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: Thu 1 May 2025 (and 6 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 - Ways into poetryCourse start date: Mon 28 Apr 2025 (and 7 other dates)
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 3 other dates)
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 - Ways into creative writingCourse start date: Thu 1 May 2025 (and 17 other dates)
Location on this date: Online
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 - Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £103.00 Concession £84.00
- An introduction to European decorative arts at the V&ACourse start date: Thu 1 May 2025
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Andreas PetzoldThe Victoria and Albert Museum has one of the finest and most comprehensive collections of European decorative arts in the world. This course aims to provide an introduction to these rich collections. It will focus on the period 1500 to 1900, but references later developments. The main media will be explored including textiles, ceramics, glass, metalwork, and silver.Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £64.00 - Art and Anthropology: looking at Indigenous 'art'Course start date: Thu 1 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Ben PollittExplore, through case studies, how the production of Indigenous material culture has been shaped by colonial definitions of ‘art’ and, alternatively, how Indigenous people have used ‘art’ as a means of resisting colonial authority. We will also investigate the contested terms: Indigenous and Indigeneity.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £103.00 Concession £84.00 - Ways into creative writing: intensiveCourse start date: Thu 1 May 2025 (and 10 other dates)
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Nicole AcquahNot 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 - Ealing Studios: projecting Britain and the British characterCourse start date: Thu 1 May 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Graham Rinaldi“We made films at Ealing that were good, bad and indifferent, but they were indisputably British. They were rooted in the soil of the country.” Under the stewardship of Michael Balcon, Ealing Studios created a national cinema through drama, documentary and comedy producing a body of work portraying realistic British life.Full fee £89.00 Senior fee £89.00 Concession £58.00 - Get together and readCourse start date: Thu 25 Sep 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Claire AllenEnjoy talking with other people about the things you have read? Want to share great stories, poems and drama? Come along and join the conversation. The group is led by a shared reading practitioner trained by The Reader Organisation.Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £75.00 - Cultureplex ciné-clubCourse start date: Thu 1 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Paul SuttonCome and join us at the Cultureplex Ciné-Club, where once a week, for 10 weeks, 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. - Understanding the different political systems across the United KingdomCourse start date: Thu 1 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Ian McGarvieWant to understand how the different political systems across the United Kingdom works? Join our tutor Ian McGarvie to explore!Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £95.00 Concession £77.00 - Indigenous Australia: the beginnings of the Western Desert art movementCourse start date: Thu 8 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Arjmand AzizExplore the beginnings of Western Desert painting in 1970s Australia by focussing closely on the cosmopolitan and intercultural worlds of the Indigenous Australian artists at its heart.Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £63.00 Concession £51.00 - Tales of transformation: Ovid’s MetamorphosesCourse start date: Thu 8 May 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Nikoletta ManiotiSo many works of art refer, in a way or another, to Ovid's Metamorphoses. In this course, you'll become familiar with some of the most memorable stories in this masterpiece and begin to understand why its stories are - and have been - so universally fascinating and influential.Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £99.00 Concession £64.00 - Everyday Life in the Roman EmpireCourse start date: Thu 8 May 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sean GabbAn opportunity to find about how daily life was for ordinary people in the Roman Empire.
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