Explore Culture, History & Humanities Courses

Come and revel in the possibilities of expression and form offered by poems across time, guided by lively group discussion and tutor expertise.

Are you curious about reading literature from across the world? Would you like to encounter some of the world’s finest literary works, reading across cultures and national borders, and in translation? This in-college session will give you a flavour of what it’s like to study and explore what global literature is, reading excerpts from major works.

Covering the early 19th century to the early 20th century, we will examine the East End and analyse how it was portrayed in works of fiction, thinking about how imaginative fiction and historical fact intertwine to create local legend.

This course will consider Claire Denis’ importance as a filmmaker by exploring in some detail a number of her key films from Chocolat (1988), I can’t sleep (1994), Beau Travail (1999), White material (2009), and High Life (2018). Claire Denis’ transnational postcolonial work, from Djibouti, South Africa to multi-ethnic France, deals with themes of migration, human desires and fears. Her films are renowned for being filmed mainly on location, for playing with many cinematic genres and languages and they are internationally acclaimed.

Explore Realism in the nineteenth century, focusing on Manet as its key example, considering such issues as social and political change, formal and subject developments, theoretic interests and artistic influences.

What is a short story? Come and discuss its characteristics, its length, design, mood and style. What distinguishes it from other kinds of short narrative? We’ll compare short stories to other forms, such as myths, legends, anecdotes, fabliaux, parables, fables, and ‘tales’. We’ll look at some of the greatest practitioners including Edgar Allan Poe, Katherine Mansfield, and O’ Henry.

The early 2000s saw the emergence of a number of Swedish and Norwegian crime series onto UK TV screens, including Wallander (dir. various, 2005-10), Forbrydelsen/The Killing (dir. Various, 2007), Borgen (dir. various 2010) and The Bridge (dir. various 2011), all broadcast on BBC4. The popularity of these dramas led to one critic to refer to them as ‘Nordic noir, the gift that keeps on giving’. Similarly successful were the film adaptations of Stieg Larsson’s hugely popular Millenium trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009 and 2011), The Girl who Played with Fire (2009) and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (2009). This one-day course will explore the history, context, development and reception of these TV dramas and films while also considering the various processes of adaptation and remaking involved in their production.

This course is an introduction to theology – reasoned discourse on the Christian understanding of God, his nature, and his relationship with human beings and the created order.

200 years after one of history’s most famous puzzles was deciphered, tour around the British Museum’s new Decipherment exhibition and learn how the mystery of Hieroglyphs was unravelled with the Rosetta Stone, with other archaeological clues, and with a bit of genius. The morning session will be held in our Covent Garden campus; after lunch you will visit the British Museum.

Come and revel in the possibilities of expression and form offered by poems across time, guided by lively group discussion and tutor expertise.

It's rare for a film studio to inspire affection. The giants of Hollywood (Warner Bros, Fox or Paramount) or Britain (Rank/Pinewood, Elstree) might be admired, but not loved. Ealing Studios was loved, and still is, well over half a century since its heyday. Pinewood—now known as the James Bond studio (see HF233 British Bond: James Bond in Cinema, 21st February 2026)—was built by J. Arthur Rank in 1936 and merged with Shepperton Studios in 2001 to become one of the technically advanced studios in the British film industry. Join us as we explore the history of these key British studios from their inception to the present day.