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 on the Student Information Services (SIS) website.
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.
Course # (Section)
Title
Day/Times
Instructor
Room
PosTag(s)
Info
AS.001.101 (01)
FYS: The Hospital
MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Leslie, Stuart W
Greenhouse 113
FYS: The Hospital AS.001.101 (01)
Johns Hopkins invented the modern hospital along with modern medical education. This seminar will explore the history of the hospital from its monastic origins to its current form, with particular attention to how hospital design has reflected and reinforced ways of thinking about health, disease and medical treatment. We will also consider specialized hospitals and clinics, for the mentally ill, for particular diseases, for women and children, among other topics.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Instructor: Leslie, Stuart W
Room: Greenhouse 113
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/12
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.001.102 (01)
FYS: Japanese Robots
TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Frumer, Yulia
Gilman 77
FYS: Japanese Robots AS.001.102 (01)
Japan is a world leader in biomimetic robotics. Japanese society enthusiastically embraces robotic nurses, robotic guides, robotic waiters, robotic pets, and even robotic girlfriends. What are the origins of the Japanese love of robots? What role did robotics engineers play in creating the image of loveable robots? What societal fears do Japanese robots assuage and what hopes do they foster? In the course of the semester, students will learn about the evolution of Japanese robotics, and explore the implications of this evolution to humans’ relationship with robots. While learning about Japanese robots, students will acquire skills necessary for college-level education, including how to write an email to a professor, how to organize and manage digital tools, how to navigate the information resources, and how to develop, complete, and present research projects. This course will equip students with skills essential to their success in college and beyond.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Instructor: Frumer, Yulia
Room: Gilman 77
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/12
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.001.103 (01)
FYS: When Worlds Collide - Science Goes Global
TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Portuondo, Maria M
Gilman 300
FYS: When Worlds Collide - Science Goes Global AS.001.103 (01)
In this First-Year Seminar, we will explore instances of contact between different world cultures and pre-modern and modern science (16th-20th c.). The premise of the course is the understanding that in addition to the cultural, religious and political negotiations that took place during cross-cultural encounters, science also underwent a similar process. We understand science expansively, as the study of nature and the production of knowledge about it embedded in a particular cultural context. The historical episodes we will discuss are selections of instances where agents of the West—missionaries, explorers, businessmen, colonists, scientists—established prolonged contact with non-western cultures and engaged in conversations about their worldviews. Some cases considered include Jesuits in the Chinese imperial court, Spanish missionaries among the Maya, and English explorers in the Pacific islands.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Instructor: Portuondo, Maria M
Room: Gilman 300
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 1/12
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.010.212 (01)
Mirror Mirror: Reflections in Art from Van Eyck to Velázquez
TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Merback, Mitchell
Gilman 177
HART-RENBAR, HART-RENEM, INST-GLOBAL
Mirror Mirror: Reflections in Art from Van Eyck to Velázquez AS.010.212 (01)
Explores the different ways Early Modern painters and printmakers incorporated mirrors and optical reflections into their works for the sake of illusion and metaphor, deception and desire, reflexivity and truth-telling. Connecting sense perception and ethical knowledge, embedded mirror images often made claims about the nature of the self, the powers of art, and the superiority of painting in particular.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Instructor: Merback, Mitchell
Room: Gilman 177
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/16
PosTag(s): HART-RENBAR, HART-RENEM, INST-GLOBAL
AS.130.119 (01)
Medicine in Ancient Egypt
MWF 11:00AM - 11:50AM
Jasnow, Richard
BLC 5015
MSCH-HUM
Medicine in Ancient Egypt AS.130.119 (01)
A survey of medicine and medical practice in Egypt and, to a lesser extent, the ancient Near East in general. The abundant sources range from magical spells to surprisingly "scientific" treatises and handbooks. Readings are selected from translations of primary sources in the writings of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Israel. Topics will include the sources of our knowledge; the nature of medical practitioners, medical treatment, and surgery; beliefs about disease and the etiology of illness; concepts of contagion and ritual purity.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: MWF 11:00AM - 11:50AM
