Adult Courses

On this stimulating course, you will explore the art and architecture which mark the divisions of time and space; divisions which may be real and physical, or imaginary and conceptual. Starting with the art of liminal places, such as the elaborate portals of the 12thcentury Renaissance, you will explore the many ideas behind this fascinating subject. Moving between periods, you will...

'Crusade' is one of the most loaded, used and misused historical terms. From the initial armed pilgrimage of 1095-99 to the subsequently cancelled anti-litter crusade of Belfast in 2017, it has proved itself extraordinarily adaptable. In its sociopolitical sense it carries special relevance in our vexed world and is frequently, and often anachronistically, employed to explain any number of issues. This course...

Paris revelled in a Belle Époque at the end of the turbulent 19th century. The city was the stage for two World Fairs, an 'endroit' of creative exchange for artists, writers and intellectuals, a place of technological and scientific progress. Belle Époque Paris was the entertainment capital of the world and from the exuberance of the cabarets of Montmartre to the opulence...

This course explores certain key radical social, economic, political and cultural ideas, action and legislation of 19th and early 20thcentury Britain. Topics covered include the struggles for constitutional change, notably the campaigns for universal suffrage and wider access to education, especially for women. Similarly considered are challenges to mainstream ideas relating to economic policy, politics and property rights, reappraisals in religion and scientific...

Until 1500, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian and Norman-French links tied England firmly to the continent. The Tudor Reformation was a first Brexit, but by defying Catholic Europe, England automatically became a leader of Protestant Europe. A second Brexit, 19thcentury 'splendid isolation' did not survive the Boer War. Ultimately, economic and security interests always led back to the continent. However, the unique and...

This course examines the contemporary cultures of the southern United States in historical context. The South is, perhaps, the most clearly defined region of the US in its inhabitants' sense of place and connection with the past. What does it mean to be a 'Southerner' in a time of significant demographic, political and social change? You will examine antebellum Southern society and trace...

This course will provide an overview of British Art from the 16th through to the end of the 20th century. Along the way, you will encounter individual painters, sculptors, patrons, collectors, art institutions and important cultural phenomena such as The Grand Tour, Romanticism, the Pre-Raphaelites and Modernism. Accepting that the ideas and the careers of some artists spread untidily across the turn...

This popular course returns with fresh cases for your consideration. Each day, you will be looking at a real life murder or suspected murder which occurred in England between 1900 and 1975. You the jury will consider the evidence, reach your own verdict and then decide whether or not justice was well served by the historical outcome. The cases have all been...