Explore Culture, History & Humanities Courses

Explore 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.

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.



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

We chart the impact of the Norman Conquest on the development of London and end by exploring how Londoners reacted to the Black Death with killed 50% of the inhabitants. There will also be a guided walk.

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 introductory course aims to critically explore the role and symbolic meaning of art from a cross-cultural perspective, ranging from the concept of beauty, the beliefs and rituals associated with material objects, to the human body as canvas and the role of museums.



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.

They were called ‘foreign films’ in the fifties, the first films to emerge from Europe and further to a wider British and American audience: Bicycle Thieves (1948 Vittorio De Sica) Rashomon (1950 Akira Kurosawa), Pather Panchali (1955 Satyajit Ray), Seven Samurai (1954 Akira Kurosawa), The Seventh Seal (1957 Ingmar Bergman), Plein Soleil. They played at The Academy Oxford Street or The Everyman Hampstead. Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you discover a whole world of amazing films. Too many filmgoers are scared off by the notion of international cinema. In cultural shorthand, ‘foreign film’ was a euphemism for snootiness, a stereotype that kept audiences from experiencing some of the greatest movies ever made. Once you open yourself up to them you’ll find there’s nothing to be intimidated by.



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

Learn the skills to write comics on this introductory course. Discover the history and key features of the medium and create your own project.



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

This course will develop your critical appreciation of the cinema by teaching you how to read and understand film texts. We will look at the elements that underpin film form – narrative, mise en scène, cinematography, editing and sound – alongside its historical development. We will consider film style by exploring classical, post-classical and art cinema and we will examine influential critical modes of analysis, such as genre, authorship and spectatorship.



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