New courses

This is a stand-alone companion course to the Autumn ’23 course on the Sight and Sound Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time. The first reactions to the Sight and Sound Poll 2022 were divisive, as completely expected, when certain 21st-century films made the list and other venerated classics were dropped (see topics below for the list). As interesting as the top 100 was to discuss, we wanted to look a bit deeper to see how the reception of certain films shifted over the last decade, with a rundown of the films that were added and those removed. Be assured, they are as enjoyable as the Top 100—perhaps even more so. In addition to viewing the films that were added or dropped, students will conduct their own poll of the Greatest Films of All Time. Enjoy either or both of these complementary courses.

Surprisingly, not every film that features the occult is a horror film. Certainly, many of them are; we will consider classics such as Haxan from 1922, Rosemary’s Baby, The Craft, Angel Heart, The Witch and Hereditary. Other films, such as Kenneth Anger's Lucifer Rising and A Dark Song, attempt to treat the occult seriously as secret or hidden knowledge. We'll examine the cultural backdrop of occult films and questions of representation, gender relations, and spirituality.

In this course students will be introduced to theories of posthumanism that suggest ways we can embrace ‘monstruous’ identities and ‘mutant’ forms of knowing. Through popular science fiction films and literary texts, we will contemplate the complex coming together and apart of bodies-minds-worlds in contemporary culture and explore experiences of hybridity and metamorphosis.



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

Who were considered the ‘Best of Young British Novelists’ in 1983, and what became of them? What do their styles and topics reveal about the decade, looking back from 40 years on? Read extracts by all twenty writers plus novels by Pat Barker, Graham Swift and Julian Barnes.

We look at four poets who struggled to be heard or accepted because their work was so different from what their society expected. What were the barriers they had to overcome and how did they win through to become admired and highly regarded? What made one of the poets stop writing at the age of 21 and the other three continue for the rest of their lives? What makes the poetry of all of them so original, and what can we learn from their resilience?

The 2016 referendum result was one of the most significant events in recent British history. How can novels, written in that moment, shed light on the run-up to the vote and its immediate aftermath?



On this course we’ll study three fascinating and powerful novels, by Ali Smith, Anthony Cartwright and Adam Thorpe, exploring their stories and the backdrop they present of Britain’s divisions and connections.



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

Discover the types of women who don't conform to social rules, who wield a supernatural power that destablises the status quo. From the threatening type to the empowered woman, join us for an exploration of the femme fatale in early modern and modern European art.



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

An overview of the various steps to consider when setting up as a sole trader.



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

Through the words of six female poets from different countries spanning a hundred years, we will explore what it meant to be a woman in the 20th Century. The poems we will read cover a diverse range of topics such as desire and sexuality, loneliness and race, gender and feminism. Includes poems by Charlotte Mew, Anna Akhmatova, Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska, Forugh Farrokhzad, Gwendolyn Brooks and Carol Ann Duffy.



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

This course explores the Medieval Mystery plays, also known as the York Corpus Christi plays, focusing on the oldest of the four great cycles of biblical drama that have survived from late Medieval England. We will consider theatrical conventions, costumes and props, the performances and open-air staging of the plays and the medieval guilds and writers that were responsible for them.



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

This is a short introduction to Ethics in AI for non-technical beginners who aspire to drive responsible AI design and use. This course will enable you to strike a balance between the potential benefits and risks of AI technology.



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

In this introductory course on Pandas you will learn Python's most powerful library for managing and manipulating data. Crafted for beginners, this course aims to build a robust foundation for those wish to step into the arena of data science or anyone interested in analysing data.



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

Do you enjoy reading in Portuguese and writing in English? Are you interested in the similarities and differences between English-speaking and Portuguese-speaking cultures? Do you have a particular interest and/or background in literature, especially literature in other languages? Would you like to see if you have a special knack for translation, perhaps with a view to doing it professionally? Come and join this interactive translation course to hone your translation skills.



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