Instructor: Jasnow, Richard
Room: BLC 5015
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/48
PosTag(s): MSCH-HUM
AS.140.105 (01)
History of Medicine
MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AM
Fissell, Mary E
Virtual Online Hodson 305
MSCH-HUM
History of Medicine AS.140.105 (01)
Course provides an introduction to health and healing in the ancient world, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. Topics include religion and medicine; medicine in the Islamicate world; women and healing; patients and practitioners.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AM
Instructor: Fissell, Mary E
Room: Virtual Online Hodson 305
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/17
PosTag(s): MSCH-HUM
AS.140.105 (02)
History of Medicine
MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AM
Fissell, Mary E
Virtual Online Gilman 55
MSCH-HUM
History of Medicine AS.140.105 (02)
Course provides an introduction to health and healing in the ancient world, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. Topics include religion and medicine; medicine in the Islamicate world; women and healing; patients and practitioners.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AM
Instructor: Fissell, Mary E
Room: Virtual Online Gilman 55
Status: Reserved Open
Seats Available: 1/16
PosTag(s): MSCH-HUM
AS.140.105 (03)
History of Medicine
MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
Fissell, Mary E
Virtual Online Gilman 55
MSCH-HUM
History of Medicine AS.140.105 (03)
Course provides an introduction to health and healing in the ancient world, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. Topics include religion and medicine; medicine in the Islamicate world; women and healing; patients and practitioners.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
Instructor: Fissell, Mary E
Room: Virtual Online Gilman 55
Status: Reserved Open
Seats Available: 1/17
PosTag(s): MSCH-HUM
AS.140.178 (01)
History of Biology
MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
Staff
Gilman 119 Gilman 300
History of Biology AS.140.178 (01)
The course surveys the emergence and development of life sciences since the 1700s. It examines major ideas, approaches, and debates regarding life, along with their material and cultural underpinnings as well as social impacts. One crucial question throughout the course is how social and cultural contexts have shaped views of life at particular times and places. Topics include natural history, classification, morphology, cell theory, physiology, evolution, genetics and eugenics, molecular biology, biomedicine, and biotechnology. Lectures are supplemented with discussions about primary historical texts and scholarly articles. Students will learn about the course content, methods in historical inquiries of scientific fields, and will develop an original research essay as a final project.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
Instructor: Staff
Room: Gilman 119 Gilman 300
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/15
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.140.178 (02)
History of Biology
MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
Staff
Gilman 119 Hodson 211
History of Biology AS.140.178 (02)
The course surveys the emergence and development of life sciences since the 1700s. It examines major ideas, approaches, and debates regarding life, along with their material and cultural underpinnings as well as social impacts. One crucial question throughout the course is how social and cultural contexts have shaped views of life at particular times and places. Topics include natural history, classification, morphology, cell theory, physiology, evolution, genetics and eugenics, molecular biology, biomedicine, and biotechnology. Lectures are supplemented with discussions about primary historical texts and scholarly articles. Students will learn about the course content, methods in historical inquiries of scientific fields, and will develop an original research essay as a final project.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
Instructor: Staff
Room: Gilman 119 Hodson 211
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/15
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.140.232 (01)
Food, Environment, and Society
MW 3:00PM - 4:15PM
Staff
Hodson 303
ENVS-MAJOR, ENVS-MINOR
Food, Environment, and Society AS.140.232 (01)
A seminar discussing crucial events and processes in global history which have shaped how food production and consumption impacted the environment and human societies. Students will learn how food practices, originally bounded within certain places and cultures, became transformed in modern societies with the rise of modern agricultural, transportation and food processing technologies, as well as the public health and environmental consequences of these transformations. Sessions will include lectures, seminar discussions, field visits or guest speaker events, and some hands-on activities. For the final project, students will conduct original research on topics of interest and produce a multi-media, public-facing intellectual product.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: MW 3:00PM - 4:15PM
