Visual Arts

This course will grapple with the social and cultural dimensions of contemporary ecological problems through a local, project-based approach. Coursework will be organized on a studio basis in partnership with a local environmental organization, Friends of Stony Run. Continuing a collaborative project initiated in the fall of 2019, we will work together to develop interpretive materials for the Stony Run stream and urban watershed adjoining our campus.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

This course provides an introduction to concepts in neural networks and connectionist models. Topics include parallel distributed processing, learning algorithms, and applications. Specific networks discussed include Hopfield networks, bidirectional associative memories, perceptrons, feedforward networks with back propagation, and competitive learning networks, including self-organizing and Grossberg networks. Software for some networks is provided. Prerequisite(s): Multivariate calculus and linear algebra. Course Note(s): This course is the same as EN.605.647 Neural Networks.

This seminar will explore some of the pivotal historical and contemporary connections between the US and Liberia since the first Black American settlers arrived in West Africa with the American Colonization Society in 1822. This course asks: What are implications of these stories of migration and reception for how we make sense of global anti-Blackness in the contemporary moment? How does performance provoke new questions about shared histories of those impacted by colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade? Why is a more in-depth understanding of 19th century Black political thought and the precolonial West African indigenous category necessary for developing theory on the political economy of race today? Through the lens of performance studies, students will analyze the documents in the American Colonization Society archive, to reimagine these early encounters as informed by historical documentation including folklore and pan-Africanist theory. Through exploring a range of historical and contemporary materials that center the problematic “indigenous/settler” binary, students will engage in a dramaturgical process which presents powerful possibilities for unlearning historical misrepresentations. In particular, students will develop theater-based projects that interrogate the spatio-temporal connections between the stories of both, free Blacks and those who were enslaved in Maryland and manumitted to go to Liberia, and the contemporary politics of Liberia-US migration.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Surviving imagery suggests that persons in Minoan and Mycenaean societies engaged in various celebratory performances, including processions, feasts, and ecstatic dance. This course explores archaeological evidence of such celebrations, focusing on sociocultural roles, bodily experience, and interpretive challenges.

Area: Humanities

This course introduces the fundamentals of robot design and development with an emphasis on autonomy. Robot design, navigation, obstacle avoidance, and artificial intelligence will be discussed. Topics covered in robot design include robot structure, kinematics and dynamics, the mathematics of robot control (multiple coordinate systems and transformations), and designing for autonomy. Navigation topics include path planning, position estimation, sensors (e.g., vision, ultrasonics, and lasers), and sensor fusion. Obstacle avoidance topics include obstacle characterization, object detection, sensors and sensor fusion. Topics to be discussed in artificial intelligence include learning, reasoning, and decision making. Students will deepen their understanding through several assignments and the term-long robot development project.

This course will teach the fundamentals needed to utilize the ever-increasing power of the GPUs housed in the video cards attached to our computers. For years, this capability was limited to the processing of graphics data for presentation to the user. With the CUDA and OpenCL frameworks, programmers can develop applications that harness this power directly to search, modify, and quickly analyze large amounts of various types of data. Students will be introduced to core concurrent programming principles, along with the specific hardware and software considerations of these frameworks. In addition, students will learn canonical algorithms used to perform high-precision mathematics and data transformations. Class time will be split between lectures and hands-on exercises. There will be two individual projects in both CUDA and OpenCL programming, which will allow students to independently choose demonstrable goals, develop software to achieve those goals, and present the results of their efforts.

This follow-on course to data structures (e.g., 605.202) provides a survey of computer algorithms, examines fundamental techniques in algorithm design and analysis, and develops problem-solving skills required in all programs of study involving computer science. Topics include advanced data structures (red-black and 2-3-4 trees, union-find), recursion and mathematical induction, algorithm analysis and computational complexity (recurrence relations, big-O notation, NP-completeness), sorting and searching, design paradigms (divide and conquer, greedy heuristic, dynamic programming, amortized analysis), and graph algorithms (depth-first and breadth-first search, connectivity, minimum spanning trees, network flow). Advanced topics are selected from among the following: randomized algorithms, information retrieval, string and pattern matching, and computational geometry. Prerequisite(s): EN.605.202 Data Structures or equivalent. EN.605.203 Discrete Mathematics or equivalent is recommended. Course Note(s): The required foundation courses may be taken in any order but must be taken before other courses in the degree. Students can only earn credit for one of EN.605.620, EN.605.621, or EN.685.621.

Traditionally, logic is the study of correct reasoning. In the last few decades, logic has become increasingly important to knowledge representation -- a subfield of artificial intelligence concerned with developing representations of the world (often called ontologies) that aid computers in understanding and making sense of data. This course will promote both a theoretical and practical understanding of logic as a stepping stone for working in contemporary knowledge representation. We will begin with a review of categorical, propositional, and predicate logic. We will then survey modal logics, which include systems that represent necessity and probability, as well as other systems that represent time, and moral notions such as obligation and permissibility. The second half of the course will then introduce the semantic web and ontology engineering. Students will explore the top-level ontology Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) and gain familiarity using mereological and temporal relations. In addition, students will create ontologies in the web ontology language (OWL2) and use the language SPARQL to query knowledge graphs. Students will have the option of writing either a research paper or creating an ontology in OWL with slides as part of a final project.

Cloud computing helps organizations realize cost savings and efficiencies without spending capital resources up front, while modernizing and expanding their IT capabilities. Cloud-based infrastructure is rapidly scalable, secure, and accessible over the Internet—you pay only for what you use. So, enterprises worldwide, big and small, are moving toward cloud-computing solutions for meeting their computing needs, including the use of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS). We have also seen a fundamental shift from shrinkwrapped software to Software as a Service (SaaS) in data centers across the globe. Moreover, providers such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have opened their datacenters to third parties by providing low-level services such as storage, computation, and bandwidth. This trend is creating the need for a new kind of enterprise architect, developer, QA, and operational professional—someone who understands and can effectively use cloud-computing technologies and solutions. In this course, we discuss critical cloud topics such as cloud service models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS); virtualization and how it relates to cloud; elastic computing; cloud storage; cloud networking; cloud databases; cloud security; and architecting, developing, and deploying apps in the cloud. The format of this course will be a mix of lectures, and hands-on demos. Upon completing this course, students will have a deeper understanding of what cloud computing is and the various technologies that make up cloud computing, along with hands-on experience working with a major cloud provider. Prerequisite(s): 605.202 Data Structures.

