Explore History, Culture & Writing
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.
- Picture book writingCourse start date: Mon 13 Feb 2023 (and 3 other dates)
Location on this date: Online (other locations are available)
Tutors: Lou KuenzlerWould you like to write a picture book text for young children? This course is designed for children's writers and for illustrators wishing to write their own stories; a starter course to develop both your ideas and your technique.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £99.00 Concession £50.00 - Medieval queenship in Europe and the Near EastCourse start date: Tue 25 Apr 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Vanessa KingTravel over 1000 years across Europe and the Eurasian steppe to compare and contrast the role and status of Greek and German Empresses, Frankish queens, Seljuk and Mongolian khatuns.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £239.00 Senior fee £239.00 Concession £120.00 - The EU today: integration, disintegration or both?Course start date: Tue 25 Apr 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Angelos SeposThe course examines the history, theories, dynamics and processes of European integration and disintegration manifested in the crises of the Eurozone, immigration, Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £99.00 Concession £50.00 - Art and critical theory: vision and gazeCourse start date: Tue 25 Apr 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Irina ChkhaidzeExplore the role of critical theory within the field of art history, and learn new ways of thinking about art by focusing on the topics of vision and gaze.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £139.00 Senior fee £139.00 Concession £90.00 - The global politics of gender and sexualityCourse start date: Tue 25 Apr 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Barbara SchenkelAre you interested in thinking about what we mean when we say ‘gender’? What studying sexuality has to do with colonial structures? And the importance of thinking about different forms of marginalisation together, beyond gender and sexuality? Then this course is for you. It aims to give students a solid foundation for a critical intervention in contemporary debates that often render issues of gender, feminist movements, and sexual minorities into single-issue or individualising, decontextualised conversations.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £50.00 - Philosophy and the selfCourse start date: Tue 25 Apr 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Ariel KernbergWho am I? Is there such a thing as “my true self”? These and related questions will be looked at from various philosophical perspectives.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £239.00 Senior fee £239.00 Concession £120.00 - German art after the 1960s: from happenings to artificial sunshineCourse start date: Wed 26 Apr 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Irina ChkhaidzeExplore German art from the 1960s to present, from movements such as Conceptualism, Fluxus, Capitalist Realism and Neo-Expressionism to the most recent multi-media art.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £139.00 Senior fee £139.00 Concession £90.00 - The emergence of modern America: the United States from 1865 to 1900Course start date: Wed 26 Apr 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Dafydd TownleyIn this follow-up course to “Slavery and the Civil War” we will discuss the next phase of American history, covering the years from 1865 to 1900.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £169.00 Concession £85.00 - Makers not muses: Claude Cahun, Eileen Agar and Isabel RawsthorneCourse start date: Wed 26 Apr 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Chantal CondronExplore the work of three radical artists whose work and practice defied convention in modern art from the 1920s to 1960s. Discover how each artist challenged and transcended society’s expectations of being a ‘muse’ by living freely and making art in a variety of media, from painting and sculpture to collage, photography and performance.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £69.00 Concession £45.00 - Global history for beginnersCourse start date: Wed 26 Apr 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Martin JorgensenWhat is global history? How is it different from other ways of understanding history? This introductory course will give you a sense of what it means to study global history.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £89.00 Senior fee £89.00 Concession £45.00 - Mary, William and Anne: the later Stuart DynastyCourse start date: Wed 26 Apr 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Ellen CarpenterFollowing the deposal of their father James II & VII, Mary ruled jointly with her husband William from 1689-1694, after which she was succeeded first by William, and then her younger sister Anne from 1702-1714. Join us to explore the lives, intrigues, politics, religion and society of these later Stuart monarchs – what challenges did these monarchs face and how enduring were their legacies? To what extent did Mary and Anne see one another as rivals?
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £139.00 Senior fee £139.00 Concession £70.00 - Making sense of the Russian invasion of UkraineCourse start date: Wed 26 Apr 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Angelos SeposWant to get beyond headlines? Join Dr. Sepos to examine the causes and dynamics of the war in Ukraine by focusing on the role of US, EU and NATO, Putin’s Russia, and the international politico-economic system.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £99.00 Concession £50.00 - Isis, Mithras and Christ: iconography and mythologyCourse start date: Wed 26 Apr 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Michael BloomfieldAn introduction to the history, essential beliefs, mythology, and iconography, of three influential religions
of the Graeco-Roman world: Isis, the mystery cult devoted to Mithras and Christ.Full fee £189.00 Senior fee £189.00 Concession £123.00 - Exploring European cinemaCourse start date: Wed 26 Apr 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Jon WisbeyThis class introduces you to a range of themes and issues in European cinema, including art cinema, national cinema, movements, 'moments' and new waves, authorship, popular cinema and genre, along with key developments in European film history from the silent era to the present day, key films, directors and the canon of European cinema, and a range of critical accounts of European cinema.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £169.00 Concession £110.00 - Cultureplex Ciné-clubCourse start date: Thu 27 Apr 2023 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Paul SuttonCome and join us at the Cultureplex Ciné-Club, where once a week, for 12 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.Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £129.00
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