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.
- Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £103.00 Concession £84.00
- The beauty of the medieval manuscriptCourse start date: Wed 20 Nov 2024 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Emma Rose BarberIt is generally accepted that medieval illuminated manuscripts are very beautiful things. Something to do with all that gold-leaf maybe. While we cannot hold them in class, close-up digital reproduction will allow us to see if they really are as beautiful as we are told. Indeed, are none of them ugly? Join this course to find out.Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £95.00 Concession £77.00 - Art history tasterCourse start date: Fri 6 Dec 2024 (and 9 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayCurious about art history? Join us for this taster session where we explore different ways into visual art and its histories, from the ancient to the contemporary.Full fee £10.00 Senior fee £10.00 Concession £10.00 - Jews in London from the 1650s to the 1950s: a closer lookCourse start date: Tue 7 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: David RosenbergThis course will provide an exploration of 300 years of Jewish life, culture and history in London from the small scale resettlement in the 1650s through to the 1950s when the borough of Hackney was home to London’s largest and most diverse Jewish community.Full fee £249.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £162.00 - Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £169.00 Concession £110.00
- Ancient Rome: art & architectureCourse start date: Tue 7 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Richard PlantThe ancient Rome Empire has provided a model for artistic and particularly architectural production in nearly all the centuries since its fall. We will study the development of Roman architecture and explore works of art in the best-preserved media; sculpture, painting and mosaics. Two sessions take place at the British Museum.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00 - Introduction to art historyCourse start date: Mon 13 Jan 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayAre you interested in art and want to get more out of looking at art and exhibitions? Want to know what an art historian does? Develop your interpretative skills by exploring at how art is made and what social and cultural factors construct our understanding of it.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £249.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £162.00 - Akhenaten, Pharaoh of Egypt (part 2): The end of his reign & its sequelCourse start date: Tue 14 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Michael DuiganThe final years of the reign of Akhenaten, the gathering storm and tragedy which ended the ‘dream’ of Amarna.Full fee £249.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £162.00 - The Golden Age of the British Short Story: 1890-1914Course start date: Tue 14 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Julian BirkettThe years 1890 to 1914 were a golden age for British writers of short stories. As the country moved from Victorian certainties to an unknown, possibly exciting, possibly frightening future, writers found the short story form perfectly suited to their concerns. The roll call is an impressive one: from Kipling, Hardy, HG Wells and Conan Doyle through Chesterton and Conrad to Katherine Mansfield and DH Lawrence.Full fee £249.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £162.00 - Women in art 1800-1900Course start date: Tue 14 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Elizabeth EyresDuring the 19th century female painters and sculptors gained greater prominence, although a career in art was still challenging for women artists. In this course we examine their work and how such progress was achieved. - An introduction to the philosophy of mindCourse start date: Tue 21 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Ariel KernbergThe saying 'No Brain, No Pain' is hardly controversial. But is having an experience or—indeed—entertaining a thought nothing else than neural activity? In this course we will look at this and some related philosophical questions. NB There will be no class on 02/02/25.Full fee £259.00 Senior fee £259.00 Concession £168.00 - Imposters, Fakes and Hoaxes in FictionCourse start date: Tue 21 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Kate WilkinsonWhy assume a false identity? What could be the risks and rewards of pretending to be someone else? And what can fictions about ‘faking it’ tell us about ourselves, what we believe, and why? This literature course takes a deep dive into remarkable stories of impersonation and identity: psychiatric intrigue in Graeme Macrae Burnet’s Case Study; Patricia Highsmith’s classic thriller The Talented Mr. Ripley; a New York art controversy in Siri Hustvedt’s The Blazing World; and a notorious Victorian trial in Zadie Smith’s The Fraud.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £169.00 Concession £110.00 - First Poets of the Modern City: Baudelaire, Whitman, Laforgue, EliotCourse start date: Tue 28 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Laurie SmithWe explore how Baudelaire, Whitman, Laforgue and Eliot were the first poets to express in detail both the exciting
opportunities and the emotional and spiritual damage of life in the modern city. We will look in particular how Baudelaire’s poems and Laforgue’s translations of Whitman into French influenced Eliot’s early poetry, culminating in The Waste Land (1922).Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00 - Ways into creative writing: intensiveCourse start date: Tue 29 Oct 2024 (and 10 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: William BradyNot sure whether creative writing is for you? Give it a try on one of these fun and supportive short courses covering the basics of fiction and poetry. Increase your confidence and produce work through guided exercises and discussion.Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £149.00 Concession £75.00 - Masterpieces of World LiteratureCourse start date: Tue 28 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rebecca JonesCome and join us for a fascinating introduction to texts often considered ‘masterpieces’ of world literature, as we read texts from across centuries, languages and national borders, both within and beyond the English-speaking world. Reading major authors such as Miguel de Cervantes, Chinua Achebe, Toni Morrison and Arundhati Roy, amongst others, you’ll leave the course with a new appreciation and understanding of the world’s rich literary heritage in all its diversity and complexity.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £169.00 Concession £110.00
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