Explore History, Culture & Writing

In this course we shall examine women in myth, women in religion and the everyday life of women. It will conclude with a visit to the British Museum.

Explore the building blocks and strategies for good academic writing at postgraduate level. Ideal for those studying or contemplating academic writing beyond undergraduate studies.

Discover the mysterious people who lived in Central Italy and ended up being enveloped by the Romans.

This course will introduce students to exciting initiatives in twenty-first century cultural discourse that attempt to reconceptualise what an ecological consciousness might be or feel like. Drawing on theoretical and literary texts, films, performance art, and political activism, we will explore radical ways of rethinking and reinhabiting our relations with more-than-human worlds, and how they open new possibilities for living on a damaged planet.

Come and join us at the Cultureplex Ciné-Club: Agnes Varda, where for one day only, we will watch and discuss a film directed by this iconic and influential filmmaker. A development from our existing Cultureplex Ciné-Club courses and taking its cue from the famous Parisian Ciné-club set up by the celebrated critic and writer, André Bazin, this incarnation of the film club will offer an opportunity not only to have a taste of what the full Cine-Club course (running throughout next year) has to offer, but it will also allow for the viewing of a Varda film, followed by detailed discussion and debate. The film will be introduced, placed in both its cinematic, cultural and historic context as well as being situated within Varda’s body of work. In sharing our viewing in City Lit’s premier screening room, the Cultureplex, we will approximate the experience of watching film in the cinema, one that is intense and fully focussed in a way that other modes of viewing often are not. After the screening we will devote the rest of the class to a collective exploration of the film, led by the tutor, but involving everyone in a participatory discussion that will allow all to express their responses, their views, their thoughts on the film screened.

Founded in 1600, by the 1800s the East India Company had laid the foundations for the transition to British crown rule in India in 1858. Join us to discover key events in the history of the EIC in India – why did ‘John Company’ become so influential and how did Indian Nawabs and Mughal Emperors resist its seemingly ever-expanding powers?

This weekend course will offer an insight view of the multifaceted history and multilayered culture of Sicily, the ancient island off the shore of Italy mainland.