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.
- A condensed history of sculpture: ten sculptors who’ve shaped art historyCourse start date: Sat 28 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersStudy sculptors from the Renaissance to the Post-Modern, including Donatello, Bernini, Canova, Rodin, Picasso and Whiteread, considering styles, materials, and techniques of key works within social and cultural contexts.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - Neurodiversity as a fact of society: a brief introductionCourse start date: Sat 28 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Vina TheodorakopoulouBritish society is diverse, and not only in terms of faiths, ethnic backgrounds and other mostly visible differences. Neurodiversity is also a central aspect. Join us on this non-accredited course for a brief introduction to neurodiversity in society and discover how to engage with and support neurodivergent strengths.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £59.00 Concession £59.00 - What is cinema?Course start date: Sat 28 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Paul SuttonNowadays there are so many ways to watch film - smart phones, tablets, TVs - just as there are so many different spaces in which we encounter the moving image - cinemas, galleries, our homes, to name but a few. This day-long course will broaden and deepen your critical awareness of the diverse formal and experiential possibilities of cinema, both as they have developed in the past and as they are transforming in the contemporary moment. It will do this by reflecting on two questions: ‘what is cinema?’ and ‘where is cinema?’.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - Landmark Poetry: places and spacesCourse start date: Sat 28 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
What is the role of poetry ‘off the page’ in public spaces? Can a poem change the way we might re-encounter cultural history? Do statues serve as ‘informants’ from the past? We read poetry by Jackie Kay, Lemn Sissay and Dorothea Smartt commissioned for bridges, pavements, monuments, even super sewer ventilation shafts to identify the challenges, revisions and celebrations that emerge from exploring the place of poetry in public spaces.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - The Rise and Fall of the Mughal EmpireCourse start date: Sat 28 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: T HussainFollow the fortunes of the Mughal Emperors, rulers of Northern India from the 1500s to the 1800s. What were their contributions to the religious, political and cultural life of northern India and how can we explain the decline of their powers in the 1700s and 1800s?Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £69.00 Concession £45.00 - Art history taster
Course start date: Tue 1 Jul 2025 (and 7 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 £10.00 Senior fee £10.00 Concession £10.00 - Master drawings from Leonardo to Degas: experiment and expressionCourse start date: Thu 3 Jul 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Explore the significant role of drawing in shaping art and how artists have used different drawing techniques for creative expression.
Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £15.00 Concession £12.00 - Indian Women and the RajCourse start date: Sat 5 Jul 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: T HussainWhy does gender history matter and what can it tell us about the history of British colonialism and India? Join this six-week course to explore the representations and reality of Indian women’s lives during the British colonial era.Full fee £49.00 Senior fee £39.00 Concession £32.00 - Philosophy of artCourse start date: Sat 5 Jul 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Christopher HornerWhy do we value art? For the pleasure it gives us, the emotion it expresses, its truthfulness, its form? In this introduction to the philosophy of art we will consider various approaches to these questions and others. - Gender, Desire and the Body in PoetryCourse start date: Tue 8 Jul 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Ranging from sixteenth century love sonnets via bawdy Restoration verse to a Victorian eroticised poetic narrative, this course examines how the language of love and desire, and the poetic representations of gendered bodies, provide an idiom that can be used to express both conservative and more subversive cultural ideas.Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £63.00 Concession £51.00 - Spices, Trade, and Traditions of the Indian Sub-Continent - The Story of Food from Ancient Times to the Colonial EraCourse start date: Sat 12 Jul 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Ketan VariaJoin us to discover the history of food on the subcontinent, from the ancient period to the colonial era.How did local climates, agricultural practices, and cultural interactions shape regional cuisines?Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £51.00 - 19th Century Movements in Italian Literature: Manzoni, Verga, TarchettiCourse start date: Sat 12 Jul 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Francesco BucciolDiscover some key literary movements and novels that influenced the Italian cultural scene in the 19th century, through the study of three writers: Alessandro Manzoni, Giovanni Verga and Tarchetti.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - Partition in India and PakistanCourse start date: Sat 12 Jul 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: T HussainIn 1947 British India was partitioned. This resulted in an estimated one million deaths, the largest migration of people in modern history and the formation of India and Pakistan. What were the forces which led to Partition? When did the political and cultural factors that precipitated Partition emerge and accordingly, when did partition begin?Full fee £49.00 Senior fee £39.00 Concession £32.00 - Aesop's fables: an introductionCourse start date: Tue 15 Jul 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Maria ContosAesop’s fables have been used through history to clarify important issues within society. Investigate their perseverance through history and why they continue to be relevant today.Full fee £49.00 Senior fee £39.00 Concession £32.00 - Global Literatures: Han Kang & Elif ShafakCourse start date: Wed 16 Jul 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Join us for an exploration of the ways we experience global literatures of our time. Inter-generational memory is the focus of two prize-winning novels, The Vegetarian (2007) by Han Kang and The Island of Missing Trees (2021) by Elif Shafak. Unearthing the painful truths of history in the context of culturally/politically divided Korea and Cyprus, the authors deal delicately, and brutally, with love, the environment, patriarchy, resistance and the metamorphosis of the female body.Full fee £49.00 Senior fee £39.00 Concession £32.00
Can't see a course you want?
Add this category to your waiting list to set up alerts and we will update you when new courses are released online.
Add me to waiting list