Summer courses in humanities

Come and revel in the sheer variety and possibility of poetic form, as we consider how form might shape what a writer has to say and how they say it. This course will allow you to explore the many shapes that a poem can take.

Explore 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¿.

Cubism, Futurism and Constructivism are pivotal movements in the history of modern art – encapsulating all the promise and peril of the 20th century’s devastating birth, and even helping rewrite perceptions of space and time.

Discover the history, politics and intellectualism that fuelled the Italian Renaissance. Explore the art of Giotto and his peers from a new perspective.

Explore Georgian and Regency Hampstead walking in the footsteps of John Constable and seeing places he painted and quotes about his thoughts and feelings on Hampstead and his art.

Discover the ways in which homoeroticism found its way onto Ancient Greek vases and how its depiction flourished in the ancient world.

Art has long been inspired by themes, ideas and concepts of spirituality and magic. With the dawn of industry and technology in the modern age, what motivated artists to continue their pursuit of spiritual worlds? Why have these ideas remained so compelling to contemporary artists? On this engaging evening of art, magic and myth, explore work by selected artists from the early 1900s to the present day.

An introduction to the art of Ithell Colquhoun from her academic days at the Slade to her mystical landscapes in Cornwall. We explore her subject matter, artistic process and her surrealist tendencies.

Discover the development of the British Landscape tradition from the 18th and 19th centuries. The Victoria and Albert Museum has the largest collection of John Constable sketches in the world, and we will discuss the works on display in detail and compare with works by J.W.M Turner and other artists on display.