This course surveys the principal difficulties of working with written language data, the fundamental techniques that are used in processing natural language, and the core applications of NLP technology. Topics covered in the course include language modeling, text classification, labeling sequential data (tagging), parsing, information extraction, question answering, machine translation, and semantics. The dominant paradigm in contemporary NLP uses supervised machine learning to train models based on either probability theory or deep neural networks. Both formalisms will be covered. A practical approach is emphasized in the course, and students will write programs and use open source toolkits to solve a variety of problems.Course prerequisite(s): There are no formal prerequisite courses, although having taken any of 605.649 Introduction to Machine Learning, 605.744 Information Retrieval, or 605.645 Artificial Intelligence is helpful.Course note(s): A working knowledge of Python is assumed. While some of the assigned exercises can be done in any programming language, we will sometimes provide example code in Python, and many of the labs are best solved in Python.

This course provides an introduction to concepts in neural networks and connectionist models. Topics include parallel distributed processing, learning algorithms, and applications. Specific networks discussed include Hopfield networks, bidirectional associative memories, perceptrons, feedforward networks with back propagation, and competitive learning networks, including self-organizing and Grossberg networks. Software for some networks is provided. Prerequisite(s): Multivariate calculus and linear algebra. Course Note(s): This course is the same as 625.638 Neural Networks.

Analyzing large data sets (“Big Data”), is an increasingly important skill set. One of the disciplines being relied upon for such analysis is machine learning. In this course, we will approach machine learning from a practitioner’s perspective. We will examine the issues that impact our ability to learn good models (e.g., inductive bias, the curse of dimensionality, the bias-variance dilemma, and no free lunch). We will then examine a variety of approaches to learning models, covering the spectrum from unsupervised to supervised learning, as well as parametric versus non-parametric methods. Students will explore and implement several learning algorithms, including logistic regression, nearest neighbor, decision trees, and feed-forward neural networks, and will incorporate strategies for addressing the issues impacting performance (e.g., regularization, clustering, and dimensionality reduction). In addition, students will engage in online discussions, focusing on the key questions in developing learning systems. At the end of this course, students will be able to implement and apply a variety of machine learning methods to real-world problems, as well as be able to assess the performance of these algorithms on different types of data sets. Prerequisite(s): EN.605.202 – Data Structures or equivalent.

Prerequisite(s): EN.605.202 – Data Structures or equivalent, EN.605.621 – Foundations of Algorithms or EN.685.621 – Algorithms for Data Science or 705.621 – Introduction to Algorithms

This course explores the underlying theory and practical concepts in creating visual representations of large amounts of data. It covers the core topics in data visualization: data representation, visualization toolkits, scientific visualization, medical visualization, information visualization, flow visualization, and volume rendering techniques. The related topics of applied human perception and advanced display devices are also introduced. Prerequisite(s): Experience with data collection/analysis in data-intensive fields or background in computer graphics (e.g., 605.667 Computer Graphics) is recommended.

Many advanced artificial intelligence systems are using both Machine Learning and Symbolic AI to solve subproblems. This course builds on the foundations of EN.605.645 Artificial Intelligence by delving more deeply into those AI algorithms and approaches that go under the name of Good Old Fashioned AI or Symbolic AI. In this course, we will cover logic programming, expert systems and business rules, fuzzy logic, case based reasoning, and knowledge graphs. We will also explore more advanced versions of planning and reinforcement learning algorithms. The instructor may add additional topics as warranted. Prerequisite(s): EN.605.645 Artificial Intelligence or permission of instructor.

Prerequisite(s): EN.605.645 Artificial Intelligence

This course is concerned with the problems of inference and decision making under uncertainty. It develops the theoretical basis for a number of different approaches and explores sample applications. The course discusses foundational issues in probability and statistics, including the meaning of probability statement, and the necessity of a rational agent acting in accord with probability theory. We will look at possible generalizations of Bayesian probability, including Dempster-Shafer theory. Next, we will develop algorithms for Bayesian networks—graphical probabilistic models—for exact and approximate inference and consider several application areas. Finally, the course will examine the problem of making optimal decisions under uncertainty. We will explore the conceptual foundations of decision theory and then consider influence diagrams, which are graphical models extending Bayesian networks to the domain of decision analysis. As time permits, we will also look at Bayesian games and Markov decision processes. Pertinent background in probability and theoretical computer science is developed as needed in the course.

This course focuses on recent advances in machine learning and on developing skills for performing research to advance the state of knowledge in machine learning. The material integrates multiple ideas from basic machine learning and assumes familiarity with concepts such as inductive bias, the bias-variance trade-off, the curse of dimensionality, and no free lunch. Topics range from determining appropriate data representations and models for learning, understanding different algorithms for knowledge and model discovery, and using sound theoretical and experimental techniques in assessing learning performance. Specific approaches discussed cover nonparametric and parametric learning; supervised, unsupervised, and semi-supervised learning; graphical models; ensemble methods; and reinforcement learning. Topics will be discussed in the context of research reported in the literature within the previous two years. Students will participate in seminar discussions and will present the results of a semester-long research project of their own choosing.

Prerequisite(s): EN.605.649 Introduction to Machine Learning; multivariate calculus;Students cannot receive credit for both EN.605.746 and EN.625.742

Recently, principles from the biological sciences have motivated the study of alternative computational models and meta-heuristic approaches to problem solving. Proceeding from a machine learning perspective, this course explores how principles from theories of evolution, natural selection, and swarming behavior can be used to construct machines that exhibit nontrivial behavior. In particular, the course covers techniques from evolutionary computation and swarm intelligence for developing software agents capable of solving problems as members of a larger population of agents. Specific topics addressed include representation and schemata; selection, reproduction, and recombination; theoretical models of computational intelligence; optimal allocation of trials (i.e., bandit problems); search, optimization, and machine learning; evolution of programs; population and swarm dynamics; and emergent behavior. Students will participate in seminar discussions and will complete and present the results of an individual project.

