Courses

Genealogy

Genealogy? Family History? – It’s more than you think
Over the next five weeks we will discover that often what starts out to be simple, curious research leads one on to many unexpected and exciting pathways.

Exploring the Final Frontier – From Christchurch

November Series

Linguistics

This course is a follow-up to the popular linguistics course in 2019. It doesn’t have a single theme but is a course that looks at some of the ‘cool work’ that the linguistics staff at the University of Canterbury are doing in their research.

On Safari

Dr. Judith Coullie obtained her MA in English literature from Syracuse University (USA) and her PhD from the University of Natal. Before immigrating to New Zealand, she was Professor of English at the University Of KwaZulu-Natal. She is currently a learning advisor at the University of Canterbury.

In these five lectures, we trace the history of the safari movement from its origins in William Burchell’s recorded experiences of travel in southern Africa in the 1830’s through to some very recent (and some hair-raising!) accounts.

Epidemics and Pandemics

Connecting with Purposeful Ideas, Opinions and Experiences

Keeping NZ Safe

Further Connections with Purposeful Ideas and Opinions

Vikings, Scandinavia and the Founding of Russia

The peoples of Scandinavia: Norway, Sweden and Denmark, were mainly farmers, hunters and fishermen. However, from the eighth century some 10 per cent of the population embarked on voyages abroad as raiders, traders and colonisers, and gained a notorious reputation as Vikings. Whereas the Norse and Danish Vikings travelled westwards, raiding the coasts of Britain, Ireland, and the Frankish Empire, establishing trading networks, and founding colonies as far west as Greenland and Newfoundland, the seafarers of Sweden followed the river systems of eastern Europe as far as Constantinople and Baghdad, and known as the Rus’, from the cities of Novgorod and Kiev they founded the state of Russia.