist of Hollywood films. Students must have a digital SLR camera. Prior knowledge of Photoshop is not required. Attendance at first class is mandatory. Approval for this course will be considered after enrollment on SIS; no need to email.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Approval Required
  • Seats Available: 0/10
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Stories of hysteria
AS.300.439 (01)

Many are the stories that recount episodes of hysteria, and we owe them not only to medicine. To the modern observer, they are a puzzle, involving strange beliefs about wandering wombs, demonic possession, and female virtue (or lack thereof). Closer to our time, contemporary media, as well as accounts in the social and clinical sciences have evoked cases of “mass hysteria” in America and across the globe. Marriage, it was thought for a long time, might be the best cure, which might be the reason case-studies of this illness can be as intriguing and troubling as novels. Against a backdrop of medical and historical materials, we will examine a selection of stories, from the 17th century onward, that evoke aspects of hysteria. They serve as our case-studies and as prompts to study an illness born at the convergence of histories and myths, of medical science, and of cultural and gender assumptions. Among the notions we will explore: The birth of psychoanalysis, trauma and PTSD, the concept of repression, the visual aspects of an illness and its spread in the arts, including cinema.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 12/20
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Black & White: Digital Darkroom
AS.371.162 (02)

In this digital course, students explore the black- and-white aesthetic. They develop camera skills on field trips into the city and countryside. Students meet frequently for critiques and discussions based on historic and contemporary imagery. They will learn to use Lightroom and Photoshop for image adjustment. Techniques such as high dynamic range, duotone, panorama and infrared will be covered. Students work on a final project of their choice and produce a portfolio of prints. Digital SLRs are provided. Attendance at 1st class is mandatory.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Approval Required
  • Seats Available: 0/10
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Introduction to Digital Photography
AS.371.152 (01)

Students learn to use their digital cameras through a variety of documentary, landscape and portrait projects, which will help them develop technical and creative skills. Critiques and slide lectures of historic photographs, which range from postmortem daguerreotypes to postmodern digital imagery, help students develop a personal vision. Students are provided digital SLR cameras and gain proficiency with one-on-one instruction in the field. Basics for print adjustment and output will be covered. Attendance at first class is mandatory. Approval for this course will be considered after enrollment on SIS; no need to email.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Approval Required
  • Seats Available: 0/10
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Cartooning
AS.371.140 (01)

Not open to Freshmen. A history-and-practice overview for students of the liberal arts. The conceptual basis and historical development of cartooning is examined in both artistic and social contexts. Class sessions consist of lecture (slides/handouts), exercises, and ongoing assignments. Topics include visual/narrative analysis, symbol & satire, editorial/political cartoons, character development, animation. Basic drawing skills are preferred but not required.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Approval Required
  • Seats Available: 0/15
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Seeing Like a Woman
AS.300.367 (01)

What does it mean to “see,” think, desire, feel, speak, act, or write “like a woman”? Gendered notions of seeing have had an impact on politics and society long before the #metoo movement and far beyond debates about women’s rights in isolation. This seminar examines the issues of female desire, subjectivity, spectatorship and performance in fiction, poetry, memoir and film from a variety of cultures and theoretical perspectives. This is not a course on “the image of the woman” in literature, film or politics, but a course in which we examine the ways in which both male and female theorists, novelists, poets, and filmmakers have imagined how women “see,” feel, think and behave.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 7/18
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Black & White: Digital Darkroom
AS.371.162 (01)

In this digital course, students explore the black- and-white aesthetic. They develop camera skills on field trips into the city and countryside. Students meet frequently for critiques and discussions based on historic and contemporary imagery. They will learn to use Lightroom and Photoshop for image adjustment. Techniques such as high dynamic range, duotone, panorama and infrared will be covered. Students work on a final project of their choice and produce a portfolio of prints. Digital SLRs are provided. Attendance at 1st class is mandatory.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Status: Approval Required
  • Seats Available: 0/10
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Course # (Section) Title Day/Times Instructor Room PosTag(s) Info
AS.211.477 (01)Witchcraft and Demonology in Literature and the ArtsMW 12:00PM - 1:15PMStephens, Walter ELevering ArellanoGRLL-ENGL, GRLL-ITAL
AS.300.331 (01)The Authoritarian Image: Russian Cinema from Stalin to PutinTTh 10:30AM - 11:45AMEakin Moss, AnneGilman 208INST-GLOBAL, INST-NWHIST
AS.211.374 (01)Gendered VoicesTTh 12:00PM - 1:15PMRefini, EugenioMaryland 202GRLL-ENGL, GRLL-ITAL
AS.300.102 (01)Great MindsTTh 12:00PM - 1:15PMMarrati, PaolaGilman 208INST-PT
AS.211.374 (02)Gendered VoicesTTh 12:00PM - 1:15PMRefini, EugenioMaryland 202GRLL-ENGL, GRLL-ITAL
AS.060.388 (01)Old World/New World WomenM 1:30PM - 4:00PMAchinstein, SharonGilman 400ENGL-PR1800
AS.211.347 (01)Monsters, Ghosts, and GolemsW 1:30PM - 4:00PMSpinner, Samuel JacobHodson 311GRLL-ENGL
AS.213.423 (01)Reflections on ModernityT 3:00PM - 5:30PMGosetti, Jennifer AnnaGilman 219
AS.211.351 (01)Why Poetry Matters: Poets Between Lies and Truth in the English and Italian RenaissanceTTh 1:30PM - 2:45PMBrenna, FrancescoBloomberg 172GRLL-ENGL, GRLL-ITAL
AS.211.329 (01)Museums and IdentityTTh 3:00PM - 4:15PMSpinner, Samuel JacobGilman 443GRLL-ENGL, INST-GLOBAL
AS.300.336 (01)Forms of Moral Community: The Contemporary World NovelWF 12:00PM - 1:15PMOng, Yi-PingGilman 208
AS.371.303 (01)Documentary PhotographyF 10:00AM - 12:50PMBerger, Phyllis AMattin Center 204
AS.371.151 (01)Photoshop/Digital DarkroomM 10:00AM - 12:50PMEhrenfeld, HowardMattin Center 204
AS.300.439 (01)Stories of hysteriaTTh 1:30PM - 2:45PMEnder, EvelyneGilman 400
AS.371.162 (02)Black & White: Digital DarkroomW 2:00PM - 4:50PMBerger, Phyllis AMattin Center 204
AS.371.152 (01)Introduction to Digital PhotographyT 10:00AM - 12:50PMEhrenfeld, HowardMattin Center 204
AS.371.140 (01)CartooningM 1:30PM - 4:20PMChalkley, ThomasMattin Center 208
AS.300.367 (01)Seeing Like a WomanT 1:30PM - 4:00PMEakin Moss, AnneGilman 208
AS.371.162 (01)Black & White: Digital DarkroomW 10:00AM - 12:50PMBerger, Phyllis AMattin Center 204