Prerequisite(s): EN.605.649 Introduction to Machine Learning; multivariate calculus.

In order to drive a future where artificial intelligence (AI) enabled autonomous systems are trustworthy contributors to society, these capabilities must be designed and verified for safe and reliable operation and they must be secure and resilient to adversarial attacks. Further, these AI enabled autonomous systems must be predictable, explainable and fair while seamlessly integrated into complex ecosystems alongside humans and technology where the dynamics of human-machine teaming are considered in the design of the intelligent system to enable assured decision-making. In this course, students are first introduced to the field of AI, covering fundamental concepts, theory, and solution techniques for intelligent agents to perceive, reason, plan, learn, infer, decide and act over time within an environment often under conditions of uncertainty. Subsequently, students will be introduced to the assurance of AI enabled autonomous systems, including the areas of AI and autonomy security, resilience, robustness, fairness, bias, explainability, safety, reliability and ethics. This course concludes by introducing the concept of human-machine teaming. Students develop a contextual understanding of the fundamental concepts, theory, problem domains, applications, methods, tools, and modeling approaches for assuring AI enabled autonomous systems. Students will implement the latest state-of-the-art algorithms, as well as discuss emerging research findings in AI assurance.

Covers basic statistical tools for data analysis. Emphasizes facility in problem-solving in statistical inference and two-variable regression and correlation analysis. Presents descriptive statistics, probability and probability distributions and their use in hypothesis testing. Uses computer to solve problems and to reinforce statistical concepts.

Prerequisite(s): Students may not register for this class if they have already received credit for SA.340.709[C]

This course provides a survey of computer algorithms, examines fundamental techniques in algorithm design and analysis, and develops problem-solving skills required in all programs of study involving data science. Topics include advanced data structures for data science (tree structures, disjoint set data structures), algorithm analysis and computational complexity (recurrence relations, big-O notation, introduction to complexity classes (P, NP and NP-completeness)), data transformations (FFTs, principal component analysis), design paradigms (divide and conquer, greedy heuristic, dynamic programming), and graph algorithms (depth-first and breadth-first search, ordered and unordered trees). Advanced topics are selected from among the following: approximation algorithms, computational geometry, data preprocessing methods, data analysis, linear programming, multi-threaded algorithms, matrix operations, and statistical learning methods. The course will draw on applications from Data Science. Course Prerequisite(s): EN.605.201 Introduction to Programming Using Java or equivalent. EN.605.203 Discrete Mathematics or equivalent is recommended. Course Note(s): This required foundation course must be taken before other 605.xxx courses in the degree. This course does not satisfy the foundation course requirement for Bioinformatics, Computer Science, or Cybersecurity. Students can only earn credit for one of EN.605.620, EN.605.621, or EN.685.621.

…. forthcoming.

This course examines the economics of Latin America in contemporary comparative perspective. Starting with an overview of long term trends in growth and structural transformation, the course moves on to consider the theoretical approaches which economists have adopted to understand development processes in the region. The introductory phase of the course completed, the next three lectures survey the key macroeconomic themes of fiscal policy, monetary policy and the external balance. The difficulties countries in the region have faced in maintaining macroeconomic stability is an important theme of the course and is referred back to again and again in subsequent sessions. An equally important topic, that of poverty and inequality, forms the basis for the next section of the course. The remainder of the course deals with the challenge Latin America now faces as it struggles to compete in the global economy. The course will entail formal lectures and student presentations/group discussions. Each student (in conjunction with one or two colleagues) will be expected to prepare and present one 20 minute presentation at some point during the course. The presentations will be followed by group discussions led by the course lecturer. Broad indications of themes for the talks provided in this outline. More precise details of the talk topics – along with guidance on sources and formats – will be given in week one of the course.

...forthcoming

This course will focus on the inseparable links between energy use and climate change and, consequently, the unavoidable connection between energy and environmental policy. Through an examination of the subject, we also hope to explore three closely-related themes that exemplify the complexity of the interaction between science and technology on the one hand and public policy on the other hand: the challenges of achieving political acceptance, both nationally and internationally, of scientific consensus in the face of ever-present scientific uncertainty; the extent and the limitations of science as a driving force for public policy; and the role of technological development in influencing political choices.

This hardware-supplemented course covers the guidance, navigation- and control principles common to many small fixed-wing and multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Building on classical control systems and modeling theory, students will learn how to mathematically model UAV flight characteristics and sensors, develop and tune feedback control autopilot algorithms to enable stable flight control, and fuse sensor measurements using extended Kalman filter techniques to estimate the UAV position and orientation. Students will realize these concepts through both simulation and interaction with actual UAV hardware. Throughout the course, students will build a full 6-degree-of-freedom simulation of controlled UAV flight using MATLAB and Simulink. Furthermore, students will reinforce their UAV flight control knowledge by experimenting with tuning and flying actual open-source quadrotor UAVs. Prerequisite(s): Background in control systems (e.g., EN.525.609 Continuous Control Systems) and matrix theory along with a working knowledge of MATLAB. Experience using Simulink is desired. Existing familiarity with C programming language, electronics, and microcontrollers will be helpful but is not required.

This course will focus on the use of machine learning theory and algorithms to model, classify, and retrieve information from different kinds of real world signals such as audio, speech, image, and video.

Prerequisite(s): EN.525.627 Digital Signal Processing and EN.525.614 Probability and Stochastic Processes for Engineers

This course focuses on the underlying principles of pattern recognition and on the methods of machine intelligence used to develop and deploy pattern recognition applications in the real world. Emphasis is placed on the pattern recognition application development process, which includes problem identification, concept development, algorithm selection, system integration, and test and validation. Machine intelligence algorithms to be presented include feature extraction and selection, parametric and non-parametric pattern detection and classification, clustering, artificial neural networks, support vector machines, rule-based algorithms, fuzzy logic, genetic algorithms, and others. Case studies drawn from actual machine intelligence applications will be used to illustrate how methods such as pattern detection and classification, signal taxonomy, machine vision, anomaly detection, data mining, and data fusion are applied in realistic problem environments. Students will use the MATLAB programming language and the data from these case studies to build and test their own prototype solutions.

