Discover a World of Culture
This collection of courses will help you to expand your knowledge of the world. Whether you want to diversify your hobbies, enhance your travel experiences or simply embrace a new culture, we offer a wide range of courses to spark your curiosity.
From Islamic art and Japanese film to African music and Latin American dance, come with us on this cultural journey around the world and discover something new.
- The music of Brazil: from samba through bossa novaCourse start date: Sat 7 Dec 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Claudia CerbinoDiscover the rich cultural and geographical diversity which have influenced Brazilian popular music and learn about the wide variety of Brazil's musical styles both past and present.In English with some Portuguese.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information. - Hindi through Bollywood singingCourse start date: Mon 9 Dec 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Roopam AggarwalLearn to speak Hindi and develop your listening and speaking skills in this communicative class which emphasizes the practical use of the language via singing. Suitable for complete beginners.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £19.00 - Italian film nightCourse start date: Wed 11 Dec 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Francesco BucciolWith proceeds going to the City Lit Student Bursary, the Italian Film Night is a chance to round out the term with a fun movie night in the college. The film will be presented by Francesco Bucciol, head of the Classics department and our Italian GCSE and A Level tutor. Francesco will also lead a discussion after the film.
For this term's Italian film night, we will be showing and discussing excerpts from a classic (perhaps THE classic) Italian film, La Dolce Vita.Full fee £9.00 Senior fee £9.00 Concession £9.00 - Iranian cinema: Abbas KiarostamiCourse start date: Tue 7 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Jean-Baptiste de VaulxIn the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami became celebrated and championed internationally, at film festivals, by film critics, on the arthouse cinema circuits. He came to be seen as a director who had revitalised international cinema – Jean-Luc Godard famously quipped that “cinema began with D.W. Griffith and ends with Kiarostami.” Yet, despite all this international acclaim, the deep Iranian roots of Kiarostami remain often misunderstood or even ignored. This course shall cover the long and rich career of Kiarostami, one inevitably formed by an Iranian context and set of cultural references, and closely examine the different phases of his work, the recurring stylistic and thematic concerns, and his trajectory from little-known Iranian filmmaker to global auteur director.Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £77.00 - Post-colonial cinemas 2Course start date: Wed 8 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Jean-Baptiste de VaulxThis module will examine a crucially important but often neglected area of film history, namely the responses to and against colonialist legacy made by many different strands of filmmaking around the world. We will analyse and discuss examples of filmmaking through the lens of postcolonial theory, covering specific films from Africa, the Arab World, the Philippines, the Caribbean and South Asian diasporas in Britain, Argentina, and Hong Kong.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £84.00 - Art and empire: in the early modern eraCourse start date: Wed 8 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Emma Rose BarberStudy the art of the Dutch Golden Age from 1600 to 1750 looking at the luxurious, tactile paintings of domestic life and landscape of this gloriously rich period in art. Consider the role that commerce, travel and trade played in how these paintings were made and through critical analysis of texts, try and evaluate the validity of the term ‘Golden Age’. - World cinema 2: DiasporaCourse start date: Thu 9 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Gillian McIverThis online film course follows on from Introduction to World Cinema. Like the first course, it will introduce you to filmmaking nations that are often less visible than Hollywood and the larger European film industries. The course will introduce the idea of ‘Diaspora Cinema’ (also known as Diasporic Cinema), that is, films made by filmmakers that are part of a cultural diaspora.
Diasporic cinema refers to the production of films by any community of exiles or immigrants who have left their native country and live and work in another. It encompasses a wide range of genres, sub-genres, and themes within film studies.
A 'diasporic' film is not the property of a single culture, but mediates in at least two ways. It explains the interaction between different loci of knowledge, exposing cinema's synthesis of expression and creating new types of information.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £84.00 - Arts of the empire-builders: Timurids, Safavids and MughalsCourse start date: Thu 16 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Anita ChowdryPatronage under the Timurids, Safavids and Mughals marked a definitive period in the development of the arts and culture of the Islamic world. This course looks at the visual ‘brands’ that characterised these important empires. - Tango ArgentinoCourse start date: Fri 17 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Adriana PegorerThis course is about learning Argentinean Tango where you will learn, practice, enjoy and meet friends! No partner needed – come alone, with a partner or with friends. Suitable for both beginners and those with prior experience.Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £83.00 - Ballroom and Latin: beginnersCourse start date: Sat 18 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Nuno SabrosoThis course is perfect for those who are new to Ballroom dance or looking to brush up on existing skills. Taught in a friendly and supportive atmosphere you will learn the basic steps and techniques of both Ballroom and Latin dance. No partner is required to join the course. You will perform with different members of the class, acquire some great dance knowledge and with the added benefit of feeling healthier!Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £139.00 - Salsa dance: beginnersCourse start date: Mon 20 Jan 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Bless KlepcharekJoin us for an energetic and intensive introduction to Salsa. Learn the essential steps and technique in this fun and friendly short course. No need to bring a partner, part of the fun is meeting new people but most of all learning a new dance style whilst having a good time.Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £55.00 - Contemporary Asian fictionsCourse start date: Wed 22 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Aamer HusseinDiscover a careful selection of novels from East and South Asia, by writers living at home and abroad, which reflect the thematic versatility and narrative innovations which are bringing readers to these novels. Ranging from large canvases to intimate portraits, the choice includes: At Dusk by Hwang Sok-Young (Korea), Mild Vertigo by Mieko Kanai (Japan), Cocoon by Zhang Yueran (Japan), Brotherless Night by V.V Ganeshanathan (Sri Lanks/US).Full fee £249.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £162.00 - Indigenous Australian art at the British MuseumCourse start date: Wed 22 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Arjmand AzizThe British Museum holds a significant collection of contemporary Indigenous Australian art across several media including paintings, glass and fibre sculpture and works on bark (amongst others). This object-based course provides an introductory examination of the rich diversity of works on display in the collection as well as providing critical frameworks for analysing how the objects are presented and interpreted in a museum context.Full fee £39.00 Senior fee £31.00 Concession £25.00 - Japanese novellas and short storiesCourse start date: Fri 24 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Lewis WardShort stories offer a brief window into a variety of other lives, places, and situations. This literary form has remained popular in Japan over several centuries, with topics as diverse as natural disasters, the beauty of everyday life, hellish curses and the consequences of fame. We’ll explore the history of this medium through a selection of short stories by some of Japan’s most popular short story authors.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £77.00 - Explore Rio de JaneiroCourse start date: Sat 25 Jan 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Claudia CerbinoDiscover this amazing city, home to such famous landmarks as Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf Mountain - its geography, culture and food.
In English with some Portuguese.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £29.00 Senior fee £29.00 Concession £29.00
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