Humanities
From ‘Africa today’ to ‘Writing fiction’, the Humanities department offers an extraordinarily wide variety of part-time courses. Many of our tutors are nationally recognised in their own fields, with award-winning novelists, poets and writers for children; published historians on everything from the ancient world to modern London; and practising professionals in the media.As a learner you can also benefit from our partnerships with organisations such as the British Film Institute and close links with The British Museum, the London Transport Museum and many others.
» For Advanced English courses for speakers of other languages and Brush up your grammar courses please see the Humanities courses in the English, Maths and ESOL section.
» Click here to view a prospectus pdf for Humanities
- American film directors
- An introduction to film
- Breaking into the film industry
- British horror movies
- British science fiction films
- Classic cinema
- Cult movies
- Famous film directors: what does a director do
- Film comedy
- Film director mavericks: Malick and Kubrick
- French film directors: the director as author
- German film directors
- Get Carter
- Italian film directors: to Rome, Open City and beyond
- Key films of the cinema: classics
- Skyfall on Sunday: scene by scene
- The American crime film 1930-1955
- The director as adaptor: from page to screen
- The silent movie
- Exploring folklore today: 'A bloke at work heard it from...'
- Exploring folklore: an introduction to English folklore
- Exploring folklore: children's games, rhymes and customs
- Exploring folklore: Customs and festivals in the English year
- Exploring folklore: English folk dance and song
- Exploring folklore: ghosts, witches and the supernatural
- Exploring folklore: telling stories - narrative
- Exploring folklore: the superstitious world, old and new
- Folklore: dandelions to dragons - natural and unnatural worlds
- A history of animals in Britain 1800-1900
- A history of animals in Britain 1900-2000
- A history of London: 1880-1914
- A history of North Africa: Arab invasions to Arab Spring
- Africa today: policies and visions for the future
- Akhenaten, the heretic pharaoh
- America: The Great Migration and the Harlem Renaissance
- American Naturalism: the novels of Dreiser and Crane
- American presidents in the gilded age
- An introduction to family history
- Anglo-Saxon literature in translation
- Armageddon
- Ballet in Western culture: a brief introduction
- British foreign policy in the 21st century
- British-American relations: a special relationship
- Cinema and the First World War
- Cultural history: an introduction
- Dance in musical theatre: from Astaire to Bob Fosse
- Dance in popular culture: from Tango to Hip-hop
- Down the tube: exploring London`s underground lines
- Dresden: a musical paradise
- Edith Wharton and the age of innocence
- Eisenhower: the 1950s and the forgotten President
- EU enlargement: do we need more members
- Family history: thinking and writing your histories imaginatively
- Four famous excavations in Ancient Nubia
- How the ancients ate: a practical guide
- Human rights and refugees in a global context
- Inspiration and learning: an introduction to museum studies
- Introduction to battlefield guiding
- Introduction to classical studies: poetry and visual arts
- Introduction to Greek myth: ancient truths, modern mystery
- Isaac Rosenberg: Londoner and war poet
- London at war
- London at war: recruitment and memorialisation
- London in the swinging sixties
- London in the time of Edward I
- Love and poetry in the time of the troubadours
- Madame Tussaud's waxworks: murderers and monarchs
- Medieval England: the Black Death
- Medieval England: the calamitous 14th century
- Medieval England: the Hundred Years' War
- Medieval England: the Knights Templar and the Temple Church
- Medieval England: the reign of Richard II
- Medieval pilgrimage
- More current affairs
- New movement in the visual arts
- Other peoples in ancient Greece and Rome
- Pompeii: the lives of the people
- Radical responses to the Gilded Age: Jack London
- Samuel Pepys: life and times
- Slavery in modern history
- Storytelling: why stories matter and how to tell them
- The 20th century: the end of the world as we knew it
- The American Impressionists in the Gilded Age
- The Battle of Gettysburg 1863: 'This hallowed ground'
- The Battle of Sadowa 1866 and the rise of Prussia
- The Battle of Sedan and the fall of Napoleon III
- The Battles of Isandlwana and Maiwand: two imperial defeats
- The battles of the Waterloo campaign: the imperial sunset