Instructor: Staff
Room: Hodson 303
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/16
PosTag(s): ENVS-MAJOR, ENVS-MINOR
AS.140.312 (01)
The Politics of Science in America
W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Ginsberg, Benjamin, Kargon, Robert H
Gilman 300
INST-AP
The Politics of Science in America AS.140.312 (01)
This course examines the relations of the scientific and technical enterprise and government in the United States in the 20th and 21st centuries. Topics will include the funding of research and development, public health, national defense, etc. Case studies will include the 1918 Spanish influenza epidemic, the Depression-era Science Advisory Board, the founding of the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, the institution of the President’s Science Advisor, the failure of the Superconducting Supercollider, the Hubble Space Telescope, the covid pandemic, etc.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Ginsberg, Benjamin, Kargon, Robert H
Room: Gilman 300
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/15
PosTag(s): INST-AP
AS.140.323 (01)
Eating in Early Modern East Asia
TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM
Zanolini, Sarah Jean
Maryland 104
Eating in Early Modern East Asia AS.140.323 (01)
Can we identify a distinctly East Asian food culture, or can we only speak of East Asian food cultures, plural? How are regional food cultures and culture writ large mutually constitutive? In this discussion-based course, we explore these questions through focused readings on the following aspects of local and regional foodways: agricultural environment, ingredient availability, recipe composition, meal preparation, dining practices, and the relationship between diet, health, and illness in early modern medical discourse.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM
Instructor: Zanolini, Sarah Jean
Room: Maryland 104
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/19
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.140.324 (01)
Commercializing Science: Academic Entrepreneurs from Kelvin to Venter
MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Mercelis, Joris Hans Angele
Gilman 300
Commercializing Science: Academic Entrepreneurs from Kelvin to Venter AS.140.324 (01)
From the 19th century physicist William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) to contemporary geneticists such as Walter Gilbert and Craig Venter, academic scientists and engineers across a broad range of disciplines have commercialized academic knowledge and inventions as patentees, consultants, and entrepreneurs. This course examines the motives and strategies behind such commercialization activities, ethical issues associated with them, and the factors influencing their success. We will also explore the history of currently dominant policies and institutions designed to foster the commercialization of academic science and evaluate their impact from a longer-term perspective.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Instructor: Mercelis, Joris Hans Angele
Room: Gilman 300
Status: Open
Seats Available: 8/15
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.140.328 (01)
Science and Technology in Slave Regimes
M 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Kargon, Robert H, Portuondo, Maria M
Gilman 300
INST-GLOBAL
Science and Technology in Slave Regimes AS.140.328 (01)
This course explores the questions that arise when we juxtapose slave regimes with scientific and technological change. We’ll consider very broad questions, such as, was slavery compatible with modernity? As well as study specific cases where slavery and technology intersected, such as the cotton gin or sugar cane plantations, but also the existence of “modern” scientific societies within slave regimes. We’ll explore these questions from a trans-national perspective by comparing cases in the Antebellum US, Cuba, Brazil, Haiti and other countries.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: M 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Kargon, Robert H, Portuondo, Maria M
Room: Gilman 300
Status: Open
Seats Available: 7/15
PosTag(s): INST-GLOBAL
AS.140.335 (01)
Photography in Science and Medicine (19th Century-Present)
MW 3:00PM - 4:15PM
Mercelis, Joris Hans Angele
Bloomberg 274
Photography in Science and Medicine (19th Century-Present) AS.140.335 (01)
Since the 19th century invention of photography as a new “art-science,” photographic evidence and techniques have been central to many fields of (social) science and medicine. This seminar examines the uses of photography and related imaging technologies in various disciplines including astronomy, bacteriology, criminology, geology, and radiology. We will also explore how photography has historically shaped (among many other things) notions of scientific objectivity and ideas about racial difference.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: MW 3:00PM - 4:15PM
