Explore memoirs by women across cultures and generations. Reflect on identity, resistance, and storytelling while building your own voice through guided discussion and creative exercises.
Learning modes and locations may be different depending on the course start date. Please check the location of your chosen course and read our guide to learning modes and locations to help you choose the right course for you.
Please note: We offer a wide variety of financial support to make courses affordable. Just visit our online Help Centre for more information on a range of topics including fees, online learning and FAQs.
This is a reading group exploring memoirs by women across cultures and generations. Through six powerful texts, we’ll reflect on identity, resistance, and storytelling, building community through shared reading and discussion. Please note the readings will contain experiences that may be both difficult to read and discuss.
We will read the following books:
Sojourner Truth: Narrative of Sojourner Truth (2022) - 23 September
Beate Sirota Gordon: The Only Woman in the Room: A Memoir of Japan, Human Rights, and the Arts (2014) - 26 October
Andrée Blouin: My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria (2025) - 30 November
Anna Castillo: Black Dove : Mama, Mi'jo, and Me (2016) - 11 January
Safiya Sinclair: How to Say Babylon: A Jamaican Memoir (2024) - 1 February
Hannah Azieb Pool: My Fathers' Daughter (2022) - 8 March
What will we cover?
Each session focuses on one memoir, exploring themes such as:
Framing the self: autobiography vs memoir
Intersectionality and lived experience
Migration, motherhood, and activism
Memory, trauma, and healing
Writing as resistance and reclamation
Style, voice, and narrative structure
What will I achieve? By the end of this course you should be able to...
Engage critically with memoirs by women
Explore how life writing reflects and resists social structures
Reflect on your own story through guided prompts
Build confidence in sharing and listening within a group
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
This course is suitable both for newcomers to the subject and for those who have some background knowledge. You will need a good grasp of English to keep up with the course. An ability and willingness to explore will increase what you get out of the course.
However, as with most of our history, politics and current affairs courses, an open mind and a respectful willingness to listen to and think about views with which you do not always agree are more important than specific levels of skills.
Given the sensitive nature of some of the topics the course will explore, we also expect everyone to engage group and class discussions with respect and the willingness to learn from others.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
You will be expected to read the listed book for each session. Each session will entail tutor-led discussion and group reflection.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
You will be expected to secure access to the memoirs listed above. The books should be available in your public library and in second hand bookshops. Some of the titles may also be available as audiobooks or as digital books, e.g. via a kindle supscription. Please check your access to the books before enrolling.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
HPC169 Women: Power, Culture and daily Resistance
Your tutor will also share their other courses with you. Please note other reading groups will be added to the programme also.
Michele Scott is an experienced Criminologist and Sociologist who has taught in a range of colleges, such as City of Westminster and Universities such as Birkbeck, LSE and London Metropolitan University as a Lecturer on courses such such as the Sociology of Crime and Deviance, Sociology of Gender, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity as well as Black Studies, Law, Justice and Society, Criminal Justice and Criminological courses. Michele is also an advocate for neurodiverse and SEND children. She also attained a wealth of voluntary experience surrounding supporting the needs of the parents of neurodiverse children. Alongside, neurodiverse children themselves and schools in attaining EHCPs for neurodiverse children. As well as ensuring their needs are effectively met within these educational establishments.
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.
