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
Kerry Sanders
Dr Kerry Sanders gained her PhD in Philosophy at the University of Sydney. She has taught topics including the philosophy of mind; ethics; critical thinking; political philosophy; contemporary...
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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Philosophy. Study the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence. Improve your understanding of the philosophy of time and learn to discuss key concepts relating to time with confidence. In this course we consider many approaches to understanding the issue of time and what it means for us in our everyday existence. We use philosophy, chronobiology, psychology, neurobiology and the arts in our investigations. During the course, we will discuss: objective and subjective... View Philosophy Course: Philosophy of Time.
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Philosophy. Study the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence. This course on the philosophy of religion examines religious experience while borrowing from different schools of thought, including psychology, anthropology, sociology, phenomenology and political theory. Religion is central to the personal lives of many people. It is integrated in the cultural heritage of every people, and understanding it is crucial to understanding the human condition. We will delve... View Philosophy Course: Philosophy of Religion.
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History. See the future. It’s in the past. The class commencing November 20, 2023 is generously extended to the community by CCE as a complimentary offering. This archaeology course will explore the history of human activity on the island of Cyprus, from the Neolithic to the modern world. The Mediterranean island of Cyprus lies at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa and is the third largest Mediterranean island. During the ten millennia of human occupation, it has developed a... View Archaeology Course: Ancient Cyprus.
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Philosophy. Study the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence. In this course we look at the life and philosophy of Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), one of the most important philosophers of her time. She critiqued the ideals of liberty, equality, fraternity as being flawed in their proclaimed universality and highlighted the gaping inconsistencies in the liberal ideas of John Locke and others. In doing so, Wollstonecraft set the agenda for liberation movements to... View Philosophy Course: Mary Wollstonecraft.
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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. 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. 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. 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.