Explore Culture, History & Humanities Courses
Explore our extraordinary range of Humanities courses and lectures. We offer both introductory and specialist in-depth courses to suit all levels of interest and experience, from one-off courses in History, Politics, and Economics to in-depth courses in Art History, Film Studies, Literature, and Science and Nature.
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.
224 courses available
Mexico: an introductory historyExplore how colonial Mexico transformed into an independent nation and how its early political struggles shaped the country we know today.
Online
Tue 8 Sep 2026Anna GrimaldiFull fee £89.00 Senior fee £89.00 Concession £58.00- History taster: mapping the Silk Road
Spices, Silks and Stories from Samarkand to Beijing!
Online
Tue 8 Sep 2026Vanessa KingFull fee £19.00 Senior fee £15.00 Concession £12.00 - Emerging languages and cultures
Learn how humans invent entirely new languages and how these new forms of communication become powerful symbols of identity.
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Tue 8 Sep 2026Florence Marfo, Jack Pulman-SlaterFull fee £149.00 Senior fee £149.00 Concession £97.00 - History taster: Genghis Khan on Trial
Step into the courtroom of history and put one of the world’s most legendary-and controversial-figures under the spotlight. Was Genghis Khan a ruthless conqueror or a visionary leader who reshaped the world? In this lively taster course, you’ll take on the role of historical detective, weighing evidence and forming your own verdict on the founder of the Mongol Empire.
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Tue 8 Sep 2026Vanessa KingFull fee £19.00 Senior fee £15.00 Concession £12.00 - Art history tasterCurious 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.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £15.00 Concession £12.00
- Cult TV: Twin Peaks - The Return
When Twin Peaks ended in 1991, audiences were left with a warning: ‘I’ll see you again in 25 years’. Much of the show’s surrealism wasn’t to be taken literally, but this time showrunners David Lynch and Mark Frost made good on their word, releasing Twin Peaks: The Return a quarter century later to rapturous acclaim. This course will explore how The Return both built upon and shattered much of what the series established through contexts like reboots, streaming, and Lynch’s wider oeuvre.
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Mon 14 Sep 2026Zoe CrombieFull fee £189.00 Senior fee £189.00 Concession £123.00 - Flags decoded: Latin America
Discover the political symbolism and history behind the flags of Latin America.
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Mon 14 Sep 2026Sebastien ArdouinFull fee £19.00 Senior fee £15.00 Concession £12.00 - America's world: US foreign policy in the 21st Century
US foreign policy has reshaped the world since 9/11. This course tells the story of how and why. Over six weeks, you'll trace America's wars, alliances, and rivalries from the Bush Doctrine to the present, debating the big decisions through presidential speeches and primary sources.
Online
Mon 14 Sep 2026Dafydd TownleyFull fee £189.00 Senior fee £189.00 Concession £123.00 - Tolkien on Screen
In his literary essay On Fairy Stories, J.R.R. Tolkien famously wrote that “in human art, fantasy is a thing best left to words”. Despite this claim, The Lord of the Rings is arguably one of the most profitable media franchises of the 21st century. It has inspired academy-award winning films and record-breaking TV series, and continues to generate material that resonates with new generations of fans to explore. This course will explore the history of adapting Tolkien to the cinema, considering not only what was altered or left behind in attempts to turn Tolkien’s vast mythology into the stuff of popular cinema, but what might also have been enhanced as a result.
(Dr.) Alexander Sergeant is an award-winning film historian and theorist. His varied research interests include the history of popular culture, particularly within the US, and the intersection between film and philosophy. He is the author of Encountering the Impossible: The Fantastic in Hollywood Fantasy Cinema (2021), and co-editor ofFantasy/Animation: Connections Between Media, Mediums & Genres (2018). He is the co-founder of the popular website Fantasy-Animation.org and co-host of the Fantasy/Animation podcast.
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Mon 14 Sep 2026Alex SergeantFull fee £189.00 Senior fee £189.00 Concession £123.00 - The Golden Age of Japanese Cinema: Ozu, Kurosawa and Mizoguchi
This course examines the transformative period of Japanese cinema during its so-called Golden Age (from late 1940s to early 1960s), a time when Japan’s traditional film studio system was at its peak, and several iconic directors, including Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, and Kenji Mizoguchi, were making their most iconic films. We will discuss, analyse, and contextualise several of these directors’ films, as well as look at films by other directors of that period, such as Mikio Naruse and Masaki Kobayashi, and more. We will consider the socio-political and film industry contexts which shaped the films, including the cultural meanings behind the samurai genre, the post-war Occupation of Japan by Allied Forces, and the international impact of Japanese cinema on global filmmaking.
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Tue 15 Sep 2026Jean-Baptiste de VaulxFull fee £239.00 Senior fee £239.00 Concession £155.00 - Blood, pain and infection: how surgery was transformed from 1840 to the present day
The course examines key developments in surgery, as a critical aspect of modern medicine, between 1840 and the present day.
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Tue 15 Sep 2026David IngledewFull fee £149.00 Senior fee £149.00 Concession £97.00 - Art history and cinemaSince cinema's earliest days, literature has provided movies with stories. But there is another way of looking at film: through its relationship with painting, the oldest of the art forms.
We’ll look at paintings by Friedrich, Titian, Hopper, Bacon, Delaroche and many more. We’ll view Red Desert, Pan’s Labyrinth, Easy Rider - looking at realism, surrealism and more.
As you can see, all of these are quite different! Let’s see how movies connect us to art history.Online
Tue 15 Sep 2026Gillian McIverFull fee £189.00 Senior fee £189.00 Concession £123.00 - Sustainable Development and Global Risks
This course explores why greater global cooperation is needed if sustainable development goals are to be achieved in the face of global risks.
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Wed 16 Sep 2026Anita PunwaniFull fee £89.00 Senior fee £89.00 Concession £58.00 - Exploring British cinemaDefining itself around themes such as realism, class and national identity, and differentiating itself from Hollywood and other national cinemas, British cinema has found critical and popular acclaim both domestically and internationally. This course explores key themes and developments in British cinema, past and present, through a range of films, filmmakers and critical concepts and responses.
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Wed 16 Sep 2026Jon WisbeyFull fee £149.00 Senior fee £149.00 Concession £97.00 - European history: from Pen to Print 600-1650
From medieval manuscripts to explosive print culture, this course uncovers censorship, book markets, pamphlets, and changing readerships between 600 and 1650-revealing how texts shaped belief, authority, and society.
Online
Fri 18 Sep 2026Vanessa KingFull fee £279.00 Senior fee £223.00 Concession £181.00
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