Instructor: Mercelis, Joris Hans Angele
Room: Bloomberg 274
Status: Open
Seats Available: 8/19
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.140.339 (01)
Science & Technology in the Development of Modern Latin America
MW 1:30PM - 2:45PM
Alsina, Marc Joseph
Shaffer 202
INST-GLOBAL, MSCH-HUM
Science & Technology in the Development of Modern Latin America AS.140.339 (01)
This seminar will survey the development of science and technology in modern Latin America, and explore their dynamics in the context of cultural, political, and economic forces.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: MW 1:30PM - 2:45PM
Instructor: Alsina, Marc Joseph
Room: Shaffer 202
Status: Open
Seats Available: 4/15
PosTag(s): INST-GLOBAL, MSCH-HUM
AS.140.347 (01)
History Of Genetics
T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Comfort, Nathaniel
Mergenthaler 111
History Of Genetics AS.140.347 (01)
Intellectual and social history of the gene concept, including Mendelism, eugenics, medical genetics, DNA, genomics, and personalized medicine.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Comfort, Nathaniel
Room: Mergenthaler 111
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/20
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.140.396 (01)
Encoding Bias: Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, and the History of Computing
T 3:00PM - 5:30PM
Frumer, Yulia
Gilman 300
Encoding Bias: Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, and the History of Computing AS.140.396 (01)
How can an inanimate object be biased? How is it possible for a machine or software to discriminate on the basis of race, gender, or economic status? After all, machines are supposed be free from the lapses of judgement that can cloud human minds. And yet, the more we rely on digital technologies, the more we realize that algorithms are not as neutral and objective as we hoped they would be. This course traces the origins of computer bias to the aspirations, ideals, metaphors, hopes, fears, and, of course, biases of the people who developed computer technologies. During the semester, we will learn about the humble origins of computing technologies, the original, human “computers” in astronomical labs, Alan Turing’s invention of a “digital” mechanical computer to decipher Nazi codes, the Cybernetics movement, the models of rationality and intelligence that guided the development of AI, the gendering of the computing profession, the advent of personal computers, and more. While exploring these episodes in the history of computing we will discuss and analyze the social and structural origins of computer and algorithm bias.
Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: T 3:00PM - 5:30PM
Instructor: Frumer, Yulia
Room: Gilman 300
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/14
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.140.411 (01)
Senior Research Seminar
Mercelis, Joris Hans Angele
Senior Research Seminar AS.140.411 (01)
For majors pursuing independent research.
Credits: 2.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times:
Instructor: Mercelis, Joris Hans Angele
Room:
Status: Open
Seats Available: 15/15
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.230.306 (01)
Plagues, Power, and Social Control
T 3:00PM - 5:30PM
White, Alexandre Ilani Rein
Bloomberg 168
INST-IR, INST-GLOBAL, MSCH-HUM
Plagues, Power, and Social Control AS.230.306 (01)
While developments in biomedicine and health care have led to the eradication, cure and management of many human health problems, disease, illness and health have also been the focus for aggressive social controls and population management. The technologies and practices of disease control and health management have been foundational to some of the most aggressive structures of oppression in recent history such as the Jewish Ghetto, the Concentration Camp, the South African Township and techniques of segregation. This course seeks to explore how epidemics and disease control are linked to larger questions of power, state craft and international dynamics. This course asks how have outbreaks of infectious disease shaped social and political action? How do societies respond to outbreaks and why? What do epidemic moments tell us about global structures of power and the dynamics of control? Drawing on historical cases including plague during the European Renaissance and before, the HIV/AIDS Pandemic and the West African Ebola Outbreak of 2013-2016, this course will introduce students to the history and practices of disease control as well as important theoretical perspectives by which to understand the sociological and historical effects of disease and the responses to them. Students will engage sociological concepts such as biopolitics, social construction of disease and illness and biosecurity and produce a final research paper examining the outcomes and responses to an epidemic event to show mastery of the topics covered in the course.
