Undergraduate Courses

To see a complete list of courses offered and their descriptions, visit the online course catalog.

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 at https://sis.jhu.edu/classes.

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.

FYS: Dining and drinking in the ancient Mediterranean world
AS.001.148 (01)

This First-Year Seminar focuses on the cultures of dining and drinking in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, with excursions into the foodways of other ancient societies abutting the Mediterranean basin. We will investigate the social practices and values that are associated with conviviality in these societies, and how such practices and values change over time. We will consider the kinds of communities that these practices construct, and how and to what extent different kinds of people are included, excluded, or placed in a social hierarchy by their participation in these practices. Special attention will be given to feasting as represented in the Homeric poems, especially the Odyssey; to the Archaic and Classical Greek symposion; and to the Roman convivium and other dining forms extending to late Antiquity. Fueling our investigation and underpinning our discussions will be a wide variety of ancient Greek and Roman texts (to be read in English translation); images and representations of ancient dining in diverse visual media, including Greek vase painting, Roman wall painting, and mosaics; and archaeological evidence for the spaces, settings, and implements of ancient dining and drinking. Throughout, we will engage with key scholarship on aspects of this topic. The seminar includes visits to the Walters Art Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum, all of which house objects that illuminate our inquiry. It may also involve screenings of films or clips featuring modern imaginative reconstructions of ancient dining events.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 3:00PM - 4:15PM
  • Instructor: Roller, Matthew
  • Room: Gilman 413  
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 12/12
  • PosTag(s): n/a

FYS: Books, Authenticity, and Truth
AS.001.161 (01)

We are living through a crisis in how we take in information. Bombarded by information of all sorts coming at us on phones, tablets, and computer screens, it can be difficult to make sense of it all and harder still to determine whether something is true or false, authentic or inauthentic. The scale and speed of the change in media that we are undergoing is unprecedented in human history. Nevertheless, people in the past have faced moments of crisis – moments when writing seemed unreliable, when the format of written information changed, and when new publication formats forced reevaluations of the nature of truth. This First-Year Seminar will take us from Greco-Roman antiquity to the modern age, with stops along the way in the European Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Enlightenment. We will read selected texts that illuminate the place of writing, books, and the search for truth, think about the structure of libraries in the western Middle Ages and Renaissance, do extensive hands-on work with rare books, and visit other repositories of information, all toward the end of evaluating how the history of books and information can help us in our current quest to make sense of our world.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: T 2:00PM - 4:30PM
  • Instructor: Celenza, Chris
  • Room: BLC 2030  
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 12/12
  • PosTag(s): n/a

FYS: Race Before Race - Difference and Diversity in the Ancient Mediterranean
AS.001.179 (01)

How did the Greeks, Romans, and other ancient Mediterranean peoples understand human difference and diversity? How did they form their senses of self in relation to others and articulate kinship and commonalities across ethnic lines? Did skin color, birthplace, language, and lineage matter in constructing social hierarchies? How did their concepts of class and citizenship, beauty and belonging, differ from ours? Did they have anything akin to modern constructions of race and racism, blackness and whiteness, the ‘west’ and the ‘rest’? If not, when and why were such ideas invented, and how was Greco-Roman culture conscripted in their support? Finally and crucially, what can we do to make “classics” today more equitable, inclusive, and accurate to the multicultural reality of the ancient Mediterranean? This First-Year Seminar examines these questions, and many more, through the literature, art, and history of ancient Greece and Rome, with forays into Egypt, Persia, Judea, and northern Europe. It will introduce you to the diversity of the ancient Mediterranean world, hone your ability to critically interpret and discuss art, literature, and scholarship, and explore how systems of categorizing human difference have historically served power. This course will give you a wider historical lens through which to understand race, racecraft, the “classics,” and “Western civilization,” revealing all to be dynamic and historically situated discourses that have been used to exert authority, to include or exclude, and to build communities. It will also build student community and comfort discussing sensitive subjects through a combination of field trips, guest lectures, movie nights, and communal meals.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
  • Instructor: Pandey, Nandini
  • Room: Gilman 108  
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 12/12
  • PosTag(s): n/a

FYS: Lunar Histories
AS.001.180 (01)