Prerequisite(s): EN.525.614 Probability and Stochastic Processes for Engineers or equivalent. A course in digital signal or imageprocessing is recommended, such as EN.525.627 Digital Signal Processing, EN.525.619 Introduction to Digital Image and Video Processing, 525.643 Real-Time Computer Vision, or 525.746 Image Engineering.

Recent technological advances coupled with increased data availability have opened the door for a wave of revolutionary research in the field of Deep Learning. In particular, Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) continue to improve on state-of-the-art performance in many standard computer vision tasks including image classification, segmentation, object recognition, object localization, and scene recognition. With an emphasis on computer vision, this course will explore deep learning methods and applications in depth as well as evaluation and testing methods. Topics discussed will include network architectures and design, training methods, and regularization strategies in the context of computer vision applications. Following a seminar format, students will be expected to read, understand, and present recent publications describing the current state-ofthe-art deep learning methods. Additionally, team projects will give students an opportunity to apply deep learning methods to real world problems.Prerequisite(s): Students should have taken courses in computer vision and machine learning/pattern recognition, have basic familiarity with OpenCV, Python and C++, as well as prior class instruction in neural networks.

Intelligent algorithms are, in many cases, practical alternative techniques for tackling and solving a variety of challenging engineering problems. For example, fuzzy control techniques can be used to construct nonlinear controllers via the use of heuristic information when information on the physical system is limited. Such heuristic information may come, for instance, from an operator who has acted as a “human-inthe-loop” controller for the process. This course investigates a number of concepts and techniques commonly referred to as intelligent algorithms; discusses the underlying theory of these methodologies when appropriate; and takes an engineering perspective and approach to the design, analysis, evaluation, and implementation of intelligent systems. Fuzzy systems, genetic algorithms, particle swarm and ant colony optimization techniques, and neural networks are the primary concepts discussed in this course, and several engineering applications are presented along the way. Expert (rule-based) systems are also discussed within the context of fuzzy systems. An intelligent algorithms research paper must be selected from the existing literature, implemented by the student, and presented as a final project. Prerequisite(s): Student familiarity of system-theoretic concepts is desirable.

This course provides an investigation of human-robot interaction and prosthetic control, with a focus on advanced man-machine interfaces including neural signal processing, electromyography, and motion tracking interfaces for controlling and receiving feedback from robotic devices. The course will also cover human physiology and anatomy, signal processing, intent determination, communications between the human and the device, haptic feedback, and telepresence. It is designed to be a hands-on course with class time spent in the dedicated robotics lab designing interfaces and performing experiments in a Virtual Integration Environment (VIE) and with robotic devices. Additional time in the lab, outside of class time, may be required to complete the course project. Programming for the class will be in MATLAB and Simulink.Prerequisite(s): Linear algebra, ordinary differential equations, and programming experience with Python or MATLAB

This course introduces students to the fundamentals of energy, resources and environment. It covers a wide range of topics from the functioning of electricity markets to the challenge of climate policy and the management of air pollution. It also introduces a host of key concepts and analytical frameworks that underpin policy analysis in the field, such as notions of collective action and the role of regulatory agencies in monopolistic markets. The course pays particular attention to the energy-environment nexus, including the challenge of low-carbon development in an era of climate change. The course lays the foundation for other courses in the program.

An exploration of the occurrence and potential effects of poisons in the environment, from naturally occurring ones such as arsenic to those that may be introduced by mankind such as nuclear waste.

Area: Natural Sciences

How does a notary’s son trained as a painter gain expertise in the construction of machines and acquire knowledge of the principles of optics, human anatomy, the flight of birds, the dynamics of air and water? How did an artist/engineer who brought few projects to completion come to have such a huge impact on later generations? This First-Year Seminar will focus critically on the myth of Leonardo’s singularity while showing his achievements to be characteristic of the artisanal culture of his time.

Area: Humanities

This First-Year Seminar is designed around what is on stage in Baltimore this fall. We will attend several plays, both professional productions at theatres in the city and student productions at JHU. We will pay attention to the interpretation of plays on the page, and to the ways that scripts materialize as performances on the stage. We will place these performances in the context of larger theatre histories, studying great plays from the age of Shakespeare to contemporary American theatre. No acting required – just the desire to explore the theatre of today.

Area: Humanities

Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus and its surroundings is a wonderful green space in the middle of Baltimore City. This First-Year Seminar will introduce students to both the visible and cryptic organisms living above- and belowground. A combination of observational and sampling techniques will be used to demonstrate how ecologists collect data about plants, insects, and other organisms. In the classroom, these field observations, combined with reading material will be used to discuss environmental issues including global biodiversity decline, invasive species, and the effects of human activities on local and global biodiversity patterns. By the end of the course students will be able to generate research questions based upon field observations and appreciate the diverse life forms on Earth and in our own backyard.

Area: Natural Sciences

Provides a broad systematic understanding of the executive practice of public health from its inception to modern day. Uses case studies, as well as ethical and public heath practice frameworks to provide students with a grounding in “what is public health practice,” why it is important, and why it is contested.

Course location and modality is found on the JHSPH website.

This interdisciplinary course surveys critical themes related to Asian American art and activism including perspectives from history, art and visual culture, literature and gender and sexuality studies.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

How do museums represent the world? The course will focus on the colonial legacy of museums and complicate discourses of decolonization by looking at a range of case studies. We will study the world’s fairs, artworks, artifacts, collections, curatorial practices, exhibition histories, repatriation requests, and exhibitionary modes of display, in order to analyze their relationship to histories of decolonization, temporality, translation, untranslatability, spectatorship, provenance, and the life of objects.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

How do museums represent the world? The course will focus on the colonial legacy of museums and complicate discourses of decolonization by looking at a range of case studies. We will study the world’s fairs, artworks, artifacts, collections, curatorial practices, exhibition histories, repatriation requests, and exhibitionary modes of display, in order to analyze their relationship to histories of decolonization, temporality, translation, untranslatability, spectatorship, provenance, and the life of objects.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

This multidisciplinary course explores the origins of life, planet formation, Earth's evolution, extrasolar planets, habitable zones, life in extreme environments, the search for life in the Universe, space missions, and planetary protection. Recommended Course Background: Three upper level (300+) courses in sciences (Biophysics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy, Math, or Computer Science).

