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.
- Van Eyck and the Pre-RaphaelitesCourse start date: Wed 25 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Emma Rose BarberExplore the work of Van Eyck in relation to Holman Hunt and the Pre-Raphaelites more generally; consider how this 15th century painter influenced artists some 300 years later. - 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 - Art in England transformed: the court of Charles ICourse start date: Wed 2 Jul 2025
Location on this date: Online
The art collection of King Charles I (1600-1649) was magnificent and hugely influential. Explore the artists, craftsmen, agents and connoisseurs who shaped one of the most important European art collections and learn about how objects and artists from across Europe made their way to London.
Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £15.00 Concession £12.00 - Lunchtime lecture: Louise Bourgeois, the abject and the eroticCourse start date: Wed 9 Jul 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayAn introduction to the art of Louise Bourgeois, its feminism, both erotic and abject. We explore Bourgeois as a sculptor, printmaker and performance artist, looking at how she was influenced by psychology and biography.Full fee £10.00 Senior fee £10.00 Concession £7.00 - The art of Chinese gardens: nature and philosophyCourse start date: Wed 16 Jul 2025
Location on this date: Online
In early modern China, gardens were more than places of retreat, they functioned as major social, cultural and economic sites. In our time of ecological crisis, gardens play a crucial role in mitigating pollution. This course will examine how the intersections of art, architecture, philosophy and sensory experience of Chinese gardens show continuity and change from the early modern period to the present day.
Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £15.00 Concession £12.00 - Global Literatures: Han Kang & Elif ShafakCourse start date: Wed 16 Jul 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Join us for an exploration of the ways we experience global literatures of our time. Inter-generational memory is the focus of two prize-winning novels, The Vegetarian (2007) by Han Kang and The Island of Missing Trees (2021) by Elif Shafak. Unearthing the painful truths of history in the context of culturally/politically divided Korea and Cyprus, the authors deal delicately, and brutally, with love, the environment, patriarchy, resistance and the metamorphosis of the female body.Full fee £49.00 Senior fee £39.00 Concession £32.00 - 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 - Contemporary British and international fictionCourse start date: Wed 17 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Aamer HusseinWe will be looking at novels from recent years that explore various dimensions of culture and society, reading and discussing a brief and careful selection of novels in English from several countries, diverse in style and genre. Titles include Piranesi, Susanna Clarke's mysterious and 'weird' tale of secrets and lost texts, William Boyd's Trio, which follows the life of an actress, a film producer, and a writer obsessed with the suicide of Virginia Woolf, Small Things Like These by Clare Keegan, in which a coal merchant becomes involved with the fate of a pregnant teenager trapped in a Magdalene Laundry, and Michelle de Kretser's Theory and Practice follows the academic trajectory of a Sri Lankan feminist researching the novels of Woolf.Full fee £259.00 Senior fee £207.00 Concession £168.00 - Reading Shakespeare: a director's perspective - Merchant of Venice and OthelloCourse start date: Wed 24 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Laura BaggaleyTake a fresh look at Shakespeare, exploring selected plays in the company of an experienced theatre director. With performance in mind, we will examine the language and themes of two plays, watch and compare clips of stage productions and discuss the extraordinary variety to be found in Shakespeare’s work.Full fee £219.00 Senior fee £175.00 Concession £142.00 - Literature taster: poetryCourse start date: Wed 24 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sophie OxenhamCurious about reading poetry? Join us for this taster session to boost your confidence and whet your appetite for further learning and exploration!
Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £15.00 Concession £12.00 - National GalleryCourse start date: Wed 24 Sep 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Leslie PrimoDiscuss a differently themed group of paintings each week in front of the pictures. An opportunity to understand our national collection in greater depth.Full fee £299.00 Senior fee £239.00 Concession £194.00 - The history of Western art in 100 paintingsCourse start date: Wed 24 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Julia MusgraveA chronological introduction to Western art from c.1250 to the present day, taught by looking at artworks in London’s galleries, and related materials.Full fee £679.00 Senior fee £543.00 Concession £441.00 - Wild Nights: poetry and desireCourse start date: Wed 24 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Laurie SmithSome friendships, including with people of the same sex, may become so intense as to be love, though not necessarily of a sexual kind. We will look at some great poets who have had this experience and expressed it brilliantly in their work: Shakespeare and Byron, Tennyson and Emily Dickinson, Arthur Rimbaud and Thomas Hardy, C P Cavafy and the great 20th century Russian poet Some Marina Tsvetaeva, and finally our recent Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy.Full fee £259.00 Senior fee £207.00 Concession £168.00 - Islamic art in the medieval worldCourse start date: Wed 24 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Anita ChowdryA course examining the formation and development of Islamic Art and Design; looking at the role of ideology and patronage, and the key influences that went into its development and evolution.Full fee £309.00 Senior fee £247.00 Concession £201.00 - The Twelve Caesars, Emperors of RomeCourse start date: Wed 1 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Michael DuiganDiscover the extraordinary lives of the first rulers of Imperial Rome. Ancient historians have given us vivid accounts of the sometimes amusing, often scandalous, but always fascinating events in their lives. Can we distinguish between 'fact’ and vicious propaganda? A visit to the British Museum is included.Full fee £249.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £162.00
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