product
https://www.citylit.ac.uk/our-world-s-memoirs-by-women2980004Our World(s): Memoirs by Womenhttps://www.citylit.ac.uk/media/catalog/product/o/u/our-world-s-memoirs-by-women-1080.jpg189189GBPInStock/Courses/Courses/Culture, history & humanities/Courses/Online courses/Courses/International Women's Day at City Lit/Courses/Culture, history & humanities/Cultural studies/Courses/Culture, history & humanities/Cultural studies/Cultural studies/Courses/vm/Black history month/Courses/Culture, history & humanities/Politics & economics/Courses/Culture, history & humanities/Politics & economics/Critical social studies22851177173120031201206413478167713762122851177120116531677<p>Explore memoirs by women across cultures and generations. Reflect on identity, resistance, and storytelling while building your own voice through guided discussion and creative exercises.</p>003067459Our World(s): Memoirs by Women189189https://www.citylit.ac.uk/media/catalog/product/o/u/our-world-s-memoirs-by-women-1080_2.jpgInStockEveningMonOnlineAvailable courses5-10 weeksWeekday2026-09-28T00:00:00+00:00Sep 2026Culture, history & humanitiesHMI29189189Our World(s): Memoirs by Women189123189Michele Scottour-world-s-memoirs-by-women/hmi29-2627<p>Explore memoirs by women across cultures and generations. Reflect on identity, resistance, and storytelling while building your own voice through guided discussion and creative exercises.</p>0000-Available|2026-09-28 00:00:00<p>This is a reading group exploring memoirs by women across cultures and generations. Through six powerful texts, we’ll reflect on identity, resistance, and storytelling, building community through shared reading and discussion. Please note the readings will contain experiences that may be both difficult to read and discuss.</p><p>We will read the following books:</p><ul><li>Sojourner Truth: Narrative of Sojourner Truth (2022) - 23 September</li><li>Beate Sirota Gordon: The Only Woman in the Room: A Memoir of Japan, Human Rights, and the Arts (2014) - 26 October</li><li>Andrée Blouin: My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria (2025) - 30 November</li><li>Anna Castillo: Black Dove : Mama, Mi'jo, and Me (2016) - 11 January</li><li>Safiya Sinclair: How to Say Babylon: A Jamaican Memoir (2024) - 1 February </li><li>Hannah Azieb Pool: My Fathers' Daughter (2022) - 8 March </li></ul><p>Explore memoirs by women across cultures and generations. Reflect on identity, resistance, and storytelling while building your own voice through guided discussion and creative exercises.</p><p>Each session focuses on one memoir, exploring themes such as:</p><ul><li>Framing the self: autobiography vs memoir</li><li>Intersectionality and lived experience</li><li>Migration, motherhood, and activism</li><li>Memory, trauma, and healing</li><li>Writing as resistance and reclamation</li><li>Style, voice, and narrative structure</li></ul><ul><li>Engage critically with memoirs by women</li><li>Explore how life writing reflects and resists social structures</li><li>Reflect on your own story through guided prompts</li><li>Build confidence in sharing and listening within a group</li></ul><p>This course is suitable both for newcomers to the subject and for those who have some background knowledge. You will need a good grasp of English to keep up with the course. An ability and willingness to explore will increase what you get out of the course.</p><p>However, as with most of our history, politics and current affairs courses, an open mind and a respectful willingness to listen to and think about views with which you do not always agree are more important than specific levels of skills.</p><p>Given the sensitive nature of some of the topics the course will explore, we also expect everyone to engage group and class discussions with respect and the willingness to learn from others.</p><p>You will be expected to read the listed book for each session. Each session will entail tutor-led discussion and group reflection.</p><p>You will be expected to secure access to the memoirs listed above. The books should be available in your public library and in second hand bookshops. Some of the titles may also be available as audiobooks or as digital books, e.g. via a kindle supscription. Please check your access to the books before enrolling. </p><p>HPC169 Women: Power, Culture and daily Resistance</p><p>Your tutor will also share their other courses with you. Please note other reading groups will be added to the programme also. </p><p> </p>Politics & economicsCritical social studiesCulture, history & humanitiesCultural studiesCultural studiesvirtual3087976Our world(s): memoirs by women 189189https://www.citylit.ac.uk/media/catalog/product/o/u/our-world-s-memoirs-by-women-1080_3.jpgInStockEveningMonOnlineAvailable courses5-10 weeksWeekday2027-04-05T00:00:00+00:00Beginners, Some experience, Advanced, Suitable for allApr 2027Culture, history & humanitiesHMI110189189Our world(s): memoirs by women 189123189Michele Scottour-world-s-memoirs-by-women/hmi110-2627<p>Explore memoirs by women across cultures and generations. Reflect on identity, resistance, and storytelling while building your own voice through guided discussion and creative exercises.