- The context: the path to war
- The country house in English history
- The French Revolution: 1789
- The Gilded Age: Mark Twain the inventor
- The great kings: Assyria, Babylon and Persia
- The Greek classics: how Plato uses drama to teach
- The Greek classics: Odyssey & Iliad - two famous 'meetings'
- The Greek classics: Sophocles' Oedipus the King
- The legacy of Greece in the ancient World
- The Medieval churches of London: an archaeological approach
- The modern age: 20th century music
- The music of war
- The nation state and the visual arts
- The Odyssey in translation: a City Lit study group
- The politics of the environment: introducing green economics
- The robber barons: Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie and Frick
- The Spanish civil war and the arts: Lorca, Bunuel and Dali
- The story of Berlin
- The swinging sixties in film and TV
- The Third French Republic: 1871-1940
- The war and medical history
- The world's first underground: the Metropolitan line jubilee
- The `Arab Spring`
- Understanding the Israel-Palestine conflict
- Upside down world - who are the one percent
- War artists
- Was World War I good for medical advances
- What's in the news: debating current issues
- Whitehall and the Jews: British Government policy 1933-1951
- Whitehall walk
- Women's lives in the Ancient World
- World War I and the cartoonists
- An introduction to literature: poetry, prose and drama
- Appreciating great American drama of the 20th century
- AS level English literature
- City Lit reading group
- Clarice Cliff and her world
- Devotional poets in secular times
- Drama in society
- Exploring European modernist poetry
- Film of the book
- From Dickens to Zola: Nineteenth Century social realists
- Gerald Manley Hopkins: Immortal Diamond
- German Literature: Heinrich Heine's 'Germany-A Winter Tale'
- German literature: Thomas Mann in Hollywood
- Herodotus
- Ibsen's women
- James Joyce's Ulysses in a week
- Life writing: Lemon Sherbert and Dolly Blue
- Literature of dissent: an introduction to modern Arabic fiction
- Love and desire in Shakespeare
- Radical 20th century poets
- Shakespeare in performance
- Shakespeare: the test of love
- Summer Shakespeare
- The Arabian nights
- The genius of James Joyce
- The metaphysical poets
- The modern city in European literature
- The modern self in European literature
- The novels of Jane Austen
- The novels of Thomas Hardy
- Thomas Hardy: seen, heard and touched
- Three classic novels
- TS Eliot: The heavy burden of the growing soul
- William Blake: Eternity`s sunrise
- Wordsworth and Coleridge: the transcendent art
- World fictions: into the 21st century
- Agitators and reformers in Bloomsbury
- Bloomsbury's bohemians and bluestockings
- Discovering London's curiosities past and present
- In the footsteps of London's rebels
- Islington's visionaries, dissenters and rebels
- Legal London
- Stories of London
- Thames path riverside villages
- The radical Jewish East End
- The untold story: women's London
- Village London
- Alexander Pope and philosophy
- Art, pleasure and freedom
- Cultural relativism
- Freud, philosophy and psychoanalysis
- From anxiety to terror: a philosophy of horror
- Introduction to postmodernism
- Kant's aesthetics: beauty, genius and good taste
- Karl Marx for the curious
- Money as meaning
- Philosophy and psychoanalysis
- Philosophy of language and mind
- Philosophy of religion
- Philosophy of Science
- Philosophy, magic and the occult: thinking the cosmos
- Romanticism and science
- The philosophy of music
- The philosophy of the English revolutionary period: 1640-60
- Ways into philosophy: philosophy in the 20th century
- What is culture
Browse full range of courses
- Art, design and digital media
- Animation
- Art and design advanced practice
- Art and design foundation diploma
- Art and design portfolio
- Art history
- Basketry
- Bookbinding, paper, book arts and conservation
- Calligraphy
- Ceramics
- Design
- Digital arts and graphics
- Drawing and painting
- Drawing and painting from life
- Fashion and textiles
- Film, video, lighting and sound
- Graphic design
- Illustration
- Interior and spatial design
- Jewellery
- Mosaics
- Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign
- Printmaking
- Sculpture
- Sketchbooks, offsite and studio development
- Textiles
- Web design
- View all in Art, design and digital media
- Find out more about the Art, design and digital media department
- Photography
- Beginners
- City Lit photography course
- Documentary and photojournalism
- History, theory and talks about photography
