Explore Culture, History & Humanities Courses

Curious 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.



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

Indigenous Australian art has, in recent years, been increasingly exhibited and discussed in Britain. Yet little is known about the history and development of this art movement and the oeuvres of the artists responsible for its creation. This introductory course will provide a history of how Indigenous Australian artists have changed and challenged the course of national and international art fields in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

“The more beautiful everything is, the more it will hurt without you”—Gene Kelly as An American in Paris (1951) singing to Leslie Caron. Happy endings are hard won in fifties’ musicals and The End is where they were heading. MGM was the studio of musicals in the 1950s. During this decade other studios presented only occasional musicals. The musical was big business for Hollywood in the 1950s and so was the western, so bringing them together made sense. Annie Get Your Gun had been a big success for MGM so Warner Bros. decided to get a piece of the action with Calamity Jane (1953 David Butler with Doris Day). Judy Garland was sacked by MGM in 1951, then followed Joan Crawford to Warner Brothers where she staged a big comeback in, fittingly, A Star is Born (1954 George Cukor). Oklahoma (1955 Fred Zinnemann) and Carousel (1956 Henry King) from 20th Century Fox introduced Shirley Jones. And don’t forget Leonard Bernstein’s score for On the Waterfront (1954) that anticipated West Side Story (1961). (See related courses on Fifties Melodrama and Film Noir and 50 Films From the ‘50s: Hollywood’s Last Stand).

Discover the secrets of the Old Masters and learn how they created their wonderful effects in this introductory course on painters and painting. We will consider the physical history and scientific examination of artworks in relation to aspects including forgeries, hidden paintings and conservation/ restoration.



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

This course studies the evolution of Chinese involvement in Africa, from the 1950s to the present day. Themes explored include diplomatic and defence relations, trade and commerce, politics and ideology.



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

Discover one of the greatest works of Latin literature.



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

Explore the development of Cezanne revolutionary approach to painting, his techniques and motifs and some of the many artists whose work he influenced.



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

Not 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.



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

Are you brand new to creative writing? Do you want to build your confidence in a supportive environment alongside other beginners? This gentle short-course guides students taking their first steps on the path to becoming a creative writer.

Explore cinema's development from its earliest days to the arrival of sound, and view and discuss films such as A Trip to the Moon (1902), Sherlock Jr. (1924) and Sunrise (1927) and many others. We will also consider the contributions of key filmmakers, including the Lumière brothers, Georges Méliès, D W Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Sergei Eisenstein, F W Murnau and Alfred Hitchcock.



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

This course focuses on the Soviet experience of the Second World War, dating from the diplomacy of the late 1930s to the defeat of Germany and Japan in 1945.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a writer in possession of a single pen can compose an unforgettable romance novel. This interactive course will guide students through the plotting of modern romance stories.



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

Have you wondered why a film might have moved you so powerfully or why it looked so stunningly beautiful? Have you wanted to know quite how a film was able to communicate its story to you so effectively? If so, then this advanced level film studies course is for you. It aims to explore in depth the language of cinema, the way in which film connects with its spectators at the level of film form, in other words, film aesthetics. Writers and critics have long asked similar questions, as have filmmakers themselves, and we will follow some of the most celebrated in their quest for answers. We will look briefly at how films are made and at the importance of cinematography, editing, mise en scène and sound, before exploring in depth film’s aesthetic qualities. We will think about the importance of history for the development of film form and we will analyse clips and sequences from individual films so as to better approach and understand film aesthetics.

Discover some of London’s fascinating smaller art collections and hidden art treasures on this gallery-based art history course.