WEA courses

This course gives an overview of the social context, politico—historical forces and individual personalities involved in the development of religion during the late classic, medieval and early modern period. This course is ideal for anyone interested in understanding the emergence of Christianity, Islam, Sikhism and ‘Humanism’ within their wider social contexts. While we will be continuing from where my previous courses left off, previous knowledge is not required.

Did you know that learning Latin can enrich your knowledge in all sorts of other areas? Far from being “dead”, Latin is all around us. This intermediate Latin course can give you essential background knowledge to understand terminology in law, medicine, family history, and many other subjects. Latin has hundreds of applications in contemporary contexts. This course is ideal for you if you’re interested in learning Latin, or gaining general knowledge to help you learn modern languages or other disciplines.

Are too many too quick to dismiss the fantasy genre as pure entertainment and/or escapist spectacle? Are there varying degrees of fantasy on screen, rendering the term fantasy film as something rather too broad? We examine a selection of five films, all using elements of fantasy to tell their stories. In Orlando, adapted from literature, elements of fantasy are used to highlight inequalities within society. Young Einstein, a film derided by critics in the U.S, makes use of alterative history and elements of surrealism to both entertain and arguably present some deeper comments regarding humanity and innovation, does its fantastical approach help or hinder? Labyrinth offers a unique screen vision by immersing the viewer in a vivid fantasy world earning itself cult status to this day but is it for children, adults or both? Spirited Away makes use of animation to comment on the modern world, here, the fantasy element is fundamental to its approach. More recent films such as Barbie prove fantasy can be big at the box office, using a variety of different approaches to both entertain and relevant social comment. Are all these fantasy films as much if not far more than meet the eye? Are there any reoccurring themes approaches? And is fantasy an ideal medium for the screen? Orlando (1992), Young Einstein (1988), Labyrinth (1986), Barbie (2023), Spirited Away (2001).

This course will help you understand watercolour techniques interrelated with drawing skills, and in connection with inspiring examples in art history. It will help you learn classical techniques in a subtle way, by relating them to examples by various masters of drawing and watercolour (such as Dürer, Turner or Cezanne) and contemporary artists (such as David Hockney or Anselm Kiefer). If you would like to have a fresh view of watercolour painting and drawing, and learn how to achieve expressivity by carefully combining techniques such as glazing, graded wash or cross-hatching, this course will offer you an overview and will inspire personal artworks of great subtlety and sensitivity It will also encourage you to create your own original artworks based on the techniques learned and it will bring a fresh perspective on known techniques and styles, if you have already practised them in your own paintings. You will need to bring your own materials, paints and paper along for this course. The tutor will let you know what to bring

In this course suitable for newcomers to the subject as well as those with previous experience, we will be studying ancient Egyptian art through the decorated tombs of ancient Thebes (modern-day Luxor). Through a series of visually rich sessions a wide range of tomb scenes will be studied with a focus on both understanding what these scenes represent while also considering aspects of style and purpose. We will see how scenes can be replicated or adapted across tombs as well as less typical tomb scenes potentially representing the agency of the tomb owner.

This course will give you an outline of the development of country houses from medieval times through to the 20th century. We will look at how these houses were designed and what they were used for, as well as the lifestyles of those living in them, both owners and servants. We will see how the role of the architect developed and how this growing profession influenced, and reacted to, the expectations and demands of their clients. In the 20th century, we will look at the challenges and threats faced by country houses and ask whether country houses can survive in the future.

This course will consider and analyse the following authors and their texts. These are: Magnus - George Mackay Brown. Border Country - Raymond Williams. They - Kay Dick. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John Le Carre. Waterland - Graham Swift. These texts will provide a window into the different regions of Britain during two decades of major change in the social fabric and political nature of Britain, though several of our texts will trace these changes back to the earlier part of the twentieth century, and in doing so, we will encounter themes of identity, class and the decline of Empire. There will be much to prompt discussion and challenge our assumptions.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the history of ideas is learning how ideas have a life of their own, influencing society and culture through successive generations in different ways. In this 10-week course we’ll focus on an different important and influential question each week. We cover philosophy, literature, science and history. We’ll read and discuss selected extracts which will be circulated beforehand. The course covers a sweep of over 2000 years, from the ancient Greeks to modern times.

It is sometimes said that Lenin drove the Russian revolution into a cul-de-sac and Stalin then accelerated into the wall at the far end. The course will examine the economic, political and social changes undertaken by Stalin and enforced by the Great Terror. We will then consider how far this modernisation of the economy enabled the USSR to withstand the Nazi onslaught from 1941 and why the Soviet Union seemed unreformable under Stalin’s successors. We will conclude by looking at Gorbachev’s almost total failure to achieve the objectives he identified and why, despite that, he was one of the most laudable leaders of a troubled century in European affairs

Regency society rakish, raffish but with a fondness for wonderful architecture, or was there more to it than that?