Prerequisite(s): Students may not register for this class if they have already received credit for AS.020.334 OR AS.020.616 OR AS.171.333 OR AS.171.699 OR AS 270.335 OR AS.360.671

Area: Natural Sciences

"When the Spanish unleashed their regime of colonization of what is present-day Mexico, their primary justification was the religious salvation of Indigenous people. Spaniards, along with other Europeans, arrived by the boatload to impose colonial order, taking up bureaucratic and ecclesiastical positions. The result was far from smooth—the sixteenth-century saw widespread disease, missionary violence on behalf of salvation, crop destruction and the recultivation of land, urban plans that radically altered the environment, the resettlement of entire populations, among other dramatic social and environmental events. This course investigates the complex and dynamic elements of colonial New Spain (as Mexico was called) from an interdisciplinary perspective. It tries to make sense of the chaotic landscape of the first century of Spanish colonial rule in New Spain. It is a research and writing intensive course that serves as an introduction to both the history and art history of this place and moment. Our meetings will act as a springboard for a group trip to Mexico during the January intersession to study objects and spaces in situ. Final projects will relate to materials viewed in person in Mexico. The costs for this trip are included for all students, no fees required. Knowledge of Spanish preferred but not required.

Area: Humanities

Writing Intensive

This multidisciplinary course explores the origins of life, planet formation, Earth's evolution, extrasolar planets, habitable zones, life in extreme environments, the search for life in the Universe, space missions, and planetary protection. Recommended Course Background: Three upper level (300+) courses in sciences (Biophysics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy, Math, or Computer Science).

Prerequisite(s): Students may not register for this class if they have already received credit for AS.020.616 OR AS.020.334 OR AS.171.333 OR AS.171.699 OR AS.270.335 OR AS.360.339.

Area: Natural Sciences

The course analyzes both the role of the state in the economy, including its manifestation as a Welfare State, and the role played in the public sphere by civil society organizations. The first part deals with the theory of market failures and government failures, the theory of collective economic action, the economic theory of democracy, the analysis of tax systems. The second part of the course uses the concepts developed in the first part to analyze specific governmentalinstitutions, expenditure programs and taxes in a comparative international perspective. These include health care (special attention will be devoted to the Covid-19 pandemic), social insurance, redistribution programs, education, the politics of institutional choice, government decentralization (federalism), political capitalism, the digital revolution and the labor market.

This course offers a very long-run view of the evolution of the world economy over the past five centuries, selecting the aspects which have contributed most to change over time and to the present day situation.

This course gives a survey of the Asian economic development experience over the past half-century, with a focus on its international dimensions. In addition to evaluating the source of the remarkable growth and development of the region, the course considers the many challenges that the region has and will continue to face, from the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997-98 to the Covid-19 pandemic shock. It also looks at conflict and cooperation in the region in the 21st century.

…. forthcoming

This course proposes to enhance students’ verbal (pronunciation, intonation, syntax, vocabulary) and nonverbal skills (body language, vocal projection, spatial awareness) by performing excerpts from French and Francophone plays ranging from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. A closer analysis of these excerpts will lead us to consider how theater uses the physicality and immediacy of human experience to create a more universal form of connectivity with the world.Recommended course background: AS.210.301.

Area: Humanities

Without Amazonia, global warming could reach levels that threaten life on the planet. Yet, in an era of deforestation and climate change, Amazonia itself might be on the verge of disappearance, with disastrous consequences for the world. This course proposes interdisciplinary perspectives on Amazonia through a range of works drawn from history, anthropology, archeology, environmental studies, literature, and the arts. We’ll look at texts by European travelers and missionaries who contributed to the paradoxical image of Amazonia as a “virgin paradise” or a “green hell”; scientific studies and artists’ depictions of the region’s flora and fauna; the often-overlooked history of human occupation of the region; and projects to colonize, develop, or conserve the world’s largest tropical forest. What importance does Amazonia hold for Latin American and global geopolitics? How do art and literature, including indigenous writings, create, reinforce, or deconstruct clichés about the region? What alternative futures for our planet can Amazonia help us to imagine?

Area: Humanities

Over the past decade, growing numbers of filmmakers in Italy have addressed ecological crises in their work. This class takes an eco-critical approach to contemporary Italian cinema, examining a body of compelling place-centered stories that deal with local and global issues. Defining the scope of eco-cinema and the ways we can interrogate films as ecological texts, we shall screen earth-centered films that raise consciousness about the consequences of human manipulation of the natural world; the complicity of industry, government, and organized crime in creating environmental crises; and the effects of economic and social malaise. Screenings include iconic films such as Michelangelo Antonioni’s Red Desert (1963), more recent, critically acclaimed films such as Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah (2008), Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy as Lazzaro (2018), and many others.

Area: Humanities

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.

Area: Humanities

In The Great Derangement Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh writes that “the climate crisis is also a crisis of culture, and thus of imagination.” Worldwide, climate and environmental change is stirring the imaginary of novelists, filmmakers, and artists who are finding ways to frame, emplot, or even perform, an unmanageable phenomenon like climate change. How is climate change shaping new modes of storytelling and aesthetics? How do film, literature, and environmentally conscious art transform our perception of the world we inhabit and its unpredictable changes? Can climate change narratives help us to imagine futures of possibilities, maybe dystopian, uncertain, or even happy, but futures nonetheless? This multimedia course explores, through a transnational perspective, a variety of contemporary novels, films, and other media that attempt answer these questions.

