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.
- Art in 15th-century Siena
Course start date: Wed 8 Jan 2025Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Emma Rose BarberExplore the art, society and geography of 15th century Siena, the picturesque Tuscan republic. Expand your knowledge of the Italian Renaissance beyond the borders of Florence by studying one of its worthy artistic, political and intellectual rivals. - The foreign invention of British art Course start date: Wed 15 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Leslie PrimoTrace the importance of foreigners to the British art scene from the Tudor period to the Baroque. How did artists like Holbein, Dobson, van Somer and van Dyck influence the British School?Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £129.00 - Ways into Advanced Literature: 20th century readingsCourse start date: Wed 29 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Patricia SweeneyExplore the rewards of close reading analysis, focusing on the literary genres of fiction and drama. Read, analyse and debate seminal 20th century works, including Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £179.00 Concession £116.00 - Homes, houses and art in Britain 1900-1960 Course start date: Wed 5 Mar 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Emma Rose BarberKnock on the door of artists’ houses and studios from 1900-1960 to experience exciting and visually dazzling spaces created over the course of their careers. At a time when artists were beginning to forge their own brave new visual worlds, this course considers what the homes might tell us about the artists and how they wanted their homes to be seen.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00 - The essentials of British politicsCourse start date: Thu 6 Mar 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Ian McGarvieThe aim of this course is to bring to the forefront those, in British politics and society, who may have been confined to the fringes of history, simply been forgotten about or had their stories altered to fit a certain narrative.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00 - Art and imagination: from the Enlightenment to the Victorian ageCourse start date: Wed 30 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Emma Rose BarberStudy the art of the period from c.1750-1880 considering Romanticism and the Pre-Raphaelites. We look at ‘romantic’ landscape, the modern moral subject and the depiction of women. Explore the art of women artists who struggled to survive as artists in the tightly controlled world of the art academy where the woman was encouraged to be muse and model rather than creator and thinker.Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £129.00 - A history of global capitalismCourse start date: Wed 30 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Vina TheodorakopoulouWant to understand the history of global capitalism? Join Vina Theodorakopoulou to learn about the historical transitions towards what we know as capitalism today – evolution of capital, the role of the state, labour, competition, race, and innovation-automation.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00 - Henry Kissinger’s foreign policyCourse start date: Wed 30 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Alexandre DabJoin us to discover the history and diplomacy of one of the most controversial statesmen of the 20th century – Henry Kissinger.Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £159.00 Concession £129.00 - Modern Women PlaywrightsCourse start date: Wed 21 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Laura BaggaleyExplore seminal modern plays by three leading women playwrights – Caryl Churchill, Timberlake Wertenbaker and Moira Buffini – who are all known for groundbreaking and innovative dramatic work.
In the company of an experienced theatre director, examine the different theatrical visions of three exciting plays.Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £129.00 - Art and empire: in the early modern era Course start date: Wed 8 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Emma Rose BarberStudy the art of the Dutch Golden Age from 1600 to 1750 looking at the luxurious, tactile paintings of domestic life and landscape of this gloriously rich period in art. Consider the role that commerce, travel and trade played in how these paintings were made and through critical analysis of texts, try and evaluate the validity of the term ‘Golden Age’.
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