Explore Culture, History & Humanities Courses

This course explores the Making, the Locating and the Viewing of Renaissance paintings in the collection of the National Gallery. This course takes place at the National Gallery.

Explore diverse economic theories beyond capitalism in economic paradigms with regards to the alternatives of capitalism and broaden your understanding of global economic systems.

This study day will examine the question of the association of women with magic and witchcraft.

F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922) is acknowledged as one of the all-time greats of cinema, expressing as one critic describes it, the ‘poetry of fear’ and as one of the first feature length vampire films it’s influence, and legacy has been widely felt. Robert Eggers’ recent remake Nosferatu (2024), comes just over one hundred years after Murnau's film and marks one of the most recent instalments in a genre that continues to renew itself for each generation of film viewers. Exploring a range of key vampire films from across this century of cinema, this course will explore why the vampire film remains such a popular sub-genre of the horror film and it will consider why it continues to exercise such power over its spectators.

Join Sarah Wise to explore the clandestine world of 'resurrection men,' the bodysnatchers who supplied human bodies to anatomy schools and the impact of the 1832 Anatomy Act on the trade.

Come on a walking tour of Hampstead discovering where refugee artists from the Second World War lived and the people and institutions which made great efforts to save and support them.

The oldest profession as practised among the Romans - not for the squeamish.

What do we know? How do we know it? What are the limits of knowledge? Join this course to explore the area of Kant’s philosophy which focuses on his theory of knowledge.

Have you wondered why a film might have moved you so powerfully or why it looked so stunningly beautiful? Have you wanted to know quite how a film was able to communicate its story to you so effectively? If so, then this advanced level film studies course is for you. It aims to explore in depth the language of cinema, the way in which film connects with its spectators at the level of film form, in other words, film aesthetics. Writers and critics have long asked similar questions, as have filmmakers themselves, and we will follow some of the most celebrated in their quest for answers. We will look briefly at how films are made and at the importance of cinematography, editing, mise en scène and sound, before exploring in depth film’s aesthetic qualities. We will think about the importance of history for the development of film form and we will analyse clips and sequences from individual films so as to better approach and understand film aesthetics.