Explore Culture, History & Humanities Courses

Explore London's places of protest and discover the stories of radicals, agitators and campaigners who fought for social justice, equal rights and better lives for all from the 1830s to the 1930s.



The first session will be in the classroom at Keeley Street followed by 11 guided walks.

A course of walking tours in areas of Westminster to show aspects of the nation’s political development since the late 1600s Restoration era. Bringing out the drama of the epic events and charismatic characters which have influenced that development and how London has evolved in those areas we focus on.



First meeting place: Outside Westminster tube, Bridge Street.

London has been muse, magnet and mecca to writers for 400 years, home to Shakespeare's successes, Dickens' dramas and Wilde's witticisms. After an introductory lecture (via zoom) we walk a different London neighbourhood each week exploring its literary connections.Break week/No class: 09/10/25. Initial lecture is on zoom . This is followed by 7 guided walks.

London was shaped by its architects, engineers, bricklayers, navies etc. Our lecture and walks examine London’s buildings and the men (and women) who worked throughout history to create this eclectic and wonderful city.



First lecture will be delivered via zoom followed by 8 guided walks. Break week/no class 09/10/25.

Phenomenology, one of the most influential approaches in contemporary philosophy, asks: how do we constitute experienced reality? Following Husserl and Heidegger, phenomenologists try to understand what it means, if anything, to be in the world.

Learn the common reasons for abstraction in art, across time and culture. From the Byzantine icon to the Igbo figurine, from Young Sook Park to Mark Rothko, we’ll think about how abstraction is more common in the history of art than is typically thought. Explore ways into thinking about and experiencing abstract art.

Too often we rush around without looking, this course takes time to examine 3 of London’s most famous Squares in depth. A gentle walk allows us to explore these London landmarks at our leisure.

We will be looking at novels from recent years that explore various dimensions of culture and society, reading and discussing a brief and careful selection of novels in English from several countries, diverse in style and genre. Titles include Piranesi, Susanna Clarke's mysterious and 'weird' tale of secrets and lost texts, William Boyd's Trio, which follows the life of an actress, a film producer, and a writer obsessed with the suicide of Virginia Woolf, Small Things Like These by Clare Keegan, in which a coal merchant becomes involved with the fate of a pregnant teenager trapped in a Magdalene Laundry, and Michelle de Kretser's Theory and Practice follows the academic trajectory of a Sri Lankan feminist researching the novels of Woolf.

Both victorious and defeated powers saw their empires dwindle as a consequences of the Second World War. This course looks at the fall of these empires in the period 1940-1991 and also at how the Cold War led to new spheres of influence and opportunities for domination, and the factors that gave rise to these.

Explore reasons for the fall of Rome and the emergence of the ‘barbarian’ kingdoms of western Europe. Was it really ‘the Dark Ages’? Were the Vikings simply long-haired tourists who occasionally beat up the natives?