This First-Year Seminar will take us on an exploratory journey through the history of our Moon, both as a physical body in its own right and as a formative presence in the cultural imagination. As we examine theories about the Moon’s nature and role in the cosmos - from antiquity to our modern period, and from science to make-believe - we will delve deep into perplexing questions such as the relationship between scientific and imaginative thought, the role played by conspiracy-theory and hoax in our society, the origins of speculation about extraterrestrial life, and what it means to map and write the history of other worlds... This seminar will include sessions of practical observation of the Moon from the JHU Observatory.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 10:30AM - 11:45AM
  • Instructor: ni Mheallaigh, Karen
  • Room: Gilman 134  
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 12/12
  • PosTag(s): n/a

The Roman Empire
AS.040.103 (01)

This introductory course examines the history, society, and culture of the Roman state in the Imperial age (ca. 31 BCE-ca. 500 CE), during which it underwent a traumatic transition from an oligarchic to a monarchic form of government, attained its greatest territorial expanse, produced its most famous art, architecture, and literature, experienced vast cultural and religious changes, and finally was transformed into an entirely different ("late antique") form of society. All readings in English.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 3:00PM - 4:15PM
  • Instructor: Roller, Matthew
  • Room: Gilman 132  
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 22/50
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Elementary Ancient Greek
AS.040.105 (01)

This course provides a comprehensive, intensive introduction to the study of ancient Greek. During the first semester, the focus will be on morphology and vocabulary. Cannot be taken Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory.

  • Credits: 4.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MTWThF 9:00AM - 9:50AM
  • Instructor: Staff
  • Room: Gilman 108  
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 12/15
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Elementary Latin
AS.040.107 (01)

This course provides a comprehensive, intensive introduction to the study of Latin for new students, as well as a systematic review for those students with a background in Latin. Emphasis during the first semester will be on morphology and vocabulary. Course may not be taken Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MWF 10:00AM - 10:50AM
  • Instructor: Staff
  • Room: Gilman 108  
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 9/16
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Greek Myth and Anime: Cross-cultural Concepts of Man and Divinity
AS.040.204 (01)

This course will examine the reception of the Classics in Japanese popular culture anime. We will view how characters, creatures, and beings from Greco-Roman myth are presented in anime, with special attention to concepts such as human beings, humanity, and divinity. Dean's Teaching Fellowship course.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 4:30PM - 5:45PM
  • Instructor: Dopico, Juan P
  • Room: Gilman 217  
  • Status: Waitlist Only
  • Seats Available: 0/15
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Intermediate Ancient Greek
AS.040.205 (01)

Reading ability in classical Greek is developed through a study of various authors.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
  • Instructor: Smith, Joshua M
  • Room: Gilman 108  
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 3/8
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Intermediate Latin
AS.040.207 (01)

Although emphasis is still placed on development of rapid comprehension, readings and discussions introduce student to study of Latin literature, principally through texts of various authors.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MWF 11:00AM - 11:50AM
  • Instructor: Staff
  • Room: Gilman 108  
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 6/15
  • PosTag(s): n/a

A Clash of (Ancient) Civilizations? The Jews in the Graeco-Roman World
AS.040.217 (01)

Judaism and Hellenism have been traditionally opposed to one another: the Jewish calendar celebrates the triumph of the Maccabees against the Hellenizers at Hannukah, and mourns the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple by the Romans on Tisha Be-Av. However, the relationship between the Jewish people and the Graeco-Roman world can hardly be reduced to a military confrontation. Did these apparently opposite worlds influence one another? How were the Jews viewed among the Greeks and the Romans and the many other ethnic groups living in the ancient Mediterranean, and how did they view Greek and Latin culture? What did they have to offer on the international, multilingual ‘cultural market’ of the Graeco-Roman world? Through a selection of ancient texts and modern scholarship, this course analyzes the vicissitudes of the Jewish people and of Judaism from the Hellenistic Age to the Late Antique, throughout the centuries in which Greeks, Romans and Jews found themselves living “under one roof”. All readings in English. Dean's Teaching Fellowship course.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 4:30PM - 5:45PM
  • Instructor: Loi, Giacomo
  • Room: Krieger 306  
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 12/18
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Advanced Ancient Greek
AS.040.305 (01)

