No Gods No Masters: Compact Whole Weekend Course

TWO DAY COURSE: Sat 14 Oct + Sun 15 Oct

Course Outline: London’s radicals, secularists, suffragists and pacifists.

This whole weekend course will look at some remarkable people and movements who spoke up and campaigned for progressive ideas and social change in London from the 1790s-1940s. It will tell their individual and collective stories, explore how they popularised their ideas, and influenced each other, visit sites of protest, and consider their lasting achievements.

It will be taught through three interactive classroom sessions of three hours organised on a thematic basis and one guided walk. It will use written and visual materials, include archive materials from the Humanist Library, paired and group discussions. The guided walk will be in Bloomsbury, where a number of the people and movements being explored lived, worked or engaged in their campaigning activities.

It will pay particular attention to individuals who had a connection with the South Place Ethical Society and Conway Hall.

Course Outcomes

• Understanding of the issues that engaged campaigners who fought for social justice in London between 1790 and 1940.
• Knowledge of the personalities and movements that drove these campaigns forward, the ideas they espoused and the methods they used.
• Experience of using Conway Hall’s archive’s resources.

David Rosenberg is an educator, writer, teacher trainer and tour guide. He taught in an inner London primary school for 22 years, and in recent years has taught adults through Conway Hall, City Lit and the Bishopsgate institute, and organised day events on historical themes at the London Metropolitan Archives. He has led guided walks on London radical history since 2007. (www.eastendwalks.com).

All sessions (except the walk) will take place in the Bertrand Russell room.

We are committed to promoting inclusive practice. The classroom sessions for this course will take place on the ground floor, so it will be fully accessible for wheelchair users or people with limited mobility.