</p><p> </p>0000-Available|2027-04-05 00:00:00<p>Explore memoirs by women across cultures and generations. Reflect on identity, resistance, and storytelling while building your own voice through guided discussion and creative exercises.</p><p>This is a reading group exploring memoirs by women across cultures and generations. Through six powerful texts, we’ll reflect on identity, resistance, and storytelling, building community through shared reading and discussion. Please note the readings will contain experiences that may be both difficult to read and discuss.</p><p>We will read the following books:</p><ul><li>Sojourner Truth: Narrative of Sojourner Truth (2022) - 5 April 2027</li><li>Beate Sirota Gordon: The Only Woman in the Room: A Memoir of Japan, Human Rights, and the Arts (2014) - 26 April 2027</li><li>Andrée Blouin: My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria (2025) - 10 May 2027</li><li>Anna Castillo: Black Dove : Mama, Mi'jo, and Me (2016) - 7 June 2027 </li><li>Safiya Sinclair: How to Say Babylon: A Jamaican Memoir (2024) - 28 June 2027 </li><li>Hannah Azieb Pool: My Fathers' Daughter (2022) - 19 June </li></ul><p>Explore memoirs by women across cultures and generations. Reflect on identity, resistance, and storytelling while building your own voice through guided discussion and creative exercises.</p><p> </p><p>Each session focuses on one memoir, exploring themes such as:</p><ul><li>Framing the self: autobiography vs memoir</li><li>Intersectionality and lived experience</li><li>Migration, motherhood, and activism</li><li>Memory, trauma, and healing</li><li>Writing as resistance and reclamation</li><li>Style, voice, and narrative structure</li></ul><ul><li>Engage critically with memoirs by women</li><li>Explore how life writing reflects and resists social structures</li><li>Reflect on your own story through guided prompts</li><li>Build confidence in sharing and listening within a group</li><li>resistance and power.</li></ul><p>This course is suitable both for newcomers to the subject and for those who have some background knowledge. You will need a good grasp of English to keep up with the course. An ability and willingness to explore will increase what you get out of the course.</p><p>However, as with most of our history, politics and current affairs courses, an open mind and a respectful willingness to listen to and think about views with which you do not always agree are more important than specific levels of skills.</p><p>Given the sensitive nature of some of the topics the course will explore, we also expect everyone to engage group and class discussions with respect and the willingness to learn from others.</p><p>You will be expected to read the listed book for each session. Each session will entail tutor-led discussion and group reflection.</p><p>You will be expected to secure access to the memoirs listed above. The books should be available in your public library and in second hand bookshops. Some of the titles may also be available as audiobooks or as digital books, e.g. via a kindle supscription. Please check your access to the books before enrolling. </p><p>Your tutor will also share their other courses with you. Please note other reading groups will be added to the programme also. </p>Cultural studiesCultural studiesvirtual189189123HMI29,HMI110NONEMon28/09/26 - 08/03/2719:00 - 21:0019:0021:006 sessions (over 24 weeks)65-10 weeksWeekdayOnlineOnlineMichele ScottAvailable courses2026-09-28T00:00:00+00:00,2027-04-05T00:00:00+00:00EveningSep 2026,Apr 2027Culture, history & humanities189189Our World(s): Memoirs by Women,Our world(s): memoirs by women our-world-s-memoirs-by-women/hmi29-2627,our-world-s-memoirs-by-women/hmi110-2627<p>Explore memoirs by women across cultures and generations. Reflect on identity, resistance, and storytelling while building your own voice through guided discussion and creative exercises.</p>,<p>Explore memoirs by women across cultures and generations. Reflect on identity, resistance, and storytelling while building your own voice through guided discussion and creative exercises.</p><p> </p>0000-Available|2026-09-28 00:00:00<p>This is a reading group exploring memoirs by women across cultures and generations. Through six powerful texts, we’ll reflect on identity, resistance, and storytelling, building community through shared reading and discussion. Please note the readings will contain experiences that may be both difficult to read and discuss.