International Women's Day at City Lit
Throughout our history, City Lit has played a significant role in educating women in London. Empowerment through education, regardless of gender, has been at the centre of our activities throughout this time. Since we opened our doors, thousands of women have benefitted from City Lit’s broad and flexible courses, managing study alongside work, and other responsibilities.
To celebrate International Women’s Day, not only on Saturday 8 March but all through the coming months, we have a range of courses available which explore and celebrate the significant contributions made by women in life, society and culture.
Read more about International Women's Day at City Lit.
- Gender, Intersectionality and Women’s studiesCourse start date: Thu 8 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Michele ScottCome along with us as we explore and examine new and emerging debates around queer studies, post-feminism and the feminist backlash.Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £63.00 Concession £51.00 - Women writing and walking: Virginia Woolf, Nan Shepherd, Rebecca Solnit, Elizabeth-Jane BurnettCourse start date: Thu 8 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sophie OxenhamThis in-person Literature course considers the relationship between walking and writing in four innovative works of literary non-fiction: Virginia Woolf’s essay ‘Street Haunting’ (1927), Nan Shepherd’s ‘The Living Mountain’ (written c. 1945, first pub. 1977), Rebecca Solnit’s ‘A Field Guide to Getting Lost’ (2006), and Elizabeth-Jane Burnett’s ‘The Grassling’ (2019).Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00 - Women in ancient RomeCourse start date: Fri 9 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: William SterlingWomen's position in the Ancient Roman world was important as they played important roles in the home, in business, in religion and even in politics. - Bad Queens of England? Eleanor of Aquitaine and Isabella of AngoulemeCourse start date: Sat 10 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Vanessa KingEleanor failed to produce a son for Louis VII and urged her sons by Henry II to rebellion. Isabella abandoned her children by King John to start anew in France with her daughter’s fiancé. We consider their roles as queens.Full fee £49.00 Senior fee £39.00 Concession £32.00 - Modern Women PlaywrightsCourse start date: Wed 21 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Laura BaggaleyExplore seminal modern plays by three leading women playwrights – Caryl Churchill, Timberlake Wertenbaker and Moira Buffini – who are all known for groundbreaking and innovative dramatic work.
In the company of an experienced theatre director, examine the different theatrical visions of three exciting plays.Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £129.00 - An introduction to the philosophy of Simone WeillCourse start date: Thu 29 May 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Karl WhiteIn this course we will look at aspects of the wide-ranging and intriguing philosophy of Simone Weil, one of the 20th century’s most intriguing and mysterious thinkers.Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £63.00 Concession £51.00 - Radical Black FeminismCourse start date: Tue 3 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
This course explores radical black feminism through changing expressions of Black women’s radical practices of self-liberation and resistance to slavery, racial capitalism, imperialism, patriarchy and their intersecting systems of oppression.Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £97.00 - Writing MotherhoodCourse start date: Tue 3 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Rebecca JonesExplore the extraordinarily diverse world of writing about motherhood, looking at literary texts that have firmly rebuked any notions of motherhood as ‘merely’ domestic, and have instead made it the subject of serious literary writing, have explored major themes such as the body, trauma, gender, queerness, race and creativity, and have written diverse truths about the realities of motherhood. Writers include Toni Morrison, Adrienne Rich and Rachel Cusk, Maggie Nelson and Ayò¿bámi Adébáyò¿.Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £95.00 Concession £77.00 - Art and critical theory: feminism and post-colonialismCourse start date: Tue 3 Jun 2025
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 feminism, post-colonial theory and the notion of the death of the author. - Costume and fashion in artCourse start date: Tue 10 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Julie BarlowCostume from the past rarely survives, except in the depiction of it in paintings. Explore 500 years of costume in European art across a range of subject matter and decode the socio-political contexts and cultural identities contained within the choice of dress. This course takes place in London-area museums. - Women in the French RevolutionCourse start date: Wed 11 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Zoe QuinnIn this taster explore how the French Revolution opened up opportunities for female political engagement and action. Through an overview and case studies we will try to answer why the significant social and political gains made by French women in the revolutionary era were to prove transitory.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £12.00 - Masters of Cinema: Céline SciammaCourse start date: Sat 14 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Karine ChevalierThis one day course will consider Celine Sciamma’s importance as a filmmaker by exploring in some detail a number of her key films from her debut Water Lillies (2007), to films such as Tomboy (2011), her breakthrough Girlhood (2014), and her more recent popular successes Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) and Petite Maman (2021).
Dr Karine Chevalier is a lecturer in Film studies. She is also a filmmaker. Her main research interests lie in the field of Transnational Cinema, French and Francophone Cinema, Visual Arts and Aesthetics, Postcolonial Studies, Intermediality, as well as Screenwriting and Filmmaking, with a specific focus on Violence and Resilience, Creative Voices, Digital Storytelling and Multiscreens, Alterities and Minorities, Moving (auto)Portraits and Masks.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - In conversation with Ella RitchieCourse start date: Fri 20 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Join us as Ella introduces the topic of her motivation and the mechanics of how she and her partner set up and manage an organisation with practising artists who have a learning disability that facilitates and promotes genuine inclusiveness in art.Full fee £5.00 Senior fee £5.00 Concession £5.00 - Royal Mistresses of England and FranceCourse start date: Sat 21 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Vanessa KingTake a romp through history exploring the highs and lows of being a royal mistress. You may have heard of the Fair Rosamund or Diane de Poitiers, but what about The Maypole and The Elephant?Full fee £49.00 Senior fee £39.00 Concession £32.00 - Masters of style: reading and writing Virginia WoolfCourse start date: Sat 28 Jun 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Thomas McMullan, Patricia SweeneyVirginia Woolf was one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers. Her approaches to writing character interiority were at the forefront of modernist literary innovations. This day workshop explores the literary interpretations of several seminal texts and writing exercises that encourage you to experiment with Woolf’s stream-of-consciousness style.
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