Archive of South East | LeisureCourses.net - short courses & residential study breaks in great locations - Part 2
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Basic Chinese taster
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThis course will be taught in the context of contemporary and ancient Chinese culture. Led by the course tutor, you will focus on written and spoken Chinese, with lots of participation, a combination of traditional culture and digital media, and some creative contributions. Flexible to students’ abilities, the course will engage you in learning Chinese...
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Introduction to Classical Greek
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThis course is intended for complete beginners who wish to gain some understanding of Classical Greek language and culture. It will introduce the Greek alphabet and pronunciation, and explore the influence of the Greeks on our language and all aspects of European culture: literature, art, philosophy, politics, sport and science.
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Learn to read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThe ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic script is beautiful and intriguing. This course will help you begin to learn how to read hieroglyphs, or give you the opportunity to practice or widen your skills. You will learn about the language behind the script and will very quickly begin to read real objects from museums and ancient sites...
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Intermediate French: La France et ses terroirs
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThis course has been designed to give people with a fair comprehension of the language (even though they might lack fluency and confidence at speaking it) an insight into French culture and way of life. In the process they will not only learn more about France and its traditions, but will see their confidence and...
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The Renaissance garden in Britain: nature produces better fruit if cultivated
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesItalian Renaissance design and intricacies arrived in Britain via France and the Low Countries, manifesting a revolutionary attitude to the 'taming' of nature. We compare Tudor England with Stuart Scotland. We explore gardens as settings for collections of antique sculpture, courtly dalliance, philosophical discussion, meditation, theatre, allegorical and moral instruction, horticultural encyclopaedias and centres for...
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The early Tudors, 1485-1558 (online)
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThe Tudor dynasty, which ruled between 1485 and 1603, transformed England and monarchs such as Henry VIII are larger-than-life figures who are instantly recognizable. But where did the Tudors come from and why were they so successful? This online course will examine the first four Tudor monarchs, we will begin with Henry Tudor's victory at...
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Eminent Edwardians
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThis course will consider the lives and achievements of some of the principal figures of Edward VII's reign - including the King himself. As the title suggests, a Lytton Strachey-type biographical approach to the understanding of the period will be our starting point, but the course will go beyond this to discuss groups such as...
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Tracing ancestry using DNA
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesWhere do I come from? In this course, you will learn how scientists are now answering this question at a number of time levels. Palaeontologists explore our distant past with fossils, geneticists find out about our direct ancestors using ancient and modern DNA, and forensic scientists use ancestry tests and parentage tests in their day-to-day...
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The complete Andrea Palladio: architecture, life and legacy
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesHow did a humble miller's son in 16th-century Italy become the most influential architect in the world? If you are interested in architecture then this introduction to Andrea Palladio's life and work is for you. We will examine the buildings Palladio produced in his lifetime, and you will discover how his architecture gained a global...
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20th and 21st-century literature: looking forward, looking back
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesSometimes our ways of understanding the past, history, and our pressing decisions lead to contradictory interpretations and dangerous results. Byatt's Gothic Possession (1990) explores the parallel and intertwined lives of poets and researchers a century apart, revealing obsessions, hidden secrets and much about the sources of literature in personal lives. Margaret Atwood's most recent, lively...
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Extinctions: crises in the history of life
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesA wide-ranging introduction to extinction and its place in the history of life. Did a meteorite really kill off the dinosaurs? Whatever happened to groups such as trilobites, ammonites and mammoths? Is survival simply a matter of chance? This course gives an up-to-date review of extinction controversies, with a field trip to collect fossils of...
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Margery Allingham: exploring ‘Margeland’
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesA look at the career of this classic mystery writer, whose novels have been re-issued recently. In this course we will examine together her early adventure thrillers, her serious - but often comic - detective novels and her later studies of crime such as The Tiger in the Smokeand Hide My Eyes. Learn the secrets of this...
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The building stones of Cambridge
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesIn the first part of this course you will learn how rocks are formed and how the different processes involved produce rocks with widely different appearances and properties. This variety makes different rocks suitable for different aspects of building construction. During the second part we will we a walk around Cambridge city centre looking at...
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Getting started with genetics
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThis one-day course will introduce participants to the fascinating world of genetics; from the basics of how genes code for proteins to the role that modern sequencing methods can play in personalised medicine. This course is a good taster session for those interested in taking the Certificate in Genetics.
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An introduction to the history of English
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThe course will offer an overview of important changes within each period of the history of English at different levels of language, including spelling, grammar and vocabulary. Linguistic changes will be studied in conjunction with historical and cultural events, such as the Norman Conquest or the introduction of printing in England by William Caxton.