Area: Humanities

The course explores 21st-century German theater in its diverse aesthetic and textual forms. Due to comparatively generous funding, German non-commercial theater has over the last decades been able to develop, adapt, and maintain a great variety of at one point “experimental” artistic styles, including frequently stark depiction of gender and violence. We will focus on the ways in which the productions take up, amplify, displace, disrupt, and/or reinforce cultural codes and images of gender and violence both in their symbolic and physical dimension. Topics include the “directors’ theater,” political theater, “pop-theater,” “discourse-theater,” “new documentary theater,” “post-migratory theater,” postcolonial theater and live art. The readings may include Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek, Dea Loher, René Pollesch, Milo Rau, Falk Richter, Sasha Marianna Salzmann and various works of shared authorship such as She She Pop, Rimini Protokoll, Gintersdorfer/Klaßen, and Yael Ronen. The Tuesday sessions will be used for the joint viewing of production recordings. Taught in English. Course material in German. No sessions after March 27th.

Area: Humanities

Increased awareness of climate change has led to a shift in the way we address and intervene in environmental issues in the new millennium. Yet the interest in making sense of the environment has a long history in literature and the arts. How have Latin American writers and artists understood and depicted their environments and environmental questions? How do the form and content of texts and cultural artifacts influence our understanding of the non-human world? Can works of fiction shape ecological transformations? In this course we will discuss texts from the early colonial period to the present, including the literary works of Graciliano Ramos, Horacio Quiroga, and Clarice Lispector; political ecology; film; Ana Mendieta’s earth-body art; contemporary experiments in bio-art; postcolonial theory; and the intersection of environmental justice with such topics as nationalism and human rights. Going beyond ecocriticism’s original focus on the Anglo-American world, we will engage recent scholarship on Latin America that sheds light on the region’s cultural and geopolitical importance to the global climate, with particular attention to Brazil. This course aims to introduce students to current debates in Latin American Ecocriticism and the Anthropocene and thus contribute to an incipient but expanding field.

Area: Humanities

This course will present the Egyptological collections of the musée du Louvre in Paris, room by room, as in a real visit. The experience will be enhanced by the study of objects that are not shown to the public but are kept in the reserves of the museum. From the 4th millennium BC to Roman time, the iconic “masterpieces” of this world-renowned art museum, as well as its little-known artifacts, will allow us to explore the history and material culture of ancient Egypt. We will also learn to observe, describe and analyze archaeological objects, in a global manner and without establishing a hierarchy between them, while questioning their place in the museum and its particular language. The objective will be to go beyond the objects themselves and answer, in fine, the following questions: What do these objects tell us about the men and women who produced them, exchanged them, used them, and lived among them in antiquity? What do they also reveal about those who discovered them in Egypt, several millennia later, about those who collected them and sometimes traded them, and what does this say about the relations between Egypt and the Western countries over time? The courses will be complemented by visits to the rich Egyptian collections in Baltimore.

Area: Humanities

How do art historians and archaeologists recover and study genders and sexualities of ancient people? This writing-intensive seminar looks at texts and objects from ancient Egypt, Assyria, and Greece through the lens of gender and sexuality studies. Beyond exploring concepts of gender in the ancient Eastern Mediterranean, students will also consider how modern scholars have approached, recovered, and written about ancient gender identities. There are no prerequisites for this course.

Area: Humanities

Writing Intensive

Geoarchaeology is a multidisciplinary subfield that applies the tools and techniques of earth science to understand ancient humans and their interactions with environments. This course examines basic topics and concepts, including archaeological site formation, paleo-environmental reconstruction, raw materials and resources, soil science, deposition and erosion of wind and water-borne sediments in different environments such as along rivers, lakes and coastlines, radiocarbon and other chronometric dating methods, and ground-based remote sensing, including ground penetrating radar.

Area: Natural Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences

This writing intensive seminar examines the relationship between religion and science in ancient Mesopotamia and the rest of the Near East from the 4th millennium to the Hellenistic period. Using a variety of case studies, and through engagement with scholarly literature pertaining to the topic of the course, students will develop skills in specific research skills such as critical reading, analysis, and interpretation.

Area: Humanities

Writing Intensive

Geoarchaeology is a multidisciplinary subfield that applies the tools and techniques of earth science to understand ancient humans and their interactions with environments. This course examines basic topics and concepts, including archaeological site formation, paleo-environmental reconstruction, raw materials and resources, soil science, deposition and erosion of wind and water-borne sediments in different environments such as along rivers, lakes and coastlines, radiocarbon and other chronometric dating methods, and ground-based remote sensing, including ground penetrating radar.

Area: Natural Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Area: Humanities

Writing Intensive

This course surveys museums, from their origins to their most contemporary forms, in the context of broader historical, intellectual, and cultural trends including the social movements of the 20th century. Anthropology, art, history, and science museums are considered. Crosslisted with Archaeology, History, History of Art, International Studies and Medicine, Science & Humanities.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

We explore the possible futures of cultural heritage and museums in times of accelerating climate change, pandemics, armed conflict and political and social turmoil by examining past and contemporary events.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

The course introduces and applies new concepts about materials, and materiality to museum objects. It treats the museum as a site for investigating the relationship between people and things.

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

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Course will examine the collecting behavior of Americans. Students will explore how collectors have defined the holdings of the nation’s museums, galleries, and libraries and used objects to shape taste and status in the U.S.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

The course examines recent controversies in the conservation of major global art works and sites, raising questions concerning the basic theoretical assumptions, practical methods and ethical implications of art conservation. Cross-Listed with History of Art and Anthropology

Area: Humanities

Students investigate the Baltimore Museum of Art’s American art collection and its presentation to the public alongside current scholarship on American art to develop strategies for a new permanent collection display that aligns with the museum’s commitment to artistic excellence and social equity. M&S Practicum. Co-taught with BMA curator Virginia Anderson.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Using the Baltimore Museum of Art as a laboratory, students examine canonical narratives in art museums and iterate new approaches to objects in museums that build equity, interrogate privilege, decolonise, revisualise and offer alternative stories. Class meets at the museum every other week.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Examines the history of African art in the Euro-American world, focusing on the ways that Western institutions have used African artworks to construct narratives about Africa and its billion residents.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

In collaboration with a local museum, conceptualize and develop an exhibition, potentially including but not limited to: checklists, exhibition texts, interpretive strategies, and programming. Exhibition theme varies year to year. Concepts, ethics and practicalities of curation are key concerns. Research visits to regional museums and private collections as relevant.

Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Writing Intensive

Today's world relies a lot on the accumulation, presentation, and interpretation of large quantities of information. Statistics and Econometrics are tools that enable us to organize our data in an efficient manner and provide us with methods that help to understand the relationships that occur in our data and our increasingly complex world. In this course, we will draw examples from multiple disciplines, such as political science and economics, to demonstrate how to search for and evaluate patterns in large amounts of data, as well as to interpret what these patterns tell us about the world. The course develops tools for estimating functional relationships and critically reading empirical studies that use different econometric techniques.

Genocide is often described as the worst of crimes, the nadir of human behavior, and the world’s most “odious scourge.” The goal of this course is to examine the origins and causes of genocide and to introduce students to the key works and major debates in the growing field of genocide and mass violence research. This course is divided into three parts. First, we will discuss how genocide is conceptualized and defined, explore the theories that try to explain whygenocides occur, and discuss why people may participate in genocidal killing. In the second part we will examine several key case studies of genocide and mass violence. Third, we will complete the course by debating policy approaches to genocide and mass violence including prevention, intervention, post-genocide justice, reconciliation and memory.

Provides an overview of strategic studies, which deals with the preparation and use of military power to serve the ends of politics. Discusses the development of warfare from the mid-19th century through the present and addresses major theoretical concepts, including those found in Carl von Clausewitz’s On War.

Prerequisite(s): Students may not register for this class if they have already received credit for SA.660.740[C]

Genocide is often described as the worst of crimes, the nadir of human behavior, and the world’s most “odious scourge.” The goal of this course is to examine the origins and causes of genocide and to introduce students to the key works and major debates in the growing field of genocide and mass violence research. This course is divided into three parts. First, we will discuss how genocide is conceptualized and defined, explore the theories that try to explain whygenocides occur, and discuss why people may participate in genocidal killing. In the second part we will examine several key case studies of genocide and mass violence. Third, we will complete the course by debating policy approaches to genocide and mass violence including prevention, intervention, post-genocide justice, reconciliation and memory.

This course is concerned with the historical process by which European nation-states have constructed the institution known as the European Union (EU). It dealsprimarily with political, diplomatic, and economic history, not legal history or the history of European public policy. By the end of the course, students will have aclear picture of principal forces that have driven European integration at the various stages in the 'European Project's' development.

The Indo-Pacific has developed into a new framework for regional co-operation and contestation between the major powers, replacing the earlier notion of the Asia-Pacific. It reflects the rise of China and its Belt and Road Initiative, which aspires to weld together the Eurasianlandmass and its adjacent areas in a two-pronged, transcontinental and maritime drive. This course explores the material foundations, the perspectives and strategies of the major players in this huge maritime area, the patterns of co-operation and conflict in their interactions andthe arrangements - and their deficiencies - for transregional international order.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought war back to Europe: not Cold War, not civil war (as in the Balkans during the 1990s), not even ‘hybrid’ war (as in Ukraine in 2014) – just all-out conventional war. While its outcome is still uncertain, its outbreak has surely ended the ‘Thirty-Year Peace’ that the European continent has enjoyed since the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union.

This course will provide a brief overview of current challenges linked to both forced and voluntary migration and then proceed to examine and discuss how we can balance political, economic, legal and institutional issues linked to state as well as human security in the interest of a better national, regional and global management of migratory movements.

As the use of military force to resolve disputes between nations becomes less plausible in most regions of the world,the struggle for influence intensies. Among the results has been the rise to global fame of the concept of ‘Soft Power’, in theory a means to turn a country’s attributes and achievements into a lever for gaining advantage in international competitions of all sorts. Google lists 176m references to the term (11/1/13), China has invested in it heavily and consciously. Even nations such as Russia and Iran are using soft power language and tools. During the Syrian crisis, the term was everywhere. But the course will suggest that the land which gave birth to the term – the US – is still the one which enjoys the greatest advantages in this contest, since the most significant form of soft power leverage over time is the one which most successfully proposes models of modernity. No matter how much weaker the appeal of America’s military, its banks, its politics compared to their heyday, America’s products, icons, technologies, universities,media industries, personalities, etc. can still produce forms of presence and innovation which the rest of the world must reckon with. The course offers an historical perspective on this dynamic. Specifically it focuses on the great variety of models of modernity the US has produced over time and still can, and how the world has come to terms with them (including militant rejection). The course in its early stages is European in focus. Soon it opens out to other regions of the globe, especially Asia. So often the imperative of innovation that the US brings has encountered waves of anxiety about relations between the state and its citizens, between national communities and the market, between generations, genders, ethnic groups and religions. Efforts to understand ‘soft power’ and the outcomes of the world’s encounter with the American version: these are the central issues of the course.

The course is meant to prepare the students to deal with the most important theoretical and substantive issues affecting the nature, functioning and transformation of the political systems of the developing world. It will be focused on the analysis of the most relevant regime-types: authoritarian, military, theocratic, and democratic, and of major political processes such as political development and social modernization, state-building and state failures, politicaltransitions and democratic consolidations. It will draw from a wide range of cross-national and cross-regional cases. Class time will be divided between lectures and discussion. Each topic will be introduced by the instructor. The readings constitute the background for each lecture, but we will build upon them and go well beyond. Occasionally, timely articles on especially significant events will be analyzed in depth. Hopefully, fertile discussions will follow on the assumption thatall students have done their reading. The course will end with a take-home exam.

In August 2021 the international media and most politicians reacted with much surprise to the dramatic events at Kabul airport. Thousands of Afghanis and their families were struggling to get on the last Western flights desperate to leave the country to escape the Taliban who were quickly advancing without any significant resistance by the Western trained army. It did not take long before prominent Western commentators proclaimed that the failure in Afghanistan would be the end of the longstanding Western inspired conflict management strategy to end violent conflict in failing states by deploying peace operations and getting involved in long term peace- and nation building processes. Indeed, “peace operations”, conducted by a variety of international actors like the UN, EU, NATO, AU, have become a strategic pillar of international peace and security policy since the end of the Cold War. In average, about 150 thousand military, police and civilians were annually deployed in missions worldwide in recent years. But does the failure in Afghanistan really imply that there is no future for peace operations and peacebuilding and that missions like those in Mali, Somalia, DR Congo etc. will suffer a fate similar to that in Afghanistan? This is what we want to explore in the class by having a thorough, field based look at the history, concepts, development and unsolved problems of UN-led peace operations and peacebuilding.