</p><p>We will read the following books:</p><ul><li>Sojourner Truth: Narrative of Sojourner Truth (2022) - 23 September</li><li>Beate Sirota Gordon: The Only Woman in the Room: A Memoir of Japan, Human Rights, and the Arts (2014) - 26 October</li><li>Andrée Blouin: My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria (2025) - 30 November</li><li>Anna Castillo: Black Dove : Mama, Mi'jo, and Me (2016) - 11 January</li><li>Safiya Sinclair: How to Say Babylon: A Jamaican Memoir (2024) - 1 February </li><li>Hannah Azieb Pool: My Fathers' Daughter (2022) - 8 March </li></ul>,<p>Explore memoirs by women across cultures and generations. Reflect on identity, resistance, and storytelling while building your own voice through guided discussion and creative exercises.</p><p>This is a reading group exploring memoirs by women across cultures and generations. Through six powerful texts, we’ll reflect on identity, resistance, and storytelling, building community through shared reading and discussion. Please note the readings will contain experiences that may be both difficult to read and discuss.</p><p>We will read the following books:</p><ul><li>Sojourner Truth: Narrative of Sojourner Truth (2022) - 5 April 2027</li><li>Beate Sirota Gordon: The Only Woman in the Room: A Memoir of Japan, Human Rights, and the Arts (2014) - 26 April 2027</li><li>Andrée Blouin: My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria (2025) - 10 May 2027</li><li>Anna Castillo: Black Dove : Mama, Mi'jo, and Me (2016) - 7 June 2027 </li><li>Safiya Sinclair: How to Say Babylon: A Jamaican Memoir (2024) - 28 June 2027 </li><li>Hannah Azieb Pool: My Fathers' Daughter (2022) - 19 June </li></ul><p>Explore memoirs by women across cultures and generations. Reflect on identity, resistance, and storytelling while building your own voice through guided discussion and creative exercises.</p>,<p>Explore memoirs by women across cultures and generations. Reflect on identity, resistance, and storytelling while building your own voice through guided discussion and creative exercises.</p><p> </p><p>Each session focuses on one memoir, exploring themes such as:</p><ul><li>Framing the self: autobiography vs memoir</li><li>Intersectionality and lived experience</li><li>Migration, motherhood, and activism</li><li>Memory, trauma, and healing</li><li>Writing as resistance and reclamation</li><li>Style, voice, and narrative structure</li></ul><ul><li>Engage critically with memoirs by women</li><li>Explore how life writing reflects and resists social structures</li><li>Reflect on your own story through guided prompts</li><li>Build confidence in sharing and listening within a group</li></ul>,<ul><li>Engage critically with memoirs by women</li><li>Explore how life writing reflects and resists social structures</li><li>Reflect on your own story through guided prompts</li><li>Build confidence in sharing and listening within a group</li><li>resistance and power.</li></ul><p>This course is suitable both for newcomers to the subject and for those who have some background knowledge. You will need a good grasp of English to keep up with the course. An ability and willingness to explore will increase what you get out of the course.</p><p>However, as with most of our history, politics and current affairs courses, an open mind and a respectful willingness to listen to and think about views with which you do not always agree are more important than specific levels of skills.</p><p>Given the sensitive nature of some of the topics the course will explore, we also expect everyone to engage group and class discussions with respect and the willingness to learn from others.</p><p>You will be expected to read the listed book for each session. Each session will entail tutor-led discussion and group reflection.</p><p>You will be expected to secure access to the memoirs listed above. The books should be available in your public library and in second hand bookshops. Some of the titles may also be available as audiobooks or as digital books, e.g. via a kindle supscription. Please check your access to the books before enrolling. </p><p>HPC169 Women: Power, Culture and daily Resistance</p><p>Your tutor will also share their other courses with you. Please note other reading groups will be added to the programme also. </p><p> </p>,<p>Your tutor will also share their other courses with you. Please note other reading groups will be added to the programme also. </p>Politics & economics,Cultural studiesCritical social studies,Cultural studiesconfigurable
20641201Cultural studieshttps://www.citylit.ac.uk/courses/humanities/culture/culture-11/2/285/1177/1201/2064/Courses/Culture, history & humanities/Cultural studies/Cultural studies
