Explore History, Culture & Writing

This course explores the Medieval Mystery plays, also known as the York Corpus Christi plays, focusing on the oldest of the four great cycles of biblical drama that have survived from late Medieval England. We will consider theatrical conventions, costumes and props, the performances and open-air staging of the plays and the medieval guilds and writers that were responsible for them.



This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.

Explore the role of critical theory within the field of art history, and learn new ways of thinking about art by focusing on feminism, post-colonial theory and the notion of the death of the author.



This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.

Explore post-colonial Africa's political, economic, and social journey since independence. Gain insights into state building, governance, development, and identity, fostering a holistic understanding of Africa's historical evolution.



This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.

A journey through the rise and fall of the Portuguese Empire. Uncover pioneering navigation, understand colonial societies in Brazil, Africa, and Asia through their economies, culture, independence struggles, and legacies.



This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.

It is all too easy to read and spread information from social media and the internet. But does this mean we can draw useful conclusions from the information we are exposed to? The course provides essential tools for us to be good thinkers in this information age.



This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.

This course is intended as an introduction to the philosophy of Karl Marx and later Marxists such as Vladimir Lenin, Eduard Bernstein, and Rosa Luxemburg.



This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.

Roman love poets are proponents of peace as the condition where love can flourish. However, war permeates their poetry and is even turned into one of its characteristic motifs, the "campaign of love". This lecture will offer an overview of the themes of war and peace, with specific reference to the poems of Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid.



This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.

All of the canonical Gospels frequently mention the Roman military; it is key to the story. Yet, in Mark’s Gospel, specific references to the Roman legion come to the fore, and perhaps to one legion in particular: Legio X Fretensis. Its symbols are coded into the story of the demon ‘Legion,’ which is placed immediately before the feeding of a ‘legion’ of 5000 men. Legionaries are involved in the torture and crucifixion of Christ, and then a statement by the centurion at the foot of the cross is at the very apex of the narrative, fulfilling the purpose set out at the start: declaring Jesus to be the son of a god – like Caesar himself. Questions over the potentially threatening nature of Jesus’ messiahship are also pervasive throughout, tying his relationship to the military to one of the core themes of the book. Probably written immediately following Vespasian’s war in Judea, which was led by none other than Legio X Fretensis, we must wonder: what is the function of the Roman legion in relation to the narrative and purpose of the Gospel of St. Mark?



This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.