Culture Short Courses in London and Online

Enjoy examining and discussing some of the most pressing concerns that face humanity as we head further into the 21st century. Whether considering what it means to be human in a world that is grappling with the development of Artificial Intelligence or understanding the impact of social media on the way that we think about and live our lives.

Our innovative interdisciplinary Culture courses offer a way into exploring a range of burning contemporary issues that are represented and investigated by thinkers, writers, filmmakers and artists in a range of thoughtful and creative ways.

Study in-person, or online from the comfort of home, with classes that allow you to participate in discussions with fellow adult students and share your passion for Culture as part of a learning community. We offer daytime, evening and weekend courses, both short and long.

Our tutors are experts in their fields and experienced educators. Tutors share their knowledge and passion for Culture through presentations, screenings, interactive discussion, analysis, and other activities. Many students return to take more courses, telling us they enjoy being part of our City Lit community. Our popular courses often sell out quickly, so we invite you to browse and book your place now.

Courses available both in-person and online

We offer a range of long and short courses allowing you to choose between online and in-person learning. All our courses are live, interactive, and taught by expert tutors. No matter how you prefer to learn, we've got the class for you. See our guide to online learning for more information about accessing our live online courses.

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  1. America in the 50s: culture and society
    Evening
    Course start date:  Tue 3 Oct 2023

    Location on this date:  Online

    Tutors:  Pauline Greene, Mark Malcomson, Dale Mineshima-Lowe, Paul Sutton, Patricia Sweeney, Ian Tucknott
    We will explore the political, social and cultural context of 1950s America through a study of representative and



    sometimes surprisingly radical literature, history and film of the period. We will also have an overview of important



    themes of the 1950s in art and music. The course has different tutors for each specialism, providing different ways



    in to understanding the decade.



    This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.
    Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £77.00
  2. Being ecological: cultivating environmental consciousness in cultures of climate crisis
    Course start date:  Mon 30 Oct 2023

    Location on this date:  Online

    Tutors:  Katie Goss
    This course will introduce students to exciting initiatives in twenty-first century cultural discourse that attempt to reconceptualise what an ecological consciousness might be or feel like. Drawing on theoretical and literary texts, films, performance art, and political activism, we will explore radical ways of rethinking and reinhabiting our relations with more-than-human worlds, and how they open new possibilities for living on a damaged planet.



    This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.
    Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £149.00 Concession £97.00
  3. New York '80s culture
    Course start date:  Thu 2 Nov 2023

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Megan Beech
    This course will introduce you to the New York of the 1980s where art, music, theatre, fashion and nightlife were combining and the finest young artists Haring and Basquiat, Blondie and Grandmaster Flash, graffiti and punk. We will explore how different artistic movements informed each other in the period and how the forces of gentrification and increasing control by the City made these kinds of collaboration less possible.
    Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £99.00 Concession £64.00
  4. Contemporary life and its discontents: paradoxes of the present
    Course start date:  Wed 10 Jan 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Katie Goss
    Twenty-first century culture is becoming increasingly strange: from conspiracy theories and climate anxiety to compulsive doom-scrolling and the meme-ification of everyday life. This course will explore these and other phenomenon endemic to the present, analysing and exploring their significance through texts, films, artworks, cultural objects and psychoanalytic theory.
    Full fee £149.00
  5. Accelerating cultures: technology and form from the 19th century to now
    Course start date:  Mon 15 Jan 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Harriet Thompson
    Do you ever get the sense that things are constantly speeding up? Well, you’re not the only one! Since industrialisation, writers and artists have explored the accelerating effect of technological advancement. From the new perceptions of space and time produced by the railways to Marinetti’s Manifesto of Futurism, art and culture has always been in dialogue with new technologies, and the new subjective experiences they produce has likewise influenced literary and artistic form. In this course we will explore a range of materials (literature, art, photography, film) from the last 200 years to consider how cultural representations of gathering speed continue to help us to negotiate the now.
    Full fee £99.00
  6. America in the 60s: culture and society
    Course start date:  Tue 6 Feb 2024

    Location on this date:  Online

    Tutors:  Pauline Greene, Mark Malcomson, Dale Mineshima-Lowe, Paul Sutton, Patricia Sweeney, Ian Tucknott
    The 1960s was the decade that profoundly changed American culture. We explore the trajectory of a decade, including the presidential terms of Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, Vietnam, the civil rights movement, second wave feminism and radical changes in literature, art, music and film, all reflecting the historical turbulence of 1960s America.



    This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.
    Full fee £119.00
    Rating:
    80% of 100
  7. Feminism for the 21st century: many genders and even more trouble
    Course start date:  Fri 23 Feb 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Katie Goss
    In the twenty-first century, feminist theories of othering and oppression, identity and relation, sex and sexuality come into new life. From trans-medicine and Artificial Reproductive Technologies to climate crisis and internet activism, feminism remains at the forefront of struggles for a more just and inhabitable world. This course will explore how feminist thought is undergoing interesting transformations to meet these and other challenges of our times.
    Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £95.00 Concession £77.00
  8. Cyborg cultures: hybrid beings and monstrous identities
    Course start date:  Wed 24 Apr 2024

    Location on this date:  Online

    Tutors:  Katie Goss
    In this course students will be introduced to theories of posthumanism that suggest ways we can embrace ‘monstruous’ identities and ‘mutant’ forms of knowing. Through popular science fiction films and literary texts, we will contemplate the complex coming together and apart of bodies-minds-worlds in contemporary culture and explore experiences of hybridity and metamorphosis.



    This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.
    Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £99.00 Concession £64.00
  9. Neuro-cultures and cerebral subjects: cultural discourse on the brain
    Course start date:  Wed 1 May 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Katie Goss
    The twentieth-century saw many great discoveries about the nature of our mind’s very matter. Yet, making sense of our own minds and the forces that shape them has never felt more difficult. From the rise of neuro-degenerative illnesses like dementia to the bio-digital brain entangled with the internet, this course will draw on ideas across a range of disciplines to better understand contemporary ‘neuro-cultures’ and notions of ‘cerebral subjectivity’.
    Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £97.00
  10. America in the 70s: culture and society
    Evening
    Course start date:  Tue 7 May 2024

    Location on this date:  Online

    Tutors:  Pauline Greene, Mark Malcomson, Dale Mineshima-Lowe, Patricia Sweeney, Ian Tucknott
    Journey through the history, literature, film, music and art of the 70s, an era of economic struggle and cultural change. While America continued to reflect aspects of 60s social upheaval, a more energised 'New Right' was emerging in defense of political conservatism and the traditional family, schisms that still exist today. We investigate the cross currents across the many facets of the 70s through a 'taster' of each subject area.



    This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.
    Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £99.00 Concession £64.00
  11. Literature to Film: Screening the Text
    Weekend
    Course start date:  Sat 6 Jul 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Paul Sutton, Patricia Sweeney
    Literature has long been an important source for filmmakers, but adaptations of well-known texts are not always well received by audiences. This one-day course will take Patricia Highsmith’s celebrated 1955 novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley as a particular example and explore its cinematic adaptations. We will consider what is at stake in adapting literary texts for the screen while examining the vexed question of fidelity. You will have an opportunity to respond critically to Highsmith’s text as well as analysing a series of clips from the film versions of her novel.







    The course will be taught by Patricia Sweeney (Co-ordinator for Literature) and Paul Sutton (Co-ordinator for Film, TV and Media Studies).
    Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00
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