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.
- Ways into screenwritingCourse start date: Wed 30 Apr 2025 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Alan NixonLearn 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 - Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs: part 4: module 3Course start date: Mon 28 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Hugo CookImprove your ability to read texts in hieroglyphs and gain (or continue to gain) a deeper understanding of ancient Egyptian literature and culture. Suitable for those who have attended part 4: module 2 of the hieroglyphs course but also for those who have an equivalent level of knowledge.Full fee £209.00 Senior fee £209.00 Concession £136.00 - Ways into creative writingCourse start date: Mon 28 Apr 2025 (and 4 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sarah LeipcigerWant to have a go at creative writing in a supportive environment? Join one of these introductory courses. Guided exercises will give you the tools to explore language creatively and find your own writing voice.Full fee £239.00 Senior fee £239.00 Concession £120.00 - Ways into poetryCourse start date: Mon 28 Apr 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Relatively 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 - Ways into playwritingCourse start date: Mon 28 Apr 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Dawn KingExplore the fundamental techniques of writing for the stage in this introductory course. Get to grips with dialogue, character, story and structure, and start work on your own play.Full fee £239.00 Senior fee £239.00 Concession £120.00 - Utopia, history and a projectCourse start date: Wed 30 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Christian MichelShould we pursue utopias, or resign ourselves to the society we have? Should we fear utopias because implementing them is so costly? Or are utopias just about understanding our society?Full fee £229.00 Senior fee £229.00 Concession £149.00 - Cultureplex ciné-club 2Course start date: Thu 1 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Paul SuttonCome and join us at the Cultureplex Ciné-Club 2, where once a week, for 10 weeks (and throughout the academic
year), we will watch and discuss film. Taking its cue from the famous Parisian ciné-club set up by the celebrated critic and writer, André Bazin, ‘the single thinker most responsible for bestowing on cinema the prestige both of an artform and of an object of knowledge’, and the man who foresaw the emergence of film studies as a legitimate discipline of academic study, our contemporary incarnation of the film club will offer a curated series of films for detailed study, discussion and debate. Each film will be introduced, placed in both its cinematic, cultural and historic context. 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.
Please note that this course will screen a new and different set of films to HF211 Cultureplex Cine-Club, which will run with the same films screened last year. If you took the Cultureplex Cine-Club course last year (2023-4), please ensure that you take the Cultureplex Cine-Club 2 courses this year.Full fee £249.00 Senior fee £249.00 Concession £162.00 - Isis, Mithras and Christ: iconography and mythologyCourse start date: Wed 7 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Michael BloomfieldAn introduction to the history, essential beliefs, mythology, and iconography, of three influential religions
of the Graeco-Roman world: Isis, the mystery cult devoted to Mithras and Christ.Full fee £209.00 Senior fee £209.00 Concession £136.00 - Introduction to art historyCourse start date: Mon 12 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayAre you interested in art and want to get more out of looking at art and exhibitions? Want to know what an art historian does? Develop your interpretative skills by exploring at how art is made and what social and cultural factors construct our understanding of it.
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