Arts and humanities courses
Arts and humanities courses. We don’t just teach, we inspire.
Exploring the depths of culture, philosophy and history has never been so accessible. Learn from experts in the field and create an everlasting bond with some of the world’s most impactful reading material. Our comprehensive arts and humanities courses offered at the University of Sydney provide students with unending knowledge that touches our roots while building towards the future.
Don’t be intimidated by our knowledgeable faculty – they know their stuff but they also understand that everyone starts somewhere, which is why we welcome inquiring minds without prejudice. Step up to unleash your inner scholar and get energised by mind-stimulating discourse amongst like-minded peers. Meet friends, form opinions and come out of it with a cultural experience you won’t soon forget!
Sign up now for your very own inspiring experience. We offer groundbreaking opportunities to unlock your intellectual potential, turning everyday people into more thoughtful citizens able to appreciate their pasts and consider their futures more deeply. So say farewell to mundane education and open your world through art and humanities today! Learn arts and humanities in Sydney with arts and humanities courses from the University of Sydney – your premier provider of short courses in Sydney and online.
Featured courses
Meet your facilitators
Antony Cirocco
Antony's film and television projects over the last 13 years have included producing and editing over 300 TVC’s. Every film or TV project he has worked on since 2005 has either been nominated for,...
Mark Tredinnick
Mark Tredinnick, winner of the Montreal Poetry Prize (2011) and the Cardiff Poetry Prize (2012), is the author of The Blue Plateau, Fire Diary, and nine other acclaimed works of poetry and prose....
Andrew Urban
Creator & interviewer, Front Up (SBS TV) Channel Host, World Movies Channel Presenter, Movies This Week, Ovation & World Movies Channels Founder and editor, urbancinefile.com.au A career...
Featured Articles
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Music. Learn, enjoy, appreciate. In this continuation of an ongoing course on German Music in the nineteenth century, we arrive at the formation of the Second German Empire under Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm I. Remarkably, Richard Wagner appears to anticipate these historical events in the patriotic finale to his music drama The Mastersingers of Nuremberg, and Johannes Brahms confidently celebrates them with his choral Song of Triumph. Nevertheless, Brahms and Wagner continue to... View Music in the German Lands Course: 1866-1876.
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Philosophy. Study the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence. The enigmatic Ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates, is considered to be the founder of Western philosophy. His ideas have had a profound influence on philosophical history, yet he left no written record of them. Throughout this course, we will review material from sources attempting to reconstruct Socrates. Our earliest extant source—and the only one who can claim to have known Socrates in his early... View Philosophy Course: Socrates and the Foundation of Western Philosophy.
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Philosophy. Study the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence. “Two things awe me most, the starry sky above and the moral law within.” – Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant is a towering figure in philosophical history, who has had a profound influence on developments in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political theory and aesthetics. Kant synthesised early modern rationalism and empiricism. During this ten-week course, we will review his three major works and explore... View Philosophy Course: Introduction to Kant.
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Music. Learn, enjoy, appreciate. In the first part of this new series on music in Europe in the late Nineteenth Century, we weave together the various nationalist strands of orchestral and operatic music composed in this period, which is referred to as the Fin de Siècle. We note how the rising young Czech composer Dvorak is influenced by the music of his German mentor Brahms, and how Tchaikovsky also chooses to embrace the familiar forms of contemporary European music. By... View Music of the Fin de Siècle Course: 1877-1883.
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Philosophy. Study the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence. Join us for this ten-week philosophy of drama course, as we explore the role that dramatic theatre has played in human story. We will cover historical periods including: the Ancient Greek playwrights, particularly Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides; the early to late 20th century, discussing Ibsen, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller; and Contemporary film with Terrence Malick as the focus... View Philosophy of Drama Course: Ancient Greek Tragedy to Modern Film.
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Philosophy. Study the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence. Join us as we explore philosophical ideas on five contemporary issues including: human nature and hope vs pessimism; conspiracy theories; understanding right/left ethics; animal minds; and affectivity in environmental philosophy. The five issues we will address have attracted new philosophical research over the last decade. Rutger Bregman’s attempts to redress the growing pessimism about ‘human nature’... View Philosophy Course: Philosophical Ideas on Five Contemporary Issues.
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Philosophy. Study the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence. With the introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the increasing use of new technologies in many workplaces, the idea of ‘work’ is receiving new attention in philosophy. This course will look at the contribution of many philosophers past and present to the issues such as: Is work important to human flourishing and our sense of a meaningful life? How is ‘work’ different to ‘leisure’? What are the... View Philosophy Course: Work in the Age of AI.
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Philosophy. Study the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence. Thomas Hobbes is regarded as one of a handful of genuinely great political philosophers – his masterwork Leviathan (1651) changed history. The idea of a ‘social contract’ as the basis of political power is his most powerful contribution, eventually becoming the theoretical foundation of most contemporary societies. Hobbes is however a controversial philosopher in many ways. His understanding of humans as... View Philosophy Course: Introduction to Hobbes.
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Philosophy. Study the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence. For Heidegger “we ourselves are the entities to be analyzed” and this is both a rational, objective task and a subjective introspection on ourselves. His phenomenology of ‘lived experience’ is a corrective to the enlightenment idea of reason: “Thinking begins only when we have come to know that reason, glorified for centuries, is the stiff-necked adversary of thought”. This course will approach... View Philosophy Course: Heidegger.
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History. See the future. It’s in the past. North Africa was one of Rome’s richest provinces, and today, some of the most impressive Roman ruins are to be found not in Italy, but in North Africa. Our armchair travels will range from the city of Volubilis and other sites in Morocco, through to Algeria, where we will be examining Timgad, Lambaesis, Djemila, Tipasa and St Augustine’s town of Hippo Regius, to Tunisia, with it's Roman towns such as Dougga, Sufetula (Sbeitla) and Thyrsdus... View History Course: Roman North Africa.