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.
- Friday lates: The body as image and material in 20th century artCourse start date: Fri 9 May 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Irina ChkhaidzeExplore the representation of body and body-related practices by prominent modern and contemporary artists of the twentieth century.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £12.00 - Writing and rewriting fairytales
Course start date: Sun 11 May 2025 (and 2 other dates)Location on this date: Online
Tutors: KR MoorheadOnce upon a time there was a City Lit workshop all about writing fairytales. The quest: to inspire writers to pen stories of love, fear, forests, revenge, dragons, witches, kings, queens, frogs and magic.Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £40.00 - Friday lates: psychogeography: the art of getting lost Course start date: Fri 16 May 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Christopher CollierFrom pub crawls to punk rock, via comic books, action painting and Hegelian philosophy; hear the unlikely tale of the Situationists: international artist-revolutionaries who tried to change the world itself into a work of art.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £12.00 - Global Connections: Oral Histories of Ugandan Asians in Britain after 1972Course start date: Thu 22 May 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Syeda AliThis one day course brings together evidence from interviews with the ever decreasing number of original arrivals to the UK from Uganda, following Idi Amin’s expulsion in 1972.
Using oral history we ask questions of what we can learn from the personal testimony of individuals and what unique insights this gives us.Full fee £10.00 Senior fee £10.00 Concession £7.00 - How to get an agent Course start date: Tue 3 Jun 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Neil ArkseyThis workshop, designed for authors who have finished their manuscript, offers practical advice on finding and approaching a literary agent.Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £40.00 - Friday lates: Fluxus - a revolutionary tide in art Course start date: Fri 6 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Irina ChkhaidzeDiscover international, interdisciplinary ‘anti-art’ movement Fluxus and explore the use of ‘shock’ tactic in their revolutionary video art and performances.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £12.00 - Create your first poetry collection Course start date: Sat 7 Jun 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Online
You've written and workshopped your poetry, and now you're ready to create your first collection. But where do you begin with that process? This workshop offers instruction and advice on putting together your first poetry collection.Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £40.00 - Tuesday talks: Painted love – homosexuality in Ancient Greek vase paintingCourse start date: Tue 10 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Simone ChisenaDiscover the ways in which homoeroticism found its way onto Ancient Greek vases and how its depiction flourished in the ancient world.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £15.00 Concession £12.00 - Russia and Ukraine: The memory politics of conflictCourse start date: Thu 12 Jun 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Olivia DurandThe ongoing Russian occupation of Ukraine and the Ukrainian fight for its people, land and sovereignty is not only fought on the battlefield. Join us to explore how history and memory politics is also at central
Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £12.00 - Writing poetry: getting started Course start date: Thu 12 Jun 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Billie ManningThis short, fun workshop is the perfect starting point for students who are writing for the first time or new to the poetry path. Join us for thought-provoking writing exercises and poetry theory for beginners.Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £40.00 - Refugee Week at City Lit: Climate change, food insecurity and refugeesCourse start date: Tue 17 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Olivia DurandExplore how colonialism, industrial agriculture, and capitalist extraction have shaped global food systems—driving hunger, displacement, and refugee movements. Through case studies, we will examine resistance efforts reclaiming food sovereignty and sustainable alternatives.Full fee £10.00 Senior fee £10.00 Concession £7.00 - Friday lates: Text as image from the Renaissance to nowCourse start date: Fri 20 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayWhat happens when word becomes image? From Chinese calligraphy to the prints of Francisco Goya, the graffitied phrases of Jean-Michel Basquiat and truisms of Jenny Holzer, this short course explores how to read text as image. We'll explore how we might read differently in the context of an artwork and how to approach artworks that rely on text as part of their visual composition.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £12.00 - Refugee Week at City Lit: political refugees and exiles in Latin America during the Cold WarCourse start date: Fri 20 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Maria Vasquez-AguilarJoin this session to understand how political refugees and exiles are central to understanding Latin America during the Cold War, and their arrival to the UK. This course is part of City Lit’s Refugee Week events.
Full fee £10.00 Senior fee £10.00 Concession £7.00 - An Introduction to 21st century British drama and societyCourse start date: Mon 30 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Online
This online course offers an introduction to the concept of the 21st century British dramatist as a social observer, enabling a deeper understanding of how playwrights can illuminate and comment on social issues. Join us to find out how playwrights Polly Stenham, Jez Butterworth and Phillip Ralph have interrogated a variety of societal ills including a miscarriage of justice, dependency issues, class and the façade of contentment amongst the upwardly mobile.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £12.00 - 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
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