This course aims to increase proficiency and improve comprehension of the ancient Greek language. Intensive reading of ancient Greek texts, with attention to grammar, idiom, translation, etc. Reading of prose or verse authors, depending on the needs of students. Specific offerings vary. Co-listed with AS.040.705.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
  • Instructor: Smith, Joshua M
  • Room: Gilman 108  
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 2/3
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Advanced Latin Prose
AS.040.307 (01)

This course aims to increase proficiency and improve comprehension of the Latin language. Intensive reading of Latin texts, with attention to grammar, idiom, translation, etc. Specific offerings vary. Co-listed with AS.040.707.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
  • Instructor: Staff
  • Room: Gilman 108  
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 8/10
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Survey of Greek Literature I: Homer to the Classical Period
AS.040.417 (01)

We shall read an extensive selection of major texts of Greek literature from Homer to the classical period.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
  • Instructor: Yatromanolakis, Dimitrios
  • Room: Gilman 108  
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 8/12
  • PosTag(s): n/a

Classics Research Lab: Casts of Baltimore
AS.040.420 (03)

This course gives participants a unique opportunity to engage directly in empirical research and its interpretation and dissemination. Topics vary. This semester, the Casts of Baltimore Research Lab examines how the people of Baltimore engaged with ancient Mediterranean culture during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, through means such as reproductions of artifacts in city collections, illustrations, and educational materials. We consider both how such materials opened the ancient world to modern Baltimore, and how access to these resources was in reality often variable, complicated or forbidden to certain residents of the diverse city. The basis of our work is the now disbanded plaster cast collection of Greek & Roman sculpture, commissioned in 1879 for the Art Gallery of the Peabody Institute. This semester we will continue research on the people and objects that formed this collection’s urban community and, as our primary aim, will construct a walkable virtual exhibit that re-assembles the collection and examines its complex place in the city. No prerequisites, but potential students should contact instructor for permission to enroll. This Classics Research Lab project is part of the inaugural 2022-2023 Humanities Research Lab program.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
  • Instructor: Anderson, Emily S.K.
  • Room: Gilman 261  
  • Status: Approval Required
  • Seats Available: 8/12
  • PosTag(s): HART-ANC

Introduction To Greek Philosophy
AS.150.201 (01)

A survey of the earlier phase of Greek philosophy. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle will be discussed, as well as two groups of thinkers who preceded them, usually known as the pre-Socratics and the Sophists.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AM
  • Instructor: Bett, Richard
  • Room: Hodson 213 Ames 320
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 7/20
  • PosTag(s): PHIL-ANCIEN

Introduction To Greek Philosophy
AS.150.201 (02)

A survey of the earlier phase of Greek philosophy. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle will be discussed, as well as two groups of thinkers who preceded them, usually known as the pre-Socratics and the Sophists.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, W 1:30PM - 2:20PM
  • Instructor: Bett, Richard
  • Room: Hodson 213 Gilman 400
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 4/10
  • PosTag(s): PHIL-ANCIEN

Introduction To Greek Philosophy
AS.150.201 (03)

A survey of the earlier phase of Greek philosophy. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle will be discussed, as well as two groups of thinkers who preceded them, usually known as the pre-Socratics and the Sophists.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AM
  • Instructor: Bett, Richard
  • Room: Hodson 213 Hodson 203
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 7/20
  • PosTag(s): PHIL-ANCIEN

Introduction To Greek Philosophy
AS.150.201 (04)

A survey of the earlier phase of Greek philosophy. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle will be discussed, as well as two groups of thinkers who preceded them, usually known as the pre-Socratics and the Sophists.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, W 1:30PM - 2:20PM
  • Instructor: Bett, Richard
  • Room: Hodson 213 Croft Hall G02
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 8/10
  • PosTag(s): PHIL-ANCIEN

Tragedy and Living Well
AS.150.406 (01)

This course revisits the idea of tragedy as represented in Ancient Greek thought for the purpose of approaching questions of flourishing and ethical living from a different angle.

