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.
- Cultureplex ciné-clubCourse start date: Thu 1 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Paul SuttonCome and join us at the Cultureplex Ciné-Club, where once a week, for 10 weeks, we will watch and discuss film. Taking its cue from the famous Parisian ciné-club set up by the celebrated critic and writer, André Bazin, ‘the single thinker most responsible for bestowing on cinema the prestige both of an artform and of an object of knowledge’, and the man who foresaw the emergence of film studies as a legitimate discipline of academic study, our contemporary incarnation of the film club will offer a curated series of films for detailed study, discussion and debate. Each film will be introduced, placed in both its cinematic, cultural and historic context. In sharing our viewing in City Lit’s premier screening room, the Cultureplex, we will approximate the experience of watching film in the cinema, one that is intense and fully focussed in a way that other modes of viewing often are not. After the screening we will devote the rest of the class to a collective exploration of the film, led by the tutor, but involving everyone in a participatory discussion that will allow all to express their responses, their views, their thoughts on the film screened. - Tales of transformation: Ovid’s MetamorphosesCourse start date: Thu 8 May 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Nikoletta ManiotiSo many works of art refer, in a way or another, to Ovid's Metamorphoses. In this course, you'll become familiar with some of the most memorable stories in this masterpiece and begin to understand why its stories are - and have been - so universally fascinating and influential.Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £99.00 Concession £64.00 - Everyday Life in the Roman EmpireCourse start date: Thu 8 May 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sean GabbAn opportunity to find about how daily life was for ordinary people in the Roman Empire. - Indigenous Australia: the beginnings of the Western Desert art movementCourse start date: Thu 8 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Arjmand AzizExplore the beginnings of Western Desert painting in 1970s Australia by focussing closely on the cosmopolitan and intercultural worlds of the Indigenous Australian artists at its heart.Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £63.00 Concession £51.00 - An introduction to stained glass at the V&ACourse start date: Thu 5 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Andreas PetzoldStained glass has been described as the most original and important medium in the high Middle Ages. The Victoria and Albert Museum has one of the finest and most comprehensive collections of stained glass in the world, spanning the twelfth century to the modern period. The course will provide an introduction to this medium and the collection of it in the Victoria and Albert Museum.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - Women with a view: British short fiction of the mid-centuryCourse start date: Thu 12 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Patricia SweeneyExplore and discover extraordinary short stories from renowned women writers of the 1940s and 50s, which present an insight into a time of great change in Britain, when domestic situations were rewritten, social customs challenged and new freedoms embraced. Authors include Elizabeth Bowen, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Penelope Mortimer, Elizabeth Taylor and Daphne du Maurier.Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £95.00 Concession £77.00 - Art Deco London walkCourse start date: Thu 19 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Diane BursteinTravel back to the 1930s to explore the Art Deco style that influenced a variety of designs, from radios and cutlery to places related to travel, entertainment and commerce. In addition to looking at the architecture of the period, your guide will tell stories of life in London from the time these buildings were being erected.
Meeting outside St James’s Park tube station (Broadway exit) and finishing at the coach station. Meeting outside St James’s Park tube station (Broadway exit) and finishing at the coach station.
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