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.
- Philosophy and the meaning of lifeCourse start date: Mon 12 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Karl WhiteSome philosophers have insisted that philosophy should explain the meaning of our existence. What does it mean for us to be? And how then should we live? This course examines some seriously philosophical answers.
- German Idealism from Kant to Hegel: the beginnings of continental philosophy
Course start date: Mon 12 May 2025Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Christopher HornerGerman philosophers created the most ambitious and imaginative systems of thought of modern times against the backdrop of revolution and war. This creative and speculative beginning to modern continental philosophy is an exciting intellectual adventure. - Craft focus: grammar, syntax, and style for creative writers Course start date: Mon 12 May 2025 (and 3 other dates)
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: William BradyGreat poetry and prose begin when the writer puts the right words in the right places. Learn how and why the rules and conventions of language matter in this new course, which combines creative writing with a review of essential points of grammar.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £179.00 Concession £90.00 - Anthropology of space, place and the cultural landscape Course start date: Mon 12 May 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Yasmin HalesThis is an introductory and interdisciplinary course which ranges beyond social anthropology to explore aspects of cultural geography, philosophy, psychology, art and architectural history, enriching your theoretical and ethnographic understanding of the cross cultural meaning of space within the built environment. - How to read a film: a beginners' guide to cinema Course start date: Mon 12 May 2025 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Paul SuttonThis course will develop your critical appreciation of the cinema by teaching you how to read and understand film texts. We will look at the elements that underpin film form – narrative, mise en scène, cinematography, editing and sound – alongside its historical development. We will consider film style by exploring classical, post-classical and art cinema and we will examine influential critical modes of analysis, such as genre, authorship and spectatorship.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00 - Ways into creative writing: intensive Course start date: Wed 28 May 2025 (and 9 other dates)
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Lucy PopescuNot 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 - Fixity and Flux: poetry in motionCourse start date: Mon 2 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Suzannah V. EvansCome and revel in the sheer variety and possibility of poetic form, as we consider how form might shape what a writer has to say and how they say it. This course will allow you to explore the many shapes that a poem can take.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £84.00 - Life writing: getting started Course start date: Mon 16 Jun 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Alice RobbThis inspiring workshop encourages students to explore a range of techniques and approaches for writing about your own life.Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £40.00 - An Introduction to 21st century British drama and societyCourse start date: Mon 30 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Online
This online course offers an introduction to the concept of the 21st century British dramatist as a social observer, enabling a deeper understanding of how playwrights can illuminate and comment on social issues. Join us to find out how playwrights Polly Stenham, Jez Butterworth and Phillip Ralph have interrogated a variety of societal ills including a miscarriage of justice, dependency issues, class and the façade of contentment amongst the upwardly mobile.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £12.00 - Art history taster Course start date: Tue 1 Jul 2025 (and 7 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.Full fee £10.00 Senior fee £10.00 Concession £10.00 - Ways into screenwriting Course start date: Wed 7 May 2025 (and 4 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Nico MensingaLearn to write for the screen on this practical, introductory course. Writing exercises, presentations and screenings will teach you key skills, and you’ll begin to produce work and an outline for a full-length project.Full fee £239.00 Senior fee £239.00 Concession £120.00 - Ways into poetryCourse start date: Mon 28 Apr 2025 (and 7 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Cecilia KnappRelatively new to writing poetry? This inspiring course offers an opportunity to experiment with language and a variety of poetic devices alongside fellow emerging poets. Discover the key elements of a poem in a friendly and interactive class.Full fee £239.00 Senior fee £239.00 Concession £120.00 - Introduction to philosophyCourse start date: Mon 15 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Karl WhiteThis problem-based introduction to philosophy explores key themes of modern philosophy, including truth, knowledge, ultimate reality and the mind-body problem.Full fee £309.00 Senior fee £247.00 Concession £201.00 - Tolkien on ScreenCourse start date: Mon 15 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Online
In his literary essay On Fairy Stories, J.R.R. Tolkien famously wrote that “in human art, fantasy is a thing best left to words”. Despite this claim, The Lord of the Rings is arguably one of the most profitable media franchises of the 21st century. It has inspired academy-award winning films and record-breaking TV series, and continues to generate material that resonates with new generations of fans to explore. This course will explore the history of adapting Tolkien to the cinema, considering not only what was altered or left behind in attempts to turn Tolkien’s vast mythology into the stuff of popular cinema, but what might also have been enhanced as a result.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £179.00 Concession £116.00 - British Cinema: The Whole StoryCourse start date: Mon 22 Sep 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: John WischmeyerThis course will take you on a journey through the development of British Cinema from its earliest films through to some of its most recent. We will explore some of the most significant periods of British filmmaking creativity and commercial enterprise and consider some of the famous names associated with it. Join me in City Lit’s Cultureplex as I tell – through image and sound – the whole story of British Cinema.Full fee £309.00 Senior fee £247.00 Concession £201.00
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