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Astronomy days: The life and death of stars
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesWhy do we expect the Sun to keep shining for the next few billion years? What will happen after that? Are we really made of stardust? In our second astronomy day school, we will investigate the science of stars, explore how they form, why they live for so long, and what happens after they die...
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The story of life on earth: four billion years in seven hours
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThrough talks and group discussions, we will explore the evolution of life on planet Earth: from the first replicating molecules to the evolution of 'superorganisms'. We will discuss what we mean by 'life' and the key processes that have led to such a bewildering diversity of species that share our planet. This day-school will provide...
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Survival and revival: the country house in the 20th century
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesCountry houses rank among our most visited heritage sites, protected by legislation and public demand, yet many houses have been demolished and their collections continue to be sold. This course will question whether the 20th century was one of doom and gloom or one in which country house owners adapted to survive. Key areas to...
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Cyberpsychology: understanding life in the digital era
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesWe live in the digital world where emerging technologies have infiltrated everyday life. Have you ever wondered how our concept of identity has been redefined and how much influence social media has on your decisions? Come and explore the impact of emerging technologies on human behaviour and the future of humans.
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The medicinal properties of plants
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesWhy do plants have names such as 'allheal' and 'woundwort' and why did we import tons of bark from a South American tree? A look at the historical and present day use of plants in both alternative and mainstream medicine, concentrating on those containing alkaloids, essential oils, mucilages and other chemicals of known medicinal value...
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The masterpieces of French opéra comique
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesBeginning in the popular entertainments of the early 18th-century summer and winter fairs of Paris, the opéra comique soon developed into a recognisable form of operatic entertainment: a play with music reflecting the lives and ambitions of ordinary people. Soon this type of opera acquired its own theatre, and rapidly became a focal point in...
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Hardy: novels into film
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesWhy have films based on Hardy's novels proved so popular, and do they enrich or diminish their originals? We focus especially on Far From the Madding Crowd and Tess of the d'Urbervilles, two of his masterpieces, and consider the strengths and limitations of particular film versions, as well as the whole notion of literary adaptation.
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Reading Classical Latin: the pleasures of Horace
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesLove, myth, praise of Augustus, fleeing snows, celebration, conquest and old age - all these and more are there to enjoy in Horace's Odes Book 4. Anyone with a solid knowledge of Latin will be able to cope with Horace's poetry. Participants will be encouraged to contribute to translating the text, discussing its contents and...
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Globalisation and its impact on international development (online)
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesGlobalisation has had a profound impact on the world. Technological developments and progress in communication and transport technologies have reshaped the way we interact. While globalisation encompasses a number of different aspects, in this course the focus is primarily on economic globalisation and its impact on international development. Using a number of case studies and...
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Modern physics for beginners: from Schrödinger’s cat to time travel
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesAre you intrigued by quantum weirdness or the idea of faster-than-light travel? This day course will introduce you to the ideas that revolutionised physics in the 20th century, and will explore how these ideas can be applied, from understanding volcanoes to navigating with GPS systems.
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Introduction to Taoist philosophy
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesTaoism is an ancient Chinese school of thought concerning human existence. We will examine the ideas of Taoist thinkers like Lao-tzu, Chuang-tzu, and others to see how their views about the Tao, return, no-mind, and non-activity/naturalness provide a philosophy of the human condition.
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Five young artists on the eve of the Great War
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesWe follow the artistic fortunes of Richard Nevinson, John Currie, Mark Gertler, Edward Wadsworth and Adrian Allinson, the five young artists portrayed in John Currie's 1912 painting 'Some Later Primitives and Madame Tisceron'. On this journey, we will encounter triumph and despair, fame and obscurity, and study some of the greatest British art of the...
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Urban experience, its history and its prospects
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesOver half of the world's population now lives in towns and cities, and urbanisation is accelerating. Has 8,000 years been enough for the species to adapt to high density and low certainty? Do cities produce distinct types of community? With cases ranging from ancient Sumer and Rome to Mexico City and Hong Kong today, we...
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Advanced French: Monstres sacrés du cinéma français
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThis weekend course is held entirely in French. It focuses on various topics illustrated through literature and art, often related to present cultural events, and aimed at language improvement. The texts, chosen from a wide range of classic and modern writers, will be used as a basis for discussion throughout the sessions. A variety of...
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How do fossils record evolution? An exploration of the nature of the fossil record (online)
Listed on January 29, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThis course addresses the question of how fossils record evolution through an exploration of the nature of the fossil record. From a look at the initial discovery and interpretation of fossils we will examine the emergence of their modern interpretation as the remains of once living organisms. This reveals the biased and fragmentary nature of...
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