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: M 3:00PM - 5:30PM
  • Instructor: Lebron, Christopher Joseph
  • Room: Maryland 104  
  • Status: Open
  • Seats Available: 1/15
  • PosTag(s): PHIL-ANCIEN, PHIL-ETHICS, PHIL-SEM

Ancient Color: The Technologies and Meanings of Color in Antiquity
AS.389.315 (01)

What role did the colorful surfaces of sculptures, vessels and textiles play in the ancient world? We examine historical texts and recent scholarly and scientific publications on the technologies and meanings of color in antiquity, and use imaging and analytical techniques to study polychromed objects from the Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum

  • Credits: 3.00
  • Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
  • Days/Times: M 1:30PM - 4:00PM
  • Instructor: Balachandran, Sanchita
  • Room: Gilman 150A  
  • Status: Waitlist Only
  • Seats Available: 0/15
  • PosTag(s): MSCH-HUM

Course # (Section) Title Day/Times Instructor Room PosTag(s) Info
AS.001.148 (01)FYS: Dining and drinking in the ancient Mediterranean worldMW 3:00PM - 4:15PMRoller, MatthewGilman 413
 
AS.001.161 (01)FYS: Books, Authenticity, and TruthT 2:00PM - 4:30PMCelenza, ChrisBLC 2030
 
AS.001.179 (01)FYS: Race Before Race - Difference and Diversity in the Ancient MediterraneanTTh 10:30AM - 11:45AMPandey, NandiniGilman 108
 
AS.001.180 (01)FYS: Lunar HistoriesMW 10:30AM - 11:45AMni Mheallaigh, KarenGilman 134
 
AS.040.103 (01)The Roman EmpireTTh 3:00PM - 4:15PMRoller, MatthewGilman 132
 
AS.040.105 (01)Elementary Ancient GreekMTWThF 9:00AM - 9:50AMStaffGilman 108
 
AS.040.107 (01)Elementary LatinMWF 10:00AM - 10:50AMStaffGilman 108
 
AS.040.204 (01)Greek Myth and Anime: Cross-cultural Concepts of Man and DivinityTTh 4:30PM - 5:45PMDopico, Juan PGilman 217
 
AS.040.205 (01)Intermediate Ancient GreekTTh 12:00PM - 1:15PMSmith, Joshua MGilman 108
 
AS.040.207 (01)Intermediate LatinMWF 11:00AM - 11:50AMStaffGilman 108
 
AS.040.217 (01)A Clash of (Ancient) Civilizations? The Jews in the Graeco-Roman WorldMW 4:30PM - 5:45PMLoi, GiacomoKrieger 306
 
AS.040.305 (01)Advanced Ancient GreekTTh 12:00PM - 1:15PMSmith, Joshua MGilman 108
 
AS.040.307 (01)Advanced Latin ProseMW 12:00PM - 1:15PMStaffGilman 108
 
AS.040.417 (01)Survey of Greek Literature I: Homer to the Classical PeriodW 1:30PM - 4:00PMYatromanolakis, DimitriosGilman 108
 
AS.040.420 (03)Classics Research Lab: Casts of BaltimoreT 1:30PM - 4:00PMAnderson, Emily S.K.Gilman 261
 		HART-ANC
AS.150.201 (01)Introduction To Greek PhilosophyMW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AMBett, RichardHodson 213
Ames 320		PHIL-ANCIEN
AS.150.201 (02)Introduction To Greek PhilosophyMW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, W 1:30PM - 2:20PMBett, RichardHodson 213
Gilman 400		PHIL-ANCIEN
AS.150.201 (03)Introduction To Greek PhilosophyMW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AMBett, RichardHodson 213
Hodson 203		PHIL-ANCIEN
AS.150.201 (04)Introduction To Greek PhilosophyMW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, W 1:30PM - 2:20PMBett, RichardHodson 213
Croft Hall G02		PHIL-ANCIEN
AS.150.406 (01)Tragedy and Living WellM 3:00PM - 5:30PMLebron, Christopher JosephMaryland 104
 		PHIL-ANCIEN, PHIL-ETHICS, PHIL-SEM
AS.389.315 (01)Ancient Color: The Technologies and Meanings of Color in AntiquityM 1:30PM - 4:00PMBalachandran, SanchitaGilman 150A
 		MSCH-HUM