Explore Culture, History & Humanities Courses
Explore our extraordinary range of History, Culture and Writing courses and lectures. We offer both introductory and specialist in-depth courses to suit all levels of interest and experience, from ‘How to read a film’ and World literature, to Creative non-fiction writing courses and American history and Politics courses.
Our tutors are experts in their fields and experienced educators; many have published, teach in universities or share their expertise in the media. Tutors share their knowledge and passion through presentations, readings, interactive discussion and exercises, analysis, and other activities.
Many students return to take more courses, telling us they enjoy being part of our City Lit Learning community.
Our popular courses often sell out quickly, so we invite you to browse and book your place now.
- Art history taster
Course start date: Wed 10 Sep 2025 (and 10 other dates)Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayCurious about art history? Join us for this taster session where we explore different ways into visual art and its histories from the ancient to the contemporary.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £15.00 Concession £12.00 - City Lit reading group 1 Course start date: Fri 19 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Kate WilkinsonShare thoughts and ideas about what you are reading, with books chosen by the group. Please come to the first session on Friday 29 September with suggestions (contemporary fiction in paperback) and having read 'Story of the Forest' by Linda Grant. Meetings take place on 19/9, 24/10, 28/11, 30/1, 27/2, 27/3, 1/5, 29/5, 26/6.Full fee £239.00 Senior fee £191.00 Concession £155.00 - Philosophy and literature: Identity, Truth and the Poetic Word Course start date: Fri 19 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Barrie SelwynLiterature provides a very effective springboard into the understanding of the developing notions of selfhood and human nature in the history of ideas and philosophy sharpens our understanding of literature within the broader context of this history.Full fee £309.00 Senior fee £247.00 Concession £201.00 - Art in Britain 1950-2000 - 'This is Tomorrow' (Part 1) Course start date: Fri 19 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Chantal CondronDiscover the work of selected British artists whose innovative practice shaped the development of modern art in Britain from the 1950s to the 1970s. Explore how and why the ideas and themes behind their work continue to be relevant to today’s audiences. - City Lit reading group 2 Course start date: Fri 26 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Patricia SweeneyShare thoughts and ideas about what you are reading, with books chosen by the group. Please come to the first session with suggestions (contemporary literary fiction in paperback) and having read 'Absolutely and Forever' by Rose Tremain. Monthly meetings take place on 26/9, 31/10, 5/12, 23/1, 20/2, 20/3, 8/5, 5/6, 3/7.Full fee £239.00 Senior fee £191.00 Concession £155.00 - Nineteenth Century American Literary Classics Course start date: Fri 26 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Richard NilandThis class explores the wonderful world of 19th century American literature, reading classic texts to broaden knowledge of literary history through a range of influential novels, stories, and poems. Among the writers considered in their literary, political, and cultural contexts will be Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, Mark Twain and Kate Chopin.Full fee £219.00 Senior fee £175.00 Concession £142.00 - History, memory and mental wealth: why we need to talk about empire Course start date: Fri 17 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Martin JorgensenFormally, European imperialism ended decades ago. Yet, the different legacies still affect the world and many societies today. Join us for a discussion on why we need to talk about empire and mental wealth.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £15.00 Concession £12.00 - Some like it Indie: How the Independents Revolutionised Postwar HollywoodCourse start date: Fri 17 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
What do The Apartment, The Great Escape, West Side Story, In the Heat of the Night, The Pink Panther, The Magnificent Seven, Fiddler on the Roof and Some Like it Hot have in common? They were all produced by one small production company, run by three brothers, as the studio system was replaced by the new independent producers. Most Hollywood history fetishizes the 1970s as the decade in which the movies finally came of age. But this course looks back to the late ‘50s and ‘60s and zooms in on a single independent production company, the Mirisch Company, to understand the seismic shift that transformed Hollywood – not only in how films were produced but also in terms of the subjects and styles of the films themselves.Full fee £219.00 Senior fee £175.00 Concession £142.00 - Global arts of Africa Course start date: Fri 24 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Thomas BalfeThis course introduces major forms of African art in their regional and global contexts. It studies classical traditions of carving, metal casting, architecture and textile arts as well as twentieth-century and contemporary developments, including the work of photographers and conceptual artists.Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £129.00 - Women behind the lens: 1920-2020 Course start date: Fri 7 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Chantal CondronExplore the work of six influential female photographers across a century of practice from 1920. Featuring Claude Cahun, Lee Miller, Dora Maar, Cindy Sherman, Nan Goldin, and Zanele Muholi, this course examines how each artist challenged convention, documented social realities, redefined the creative act of photography and the experience of being behind the lens.
Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00 - Borderlines of Madness in 19th century Fiction Course start date: Sat 29 Nov 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sarah WiseWe will explore various themes related to ‘insanity’ and altered states of consciousness by examining a number of 19th-century works of fiction. Novelists and poets often had the greatest insights into the workings of the mind, and many Victorian psychiatrists cited works of fiction in their case studies. Among the authors we will cover are Charlotte Bronte, Edgar Allan Poe, Wilkie Collins, Gogol, Herman Melville and Charlotte Perkins Gilman.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - Treasures of Byzantine art and architectureCourse start date: Fri 5 Dec 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Roberta MarinThe Byzantines (circa 330-1453) have produced some of the finest works of art and erected the most remarkable buildings in the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea and beyond.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £69.00 Concession £45.00 - The Trojan War Course start date: Fri 5 Dec 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: William SterlingThe myths surrounding the war between the Greeks and Trojans in c. 1200 BCE. Or is it true? - Art in Britain 1950-2000 – 'This is Tomorrow' (part 2)Course start date: Fri 9 Jan 2026
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Chantal CondronDiscover the work of selected British artists whose innovative practice shaped the development of modern art in Britain from the 1950s to 2000. Explore how and why the ideas and themes behind their work continue to be relevant to today’s audiences.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00 - A history of photography: the first 150 years Course start date: Fri 9 Jan 2026
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayExplore the first 150 years of photography, an art form that has changed our perception of the world. Learn about key artists, movements and theorists that have defined its history and shaped our contemporary reality.
Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00
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