The course aims to discuss key concepts and analytical framework for analyzing the various phases and facets of intra-state wars, and to show how international interventions can affect the course of these conflict and peace processes. In order to do so, the course first analyzes thecauses of civil wars and other major episodes of collective violence, the dynamics of violence in these conflicts, and early warnings measures that allow to “predict” the onset of conflict. It then examines the different ways in which external/international actors can intervene in domesticconflict, management techniques that may be introduced at various stages of conflict to halt escalation, minimize violence, and to move conflicts toward a sustainable peaceful settlement. This includes an analysis of peacekeeping, peacebuilding and state-building practices, and transitional justice. The course provides students with an advanced understanding of the thriving literature on civil wars and interventions, looking at both qualitative and quantitative scholarship, and offers students the possibility to engage with case studies to explore the real-world conflicts from their origin to their solution. In particular, the course offers detailed treatment of conflicts across continents, such as the wars in Bosnia, Colombia, Sahel region and Syria. Each case study will cover different aspects of the conflict, from their onset to evolution and the role of external actors. The expected outcome is that students will be able to engages with both academic and policy relevant literature in their quest for gaining a better understanding of the conflict cycle.

The spread of human rights and constitutional, representative government based on the rule of law, as either spurs for development or desirable outcomes of development, seems both possible and urgently necessary and yet we appear to be in a phase where many countries are undergoing a democratic retrogression. This course examines the nature, fate and prospects for constitutional development and democratisation across the globe. Employing both the diachronicand synchronic methods of analysis typical of comparative constitutional law, the course addresses topics such as constitution-making and constitutional amendment; forms of state and forms of government as well as the role and functions of constitutional and supreme courts with the aim of understanding how a given institutional framework may facilitate or obstruct transitions to democracy. The experience of so-called ‘consolidated’ democracies will often be used to examine the transition to democracy of other countries.

The spread of human rights and constitutional, representative government based on the rule of law, as either spurs for development or desirable outcomes of development, seems both possible and urgently necessary and yet we appear to be in a phase where many countries are undergoing a democratic retrogression. This course examines the nature, fate and prospects for constitutional development and democratisation across the globe. Employing both the diachronic and synchronic methods of analysis typical of comparative constitutional law, the course addresses topics such as constitution-making and constitutional amendment; forms of state and forms of government as well as the role and functions of constitutional and supreme courts with the aim of understanding how a given institutional framework may facilitate or obstruct transitions to democracy. The experience of so-called ‘consolidated’ democracies will often be used to examine the transition to democracy of other countries.

forthcoming

This class provides a hands-on introduction to human and cognitive systems engineering. Students will learn and apply user-centered research and innovation methods that are used to discover, document and integrate human capabilities, limitations and needs into the systems engineering process, improving the likelihood that the resulting systems are intuitive, efficient, effective and useful. Topics include needs elicitation, workflow analysis, functional allocation, decision making, prototyping, and performance measurement.

Prerequisite(s): EN.645.662 Introduction to Systems Engineering OR EN.655.662 Introduction to Healthcare Systems Engineering OR EN.675.600 Systems Engineering for Space

The class will examine theories and practices of international advocacy. Students will examine different types of advocacy: from insider lobbying to people powered campaigns, from agenda-setting to rapid response and digital campaigning. They will read academic scholarship on advocacy alongside texts produced by and/or for practitioners. The first half of the course will focus on theoretical dimensions of advocacy – who drives norm change and who resists it? When is advocacy effective? The second half of the class will focus more on advocacy for refugee and migrant rights. Students will evaluate a campaign for refugee and/or migrant rights and develop their own campaign recommendations. Learning Objectives: critically assess theories of international advocacy; identify and compare different types of advocacy organizations, strategies and tactics; develop practical skills in designing and evaluating campaigns.

The first part of this course is designed to explore the complex inter-relationship between the quest for gender equality and multiculturalism, with an emphasis on the special dilemmas posed by religious systems which have or seek a significant measure of self-governance but do not accept liberal egalitarianism. The course, however, is not confined to an analysis of the "conflicts" generated by the anti-feminist and patriarchal nature of certain minority cultures, but seeksgender/culture connections in broader terms, taking into account liberalism's own dfficulties in granting full citizenship to women. Questions to be examined include the following: Is the partnership of feminism and multiculturalism necessarily agonistic? In a culturally diverse world, what constitutes gender (in)equality? To which extent should democracies accommodate communal cultures inimical to liberal gender equality? Is there an emerging international and/or European model of accommodating cultural diversity which nevertheless adequately takes into account the gender dimension? The second part of the course analyzes the relationship between culture and the regulation of women’s sexual and reproductive rights, with special emphasis on domestic and sexual violence, abortion, and pornography.

Change in the Middle East has often been attributed to charismatic and powerful leaders, whose influence has been magnified by crisis, wars, and authoritarian traditions. This course combines biography with politics to ask whether, how, and in which circumstances, individual leaders havechanged the course of modern Middle Eastern history. Special attention is paid to the interaction of leaders and mass movements, and leadership dynamics in the unfolding “Arab Spring.”

The course aims at introducing students to the history and politics of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), with a focus on the Mediterranean Middle East/Mashreq and Maghreb. Starting with the exploration of the emergence of the modern state system in the region, the course willexamine the post-colonial politics of MENA countries and the current state of affairs. In this context, a number of key issues will be addressed, such as state-society relations, authoritarianism and reform, the role of the military, regional dynamics, conflicts, the strategic importance of the region, political Islam, and democracy and human rights. The course will conclude with a discussion of the Arab uprisings and their outcome, along with the implications for the politics and international relations of the MENA region.