Explore Culture, History & Humanities Courses

George II is perhaps best remembered as the last British monarch to lead his troops into battle and also as the



instigator of the custom of standing for the Hallelujah Chorus in Handel’s Messiah. His reign marked the high point of



Handel’s career which the King did much to promote but also saw other great achievements in British culture with the art of Hogarth and the works of Pope and Swift. In politics, Robert Walpole created the post of Prime Minister and Bonnie Prince Charlie’s rebellion was the last attempt by the Stuarts to regain power and made him into an instant legend. Towards the end of the reign men like Pitt, Wolfe and Clive laid the foundations of the British empire whilst the Agricultural Revolution was transforming British society.



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

Learn how to turn real-life experiences into gripping fiction in this fun short course for fiction-writing beginners and experienced writers. Develop your writing skills and explore techniques for transforming personal stories into strong narratives.

Embark on a journey to explore the intricate interplay between philosophy, ethics and capitalism. Join our exploration into aligning values with the demands of a dynamic global economy. Explore how values and principles can harmonise with the demands of a global economy.

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.

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.

To treat an excess of phlegm make a steam inhaler from boiled ants. For burns and scalds apply snail slime. If you would like more useful medical and cosmetic tips with no guarantees of success, this course is for you.

Explore Realism in the nineteenth century, focusing on Manet as its key example, considering such issues as social and political change, formal and subject developments, theoretic interests and artistic influences.

Famously unsuccessful in his own lifetime, Vincent van Gogh developed his unique style be engaging with his contemporaries, old masters and Japanese art. Discover van Gogh’s influences and legacy in this one-day course.

Once upon a time there was a City Lit workshop all about writing fairytales. The quest: to inspire writers to pen stories of love, fear, forests, revenge, dragons, witches, kings, queens, frogs and magic.



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

This study day will examine the question of the association of women with magic and witchcraft.

Film Noir was the term coined by French critics to describe a distinctive style in American cinema during the decade after the war. In the transitional 1950s, genres that had been Hollywood staples began to change, evolve, or fade away. Film Noir evolved because it was too vital, too useful, and just too enjoyable to fade away. Just as John Huston’s Maltese Falcon (1941) kick-started film noir in the forties, his Asphalt Jungle (1950) introduced a darker fifties’ noir. Or did noir begin and end with Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane (1941) and Touch of Evil (1958)? ((See related courses on Fifties Melodrama and Musicals and 50 Films From the ‘50s: Hollywood’s Last Stand).

200 years after one of history’s most famous puzzles was deciphered, tour around the British Museum’s new Decipherment exhibition and learn how the mystery of Hieroglyphs was unravelled with the Rosetta Stone, with other archaeological clues, and with a bit of genius.