By Jacqueline Grima
Postgraduate students and staff from Manchester Metropolitan University’s Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences (HLSS) faculty gathered in the No 70 building this week to celebrate Christmas and the end of the autumn term. The event was hosted by HLSS Postgraduate Student Experience Tutor, Kate Johnson and Manager of the Manchester Writing School, James Draper.
Guests at the event were treated to mulled wine and mince pies as well as nibbles and soft drinks. There was also the chance to get into the festive mood by singing along to some Christmas carols! After the event, Kate told Humanity Hallows, “It was great to see some of our postgraduate students and postgraduate teachers at Number 70 for the Postgraduate Christmas Tea Party. Our Sociology and Criminology students hadn’t been before so it was a good opportunity to introduce them to the No 70 building. In the final flurry of assignment deadlines, it’s so good to be able to offer a brief respite to our hardworking students, and the mulled (and unmulled!) wine seemed very welcome! Many of our academic staff came along and there was a very relaxed atmosphere with lecturers and students engaging in an informal setting.”
Students who attended the event also had the opportunity to visit the pop-up Blackwell’s book shop that appeared in No 70 during the last week of term and perhaps buy some literary-inspired Christmas presents! Kate added, “We were pleased to have the Blackwell’s pop up shop so that our students who work had a chance to browse for interesting presents.”
Kate can usually be found in the Manchester Writing School office in the No 70 building on Oxford Road. For more information about the support she offers to postgraduate students and for information about postgraduate events, you can email her at K.Johnson@mmu.ac.uk
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