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.
- Global encounters: the Silk RoadsCourse start date: Tue 16 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Vanessa KingTravel nearly 2000 years of history along the Silk Roads across Eurasia and China and explore the cross-cultural impact generated through the expansion of trade.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00 - Global finance: a brief introduction
Course start date: Tue 23 Sep 2025Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Caglar EzikogluExplore the essentials of global finance, learning about international markets, exchange rates, and financial instruments. Gain a foundational understanding of global economic dynamics.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £84.00 - Sleepwalking to Catastrophe? The Origins of the First World WarCourse start date: Tue 23 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Matthew PowellThe First World War didn’t erupt overnight—it was the result of decades of tensions, miscalculations, and fatal decisions. This course explores the long-term rivalries, shifting alliances, and short-term crises that led Europe to the brink in 1914. How did political ambitions, military strategies, and diplomatic failures push the world into an unprecedented conflict? Join us as we unravel the complex path to war and ask: was the catastrophe inevitable, or could history have taken a different turn?Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £149.00 Concession £97.00 - Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs: part 4: module 1Course start date: Tue 30 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Hugo Cook
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £219.00 Senior fee £219.00 Concession £142.00 - China and AfricaCourse start date: Tue 30 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Maisa EdwardsThis course studies the evolution of Chinese involvement in Africa, from the 1950s to the present day. Themes explored include diplomatic and defence relations, trade and commerce, politics and ideology.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £84.00 - Art and identity: from the High Renaissance to the ReformationCourse start date: Tue 30 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Emma Rose BarberExplore the legendary art and artists of the High Renaissance in Italy and the Netherlands from c. 1490-1540. Consider the role that ‘self-fashioning’ plays in their fame and notoriety through close reading engagement of a combination of images and texts.Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £129.00 - Solitude in fiction and memoirCourse start date: Tue 30 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Kate WilkinsonThis online literature course explores representations of solitude in recent fiction and memoir. Reading twentieth- and twenty-first-century texts, we’ll consider experiences of solitude across rural and urban settings, from remote islands to crowded cities. How is solitude shaped by places, culture, gender, age and technology?Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £179.00 Concession £116.00 - America in the 50s: culture and societyCourse start date: Tue 30 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Pauline Greene, Mark Malcomson, Dale Mineshima-Lowe, Paul Sutton, Patricia Sweeney, Ian TucknottFrom America's domestic expansion and boom in the 1950s, this online intertextual course explores the political, social and cultural context of 1950s America through a study of literature, history, music, film and art of the period. With different tutors for each specialism, the course provides a 'taster' in each subject as a gateway to further study in understanding this fascinating period in American culture and society.Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £149.00 Concession £97.00 - History reading group: political biographiesCourse start date: Tue 7 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Zoe QuinnThrough discussion of selected biographies we will explore in depth key individuals in world history , their legacy and the era in which they lived.The first class will discuss The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft by Claire Tomalin. Winner of the Whitbread First Book Prize As this was published a few years ago there are cheap 2nd had copies available.
NOTE: This course consists of four sessions on the following dates:
7/10/25, 25/11/25, 13/1/26, 10/3/26. - Argonautica: reading group (in translation) module 1Course start date: Tue 7 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Nikoletta Manioti.Full fee £159.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £103.00 - Teatime Talks: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, imagined portraitsCourse start date: Tue 14 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Chantal CondronOne of the most absorbing contemporary artists working in the UK today, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye paints startling ‘portraits’ of characters entirely derived from her imagination. Discover aspects of her artistic process and the ideas and themes behind her paintings on this course.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £15.00 Concession £12.00 - Debt in the global political economyCourse start date: Tue 21 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Caglar EzikogluExplore the intricacies of debt within the global political economy, examining its impacts, mechanisms, and socio-economic consequences.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £84.00 - US Vice PresidentsCourse start date: Tue 21 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Mark MalcomsonIn light of current events, the course will explore of the evolution of the role of Vice President in the US political landscape. We will also look at Vice Presidents over the last two centuries - successful and otherwise.Full fee £29.00 Senior fee £29.00 Concession £19.00 - The Spanish Empire: Power, Conquest, and LegacyCourse start date: Tue 28 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Maisa EdwardsJoin Dr. Maisa Edwards to explore the rise, global reach and fall of the Spanish Empire from the 1400s to the 1800s.
Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £77.00 - The Soviet Union and the Second World WarCourse start date: Tue 28 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Nick MorganThis course focuses on the Soviet experience of the Second World War, dating from the diplomacy of the late 1930s to the defeat of Germany and Japan in 1945.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00
Can't see a course you want?
Add this category to your waiting list to set up alerts and we will update you when new courses are released online.
Add me to waiting list