This week 12 years ago a group of twelve Adult Education lecturers and their students from the Manchester University launched MANCENT as an independent adult education cooperative. 12 years of a lot of fun, lots of learning and teaching and learning about teaching, some pretty good crises (thanks 2008 and 2020) and lot of good experiences and we are still here and still enjoying what we doing. Thanks to all of you who helped to make this such a success. Here is to the next 12 years!
Category Archives: Uncategorized
A VIRTUAL TOUR OF WORLD HERITAGE SITES IN LESS THAN 80 DAYS. Part III – Summer 2021
Birgitta Hoffmann
World Heritage Sites represent the best and most important cultural sites from the beginning of Human existence to nearly the Modern era.
This summer we are putting together a virtual tour of a selection of the 908 cultural World Heritage Sites, introducing them and discussing why they should be considered important.
The lectures will be organised in thematic groups of five and will be spread over several weekdays, depending on the lecturers presenting.
Format: Each date will consist of a 50-60min lecture, 10 minutes break and 15-20 minutes discussion.
We hope to add further lectures as the summer progresses.
All lectures can be booked individually or as part of a set of 5.
Fridays 1st Block: German and French Monasteries from the Early medieval to the Romanesque
21 May: Skellig Michael
28 May: Corvey Abbey, Verden
4 June: Reichenau Abbey
11 June: St. Mary’s Cathedral and St. Michael’s Cathedral Hildesheim/Germany
18 June: St Savin de Gartempe/France
Fridays 2nd Block: European Prehistoric Sites
Lecturer: Birgitta Hoffmann
9 July : The prehistoric Caves in France, Spain and Germany
10 July: The Megalithic temples of Malta
11 July: The Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps
12 July: The Nuraghi of Sardinia
13th August: Brú na Boínne – the Archaeological landscape at the Bend of the Boyne: Newgrange and beyond.
Friday 3rd Block: European and Mediterranean Prehistoric Sites
27 August: Çatalhöyük
3 September: Choirokoitia – The Neolithic in Cyprus
10 September: Neolithic Orkney
17 September: Avebury
24 September: Stonehenge
You can send a cheque and completed booking form to the address below or contact Birgitta Hoffmann for BACS details.
Fridays: 2-3 pm starting 10 th July , 2020
Virtual Learning Environment: Zoom
Single lecture:
| Price | Concessions | Minimum No. | Maximum No. |
| £6 | * | 1 | 50 |
Booking for the full Block of five lectures: ( only available for postal bookings).
| Price | Concessions | Minimum No. | Maximum No. |
| £30 | * | 1 | 50 |
To book, complete the MANCENT booking form and send it with payment to the address below. Alternatively, you can book via the relevant Eventbrite links above.
Contact:
Birgitta Hoffmann
55 Broadwalk, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5PL
email: latinteacher@btinternet.com mobile: 07747 533 070
Ostia II – Portus, Isola Sacra and the Via Salaria
Birgitta Hoffmann
A landlocked city of a million inhabitants needs good harbours to keep itself supplied, from the earliest times Rome was very keen at controlling the mouth of the Tiber and the resources it offered, creating its first colony at the mouth of the river – Ostia (literally the mouth of the river).
Focusing on Portus (the man-made harbour at the other branch of the Tiber), this dayschool will explore the economy and infrastructure in the Tiber estuary and its transport links with Rome.
Venue:
Wilmslow Parish Hall
Cliff Road, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 4AA
Please note: The car park is a very busy pay and display car park (£2).
| Price | Concessions | Minimum No. | Maximum No. |
| £32 | £28* | 9 | 35 |
*£28, if booked before, 15 January 2020.
To book, complete the MANCENT booking form and send it with payment to the address below. If you would like to pay via BACS or Paypal please contact Birgitta Hoffmann for details.
Birgitta Hoffmann
55 Broadwalk, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5PL
email: latinteacher@btinternet.com mobile: 07747 533 070
Complete Autumn 2017 programme now online.
with the posting of the Medieval History and the last archaeology course, the Autumn 2017 programme is now complete. I hope you find something of interest and look forward to seeing you soon.
Birgitta Hoffmann
MANCENT Course Director
Past Courses
I know some of you organise lectures for the U3A or local societies and are looking for suitable topics and lecturers. Many of our lecturers are available for one off lectures and will be happy to discuss terms with you.
After a lot of requests, we decided to leave the past courses online, so you can see what we have already done, and what the area of general interest of our lecturers is. I hope you approve.
New exhibition co-curated by our lecturer Anthony Burton
The Elizabeth Gaskell house in Manchester is showing from February an exhibition on
Elizabeth Gaskell’s Manchester
Elizabeth Gaskell lived 
in Manchester from 1832 until her death in 1865, a time of huge change and expansion for the city, which raised many challenges for its residents from the coming of the railways and the Free Trade Movement and the Reform Acts to the Cholera and the Cotton Famine on the other.
The exhibition focuses on the Politics, Commerce, Transport, Learning, Churches, the Mills, the Poor, the Shops, Art, Music and Literature.
Anthony is hoping to offer a day school in the Summer term on the topic
The Elizabeth Gaskell House at 84 Plymouth Grove, Manchester M13 9LW
is open Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays from 11.00am – 4.30pm (last admission 4pm) enquiries: 0161 273 2215 or enquiries@elizabethgaskellhouse.co.uk
What is Heka? – An introduction to the Course
Joanne Backhouse
The course
Heka: The Magical Arts of Ancient Egypt
will focus on the concept of Heka (magic) in ancient Egypt. Heka was a divine force imbued in deities, the king and the dead. It could be used for good or bad, private or state purposes. This course will focus on two main areas. Firstly, deities and ritual practitioners (priests and priestesses), this will include the god Heka and and the gods as healers, for example Sekhmet. Secondly, the course will examine the objects and images created to channel the power of heka, including execration and fertility figurines, amulets, wands and spell books.
Although much, if not all, of Egyptian art was magical this course will examine images and objects created specifically for magical practice. A broad definition of magic will be used; which is, any activity that seeks to obtain its goal outside the natural laws of cause and effect, will be deemed magical.
This includes rituals in the home, temples and in the funeral realm; most rituals in ancient Egypt used a combination of recitation and action.
The lectures will demonstrate the assimilation of magic, medicine and religion in ancient Egypt and illustrate how magical practice was part of everyday life. As Egyptologist, Robert Ritner said, ‘one man’s magic is another man’s religion’. The course also presents a rare opportunity to handle and photograph many magical objects from ancient Egypt at Manchester Museum.
Victorian Poetry course is now fully booked
Barry Wood’s Victorian Poetry Course has proved very popular and is now fully subscribed. We apologise for any disappointment, but hope that some of our courses will be of interest.
MANCENT Autumn 2016 programme now complete.
And as of today, we have all of our Autumn Courses for 2016 online and ready to be booked. We hope you find them of interest.
Why not also look at our Facebook page, for updates and links to events and resources to accompany our programme.
I look forward to seeing you soon.
More updates for Autumn 2015
As of today all our Literature and Art History courses are now online. We hope they are of some interest.