All Courses

In this course, we explore the life, achievements, and legacy of Alexander the Great. In particular, we look at Alexander’s military career, his women and his relationship with the gods to ask the question, Alexander the Great – hero or...

In this course, Professor John Morrill (University of Cambridge) explores the reign of Elizabeth I (1533-1603) through the lens of the succession crisis that she faced throughout her life – both at the beginning of her reign in 1558, and...

In this course, Professor Robin Osborne (University of Cambridge) explores the Histories of Herodotus. In the first module, we discuss what the Histories are actually about, before thinking about the form of the Histories—its overall structure, as...

In this course, Professor Helen Sauntson (York St John University) explores language, gender and sexuality. In the first module, we provide an introduction to the field, including an overview of recent research. In the second module, we think...

In this course, we look at James Joyce's collection of short stories, Dubliners. In particular, we explore key themes in the collection by looking at groups of 2-3 stories. Having given an introduction to the Dublin of the late-19th and...

In this course, Dr Martin Wiggins (The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham) explores Shakespeare's Coriolanus. We begin by thinking about the political circumstances in which the action of the play takes place, focusing in particular...

In this course, Professor David Bates (University of East Anglia) explores English history between 1035-87, focusing in particular on the Norman Conquest and the reign of William the Conqueror. After an introduction to the course as a whole in...

In this course, Professor Mark White (Queen Mary, University of London) explores the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. We begin by thinking about the background to the Cuban Missile Crisis, including Kennedy’s policies towards Cuba ...

In this course, Professor Hans van Wees (University College, London) explores the reforms of Solon in the early sixth century BC. We begin by thinking about the social and political problems faced by Athens in the period, before moving on...

In this course, we explore the relationship between the United States and Japan between the attack on Pearl Harbour to the San Francisco Peace Conference and the end of US occupation of Japan. In six modules, we explore the relationship...

In this course, Professor Catherine Steel (University of Glasgow) explores Cicero as an orator in a set of lectures designed to be used alongside the OCR A Level Classical Civilization option, ‘Politics and the Late Republic’. In the first module,...

In this course, Professor Susan Curtis (Purdue University) explains how different reform movements responded to the rise of industrial capitalism in the Gilded Age. In the first three modules, we look at this through the lens of the economy -...

In this course, Dr Hazel Price (University of Salford) explores the fields of semantics and pragmatics. In the first module, we provide an introduction to both fields, before turning in the second and third modules to explore each field in more...

In this course, Professor Yang-Wen Zheng (University of Manchester) explores the history of China from the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45) to the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. In the first module, we think about what China was...