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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- Art history taster
Course start date: Mon 14 Oct 2024 (and 10 other dates)Location on this date: Online
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.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £10.00 Senior fee £10.00 Concession £10.00 - Ways into creative writing: intensive Course start date: Tue 29 Oct 2024 (and 10 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Claire CollisonNot 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 - Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs: part 2Course start date: Fri 15 Nov 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Hugo CookFollow-on course from the Introduction. This four-week course uses British Museum objects related to ancient Egypt to broaden and deepen students' knowledge of Egyptian Hieroglyphs.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £84.00 - Makers not muses: Claude Cahun, Eileen Agar and Isabel Rawsthorne Course start date: Fri 29 Nov 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Chantal CondronExplore the work of three radical artists whose work and practice defied convention in modern art from the 1920s to 1960s. Discover how each artist challenged and transcended society’s expectations of being a ‘muse’ by living freely and making art in a variety of media, from painting and sculpture to collage, photography and performance. - Art in Britain 1950-2000 – 'This is Tomorrow' (part 2) Course start date: Fri 10 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Chantal CondronDiscover the work of selected British artists whose innovative practice shaped the development of modern art in Britain from the 1950s to 2000. Explore how and why the ideas and themes behind their work continue to be relevant to today’s audiences. - A brief history of printmaking Course start date: Fri 10 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayDiscover the complexity of printmaking through this introduction to its history. Explore the cultural contexts, social ideas and artistic methods that make printmaking distinct to other forms of art.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £103.00 Concession £84.00 - Modern art: movements 1900-1950 Course start date: Fri 17 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Elizabeth EyresExplore art and culture in the early 20th century, focussing on the major developments and movements in art including Cubism, Abstraction, Dada and Surrealism and their relationship to wider cultural contexts. - Latin American literary classicsCourse start date: Fri 17 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Richard NilandFrom Mexico to Patagonia, Latin America has produced some of the most spellbinding literature of the modern age. From dictatorship and death to national identity and the natural world, join us as we investigate the cultural heritage of the continent through some of its best writers.Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £129.00 - Borderlines of madness in 19th century fiction Course start date: Fri 31 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sarah WiseWe will explore various themes related to insanity and altered states of consciousness by examining a number of 19th-century works of fiction. Novelists and poets often had the greatest insights into the workings of the mind, and many Victorian psychiatrists cited works of fiction in their case studies. Among the authors we will analyse are Charlotte Bronte, Edgar Allan Poe, Wilkie Collins, Gogol, Herman Melville and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. - Art and revolution: in the long 18th century Course start date: Fri 21 Feb 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayFrom the absolute monarch to the beheaded king, discover how artists contributed to the cultural revolutions of the ‘long 18th century’ (1630s-1800). We explore how shifts in artistic style and subject matter reflected dramatic social change. Through reading the philosophy of the age we uncover how this era’s complex notions of beauty and justice still impact art and society today. - Italian cinema: from Neorealism to the genre film Course start date: Fri 2 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Cristina MassaccesiThis cinema course focuses on Italian cinema in the years between 1945 and 1980. It will provide you with an overview of the main historical, cultural and social aspects of Italian filmmaking in Italy by looking at the work of some of its most influential author/directors.Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £77.00 - The mirror of nature: art and culture in the 17th century Course start date: Fri 9 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Leslie PrimoThe 17th century produced some of the greatest artists of all time: Rubens, Rembrandt, Velazquez and Bernini to name but a few. Explore the work of these key artists and understand the history, styles and ideas that shaped the century.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00 - Art in the 1920s and 1930s: Western art between the wars Course start date: Fri 9 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayDiscover how art in Europe and America between the wars reacted to the culture of the times. Explore the experimental world of Surrealism, Constructivism, de Stijl and other political art and abstract art of the era. - Art in Britain since 2000: where are we now?Course start date: Fri 9 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Chantal CondronDiscover how exciting, new UK-based artists use both experimental and traditional approaches to art to address issues of identity, history and personal experience.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £103.00 Concession £84.00 - Philosophy and cultural theoryCourse start date: Fri 9 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Barrie SelwynWe will look the philosophical underpinnings of culture through the writings of key philosophers who engage critically with the self-images of the post enlightenment era. In particular we well look at the rise and fall of the self and the centrality of aesthetics in modern European philosophy.
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