- Lighting and studio techniques
- Photographing London
- Portfolio and project creation
- Printing and scanning
- Taking photography further: computer-based
- Taking photography further: specialist
- Traditional darkroom and techniques
- View all in Photography
- Find out more about the Photography department
- Creative writing
- Maths
- Science and nature
- Food and drink
- Classical languages and civilisations
- Languages
- Albanian
- Arabic
- Basque
- Bulgarian
- Catalan
- Chinese (Mandarin)
- Cornish
- Croatian
- Czech
- Danish
- Dutch
- Finnish
- French
- Gaelic (Scottish)
- German
- Hindi
- Hungarian
- Icelandic
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Modern foreign languages teacher training
- Modern Greek
- Mongolian
- Norwegian
- Polish
- Portuguese
- Romanian
- Russian
- Sanskrit
- Slovak
- Spanish
- Swahili
- Swedish
- Thai
- Turkish
- Twi
- Welsh
- Yiddish
- Yoruba
- View all in Languages
- Find out more about the Languages department
- Drama, dance and speech
- Accredited courses
- Acting - advanced
- Acting - follow-on
- Acting - introductory
- Acting short courses
- Comedy
- Communication courses for speakers of other languages
- Communication skills for business
- Dance and movement
- Directing
- Drama teaching
- Internet broadcasting
- Musical theatre
- Performance skills
- Professional skills for actors
- Professional theatre company
- Stage combat
- Technical theatre
- TV, radio and sound
- Voice, speech and communication
- View all in Drama, dance and speech
- Find out more about the Drama, dance and speech department
- Humanities
- Anthropology
- Archaeology
- Business and economics
- Crime and espionage
- Criminology
- Film
- Folklore
- Gardens and garden history
- History and politics
- Journalism
- Law
- Literature
- London walks
- Museum studies
- Philosophy
- Religious studies
- Social studies
- Victorian studies
- View all in Humanities
- Find out more about the Humanities department
- Music
- Externally accredited and professional development
- Music appreciation
- Music foundation and Access
- Music production and technology
- Musicianship
- Personal development for musicians
- Piano and keyboards
- Playing an instrument
- Reflective practice for musicians
- Singing
- The music industry
- View all in Music
- Find out more about the Music department
- Health and movement studies
- Alexander technique
- Anatomy and physiology
- Energy and relaxation
- First aid
- Fitness
- Fitness instructor training
- Health and fitness teacher training
- Massage
- Massage: professional level
- Nutrition and food safety
- Pilates
- Retreats
- Self-defence
- Yoga
- View all in Health and movement studies
- Find out more about the Health and movement studies department
- Computing and digital communication
- Apple Mac
- Basic computing
- Blogging
- Business computing
- Buying and selling online
- Computerised accounts and bookkeeping
- Courses leading to a qualification
- Design and illustration
- Desktop and Digital Publishing
- Digital Inclusion
- Digital tools
- eBay
- Explore your interests using a computer
- Keyboard skills
- Microsoft applications
- Mobile devices
- Open source software
- Programming
- Safety and security
- Social media
- Technical computing
- The internet
- Web page design
- Windows and file management
- View all in Computing and digital communication
- Find out more about the Computing and digital communication department
- Psychology, counselling & personal development
- English
- Deaf education
- British Sign Language
- British Sign Language for Deaf people
- Computing for Deaf people
- English and maths for Deaf people
- English, maths and computing for Deaf people
- Lipreading and managing hearing loss
- Other professional training
- Special interest courses for Deaf people
- Teacher training courses
- Training for language service professionals
- View all in Deaf education
- Find out more about the Deaf education department
- Careers in care work
- Courses in the community
- Access to higher education
- Progress - courses for people with learning difficulties
- Speech therapy
- Teacher & management training
Featured course
The Genius of James Joyce Saturday 11 May 2013 Dip into James Joyce’s inner world in a dynamic course using the short story ‘The Dead and the first 2 sections of’ Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’
Why City Lit?
If you are looking for a great choice of inspiring courses; a bright, modern environment to learn in located in central London; the opportunity to have fun and meet like-minded people, we look forward to seeing you at City Lit!