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.
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- Understanding contemporary art: ideas and origins
Course start date: Mon 14 Oct 2024Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Christopher CollierEver wondered what's going on in the mind of contemporary artists? This course explores the ideas and historical background behind some of today’s most intriguing works, from Conceptualism and Video to Body Art and Installation.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information. - Themes in British politics Course start date: Mon 28 Oct 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Christian SchneeWant to look beyond the personal politics and Brexit and explore current British politics? Join Dr. Christian Schnee to discuss British politics in our time.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00 - National Portrait Gallery Course start date: Mon 28 Oct 2024 (and 3 other dates)
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Leslie PrimoDiscover portraiture and the National Portrait Gallery’s collection. Different periods and styles are discussed each week in front of the portraits. Includes visits to the current temporary exhibitions.Full fee £159.00 Senior fee £127.00 Concession £103.00 - Philosophy and memoryCourse start date: Mon 13 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Anita KasabovaWhat is memory? How does memory impact our sense of self and time? Why does memory often go wrong? If our memory is unreliable, can it provide knowledge of our personal past? How is memory registered in the body? What is collective memory? This course explores memory through philosophical and psychological lenses.
NB: There is no class on 30/09/24.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00 - Byzantine journey: medieval pilgrimage and artCourse start date: Mon 13 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Helen DejeanFor medieval pilgrims, visiting St Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and a powerful spiritual experience. Today, although an established tourist destination, the modern encounter with the sacred arts of the famous Monastery and ‘God-Trodden Mountain’ is often curtailed by time and limited access. This course aims to explain its many treasures and biblical loca sancta in relation to medieval and modern pilgrimage.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00 - Art in Britain 1890-1918 – New English Art Club to WWI Course start date: Mon 20 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Julia MusgraveExplore the works of British artists and their relationship to the legacy of academic painting and the art of continental Europe between 1880-1918. Who led developments and how does the art of the period reflect the times?
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00 - Life Writing: chronicling the selfCourse start date: Mon 27 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Megan BeechWhat draws writers to write about themselves? How might memoirs, diaries, letters and other kinds of self-reflective writing enable us to explore issues beyond the individual lives that they chronicle?
We'll look at the interesting and innovative (and sometimes obsessive) ways in which writers have documented their experiences, identities and travels, exploring what it means to share the most intimate parts of our experience with others.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £169.00 Concession £110.00 - Chaucer's Love VisionsCourse start date: Mon 3 Feb 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Rachel BuglassMuch less famous than The Canterbury Tales, with its quotidian concerns, Chaucer’s Love Visions are the dreams of poets. We will read The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Parliament of Birds, The Legend of Good Women and extracts fromThe Romaunt of the Rose. Through these allegorical tales, we will examine the conventions of medieval courtly love and life through the lens of Chaucer's humour, sharp observation and self-deprecation.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £169.00 Concession £110.00 - Introduction to Tate Modern Course start date: Mon 24 Feb 2025
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayExplore different aspects of the permanent collection of Tate Modern by looking at the work of its curators and the modern and contemporary artists in painting, video, sculpture and mixed media installations. - The future of democracyCourse start date: Mon 3 Mar 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Christian SchneeWant to think about and discuss what makes and breaks a democracy? Join Dr. Christian Schnee to engage in this vital discussion.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00 - Art in Britain 1918-1945 – the Interwar years and WWII Course start date: Mon 10 Mar 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Julia MusgraveExplore the art of British modern artists and their relationship to the art of continental Europe 1918–1950. Who led developments and how does the art of the period reflect the times?
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information. - Introduction to Latin American art Course start date: Mon 12 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayExplore the art of Latin America from indigenous cultures to colonisation and through the revolutions of the 20th and 21st centuries. - City Lit evening reading group Course start date: Mon 23 Sep 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Claire AllenShare thoughts and ideas about what you are reading, with books chosen by the group. Please come to the first session with suggestions (contemporary literary fiction in paperback) and having read The Queen of Dirt Island by Donal Ryan. Monthly meetings on 23 Sept, 21 Oct, 25 Nov; 13 Jan, 17 Feb, 17 March, 12 May, 9 June, and 7 July.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £169.00 Concession £110.00 - Nineteenth century French fictionCourse start date: Mon 30 Sep 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Megan BeechGreed, ambition, social mobility, and complexity of family structures: these are the key issues at play in the three French novels we will discuss in this course. Focusing on Stendhal's The Red and the Black (1830), Balzac's La Cousine Bette (1846) and Flaubert's Sentimental Education (1869). We'll explore the evolution of French literary style and social mores over the course of the 19th Century, thinking about representations of gender, marriage, social class and wealth along the way.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £169.00 Concession £110.00 - Icons and iconography Course start date: Mon 30 Sep 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Helen DejeanExplore the imagery and significance of the sacred icon, from its classical origins and formulation within the Eastern church, its many interpretations within and beyond the Byzantine world, from the 4th century to the present day.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00
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