Cultural studies

Cultural Studies 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 Cultural studies 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 in-person and online learning.

Learn in the centre of London with our in-person courses. Our purpose-built facilities in Covent Garden mean we are ideally located and easy to get to. 

See our guide to online learning for more information about accessing our live online courses.

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.

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  1. Contemporary life and its discontents: paradoxes of the present
    Course start date:  Wed 8 Jan 2025

    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 £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00
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  2. America in the 30s: culture and society
    Evening
    Course start date:  Tue 4 Feb 2025

    Location on this date:  Online

    Tutors:  Zoe Crombie, Pauline Greene, Mark Malcomson, Dale Mineshima-Lowe, Patricia Sweeney, Ian Tucknott
    From the Great Depression to the New Deal, from Swing and big band music to gangster films and screwball



    comedies, this online intertextual course explores the political, social and cultural context of 1930s 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.



    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
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  3. Feminism for the 21st century: many genders and even more trouble
    Course start date:  Fri 21 Feb 2025

    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 £129.00 Senior fee £103.00 Concession £84.00
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  4. Embodying Culture: An Introduction
    Course start date:  Wed 30 Apr 2025

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Katie Goss
    This Culture course will give you an opportunity to explore the variety of ways that embodiment has been thought and theorised. Across six weeks we will cover a variety of influential approaches to embodied life in the twentieth and twenty-first century, including biopolitics, psychoanalysis, posthumanism, affect theory, science and technology studies, feminism and queer theory.
    Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00
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  5. America in the 40s: culture and society
    Evening
    Course start date:  Tue 6 May 2025

    Location on this date:  Online

    Tutors:  Pauline Greene, Mark Malcomson, Dale Mineshima-Lowe, Paul Sutton, Patricia Sweeney, Ian Tucknott
    The bombing of Pearl Harbor brought Americans into WW2, while the European need for goods pulled the USA out of the Depression of the 30s, providing new opportunities for women, African Americans and other people of colour.



    Post-War America saw a new energy, of hope but also despair. This online intertextual course explores the political, social and cultural context of 1940s America through a study of the 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.



    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
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  6. Eco-Ciné Club
    Course start date:  Wed 11 Jun 2025

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Katie Goss
    Come and join us at the Eco Ciné-Club, where you will have the opportunity to view and discuss the work of innovative filmmakers whose work uses visual culture as a means of re-framing our relationships with changing landscapes, climates and more-than-human beings. A development from our existing Cultureplex Ciné-Club courses and taking its cue from the famous Parisian Ciné-club set up by the celebrated critic and writer, André Bazin, this incarnation of the film club will allow for the viewing of a different film each week, followed by detailed discussion and debate. The film will be introduced, and 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.
    Full fee £229.00 Senior fee £229.00 Concession £149.00
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