Cardiff Centre for Lifelong Learning

Exploring the Past

Would you like to study for a degree in History, Archaeology or Religion?

• The Exploring the Past progression pathway is a flexible and affordable route onto degrees in History, Archaeology and Religion.
• Exploring the Past courses run in the evenings and at weekends and are taught by tutors who are recognised experts in their fields.
• You only need to sign up for one course at a time and there are fee waivers and bursaries available to help with the cost of study.
• Best of all, you don’t need any qualifications to enrol.

Have a look around the website, a great place to start is our ‘Introduction to the Pathway’ page.

If you’d prefer to talk to somebody, get in touch with Exploring the Past’s coordinator Dr Richard Marsden to have a chat about getting started. You can reach him by phoning (029) 2087 5610 or emailing Marsdenr@cf.ac.uk

You may also be interested in:

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Group 1 Core Courses

• Exploring Religion: Past & Present

  Through a series of stimulating case-studies on world religions throughout the ages, this course considers the study of religion from a variety of perspectives including historical, anthropological, textual, and psychological. In so doing it will equip you with study skills necessary for studying religion in an academic context.

• Exploring the Past: Archaeology

  Archaeologists do much more than dig. This course offers an introduction to archaeological methods and interpretation on a case-study basis. It covers topics such as how sites are discovered and excavated, how long is the archaeological past actually is, and who do we really study it for? It then introduces some of the techniques that allow a reconstruction of life in the past.

• Exploring the Past: History

  Where do our national identities come from? Why do we feel Welsh or Scottish or Irish or English? This course will seek to answer these questions through a stimulating series of case studies on identity in the British Isles. At the same time it will introduce you to some of the skills that you need to get the most from historical study.

Group 2 Optional Courses

• Ancient Empires

  The ancient world is defined by its empires. This course will consider some of the great empires of the ancient world, from Assyria to Rome. It will seek to identify the causes and methods of imperial expansion, and the ideological justifications for imperial rule.

• Art, Archaeology and Culture in Ancient Greece

  This course explores the art and archaeology of Greece from the Bronze Age to the end of the Classical period. It deals with sculpture, architecture, painted pottery and wall painting, and places these artistic developments in their social, political and historical context.

• Bringing the Past to Life? History, Historians and Television

  Who are history TV programmes for? What can studying history documentaries tell us about the way that historians and TV producers approach their craft? This summer school will explore the styles and techniques that the makers of historical documentaries employ to ‘reconstruct’ the past.

• Celtic Folklore in Britain and Ireland

  Celtic folklore often conjures up visions of mystical spirits and ancient worlds. This course aims to look beyond such romantic notions and consider the varied range of folklore in Britain and Ireland. It will examine how people in the past viewed their world and how folklore has been adapted in modern life.

• Magic in the Ancient World

  In many societies of the ancient world magic was seen as absolutely real and played an important role in how people lived. This course will explore magical practices and theories in ancient Near Eastern, Greek and Roman cultures. Using literary and historical texts as well as visual and material artefacts and evidence, this course will examine a wide range of magical practices and techniques including amulets, drugs and incantations, curse tablets, sacrifice, divination, shape-changing and necromancy.

• Past Perspectives of Disability

  Is the concept of disability a modern one? Were there many disabled people in the past? How was disability viewed by past cultures - with sympathy, hostility, indifference? Using early modern England (c. 1500-1800) as a case study this course will attempt to address some of these questions.

• The Archaeology of Death and Burial

  Death is a universal human experience, but the variety of responses is staggering. How can we make sense of this diversity? And what can this tell us about past societies? This summer school introduces the study of funerary archaeology and uses both archaeological and anthropological techniques to answer these questions.