About Odyssey

“Great Thinkers”

These courses offer more depth and intensity either through a larger number of sessions or through one or two day intensives that allow for a full immersion into a particular area.

Genesis in Three Dimensions: From Adam to Abraham,
2 Sundays, Nov. 9 & 16, 1-6 p.m.

The Mystery of Elizabethan Shakespeare and Renaissance: Hamlet,
10 Wednesdays, Oct. 1- Dec. 17, 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Eros and Eris: Love and Strife in the Western Literary Tradition,
Friday evening Sept. 19, 6:30-8:30 p.m. & Saturday, Sept. 20, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Jazz: Baltimore and Beyond,
Sat. and Sun., Dec. 6- 7, 1:00-5:00 p.m.

Antonioni/Bergman: Cinemas of Possibilities,
9 Wednesdays, Sept. 24 – Dec. 3, 6:30-9:15 p.m.

Have you ever wanted to learn a foreign language or to hear about distant lands and cultures? Maybe you’d like to learn how to take a better digital photograph of a tern lifting off from the wetlands, or begin that first novel. Does history interest you? Would you like to study the War of 1812 or perhaps visit a local cemetery rich with history and the stories of notables buried there. Maybe you’d like to argue philosophy and ethics or study Beowulf or the films of Woody Allen.

As its name suggests, Odyssey invites participants to expand their creative and intellectual horizons by actively exploring a universe of educational offerings. Ranging from the hard sciences to the fine arts, these non-credit courses are designed to delight and instruct, to inform and enrich. They combine outstanding classroom instruction at one of the nation's premier universities with unusual formats and dynamic experiential components.

Odyssey reaches out, giving people in the Baltimore-Washington area access to the research and scholarship being conducted at JHU. It also draws upon local talent and explores social and historical aspects of the region. The result is a current of ideas, a healthy interchange of perspectives that enlivens both JHU and its environs.

Areas within Odyssey include Special Lecture Series and Symposia, Arts and Humanities, Writing and Communications, Foreign Languages, Music and the Performing Arts, Photography and Film, and Natural and Social Sciences. We also offer a non-credit Certificate on Aging.