The academic year has just concluded, and it was a great year to be a postgraduate student at Queen Mary, with the Students’ Union becoming increasingly passionate about the involvement of our postgraduate community with Students’ Union events.
The academic year has just concluded, and it was a great year to be a postgraduate student at Queen Mary, with the Students’ Union becoming increasingly passionate about the involvement of our postgraduate community with Students’ Union events. This year’s Vice President Communities, Matthew Beach, worked closely with fellow postgraduate student staff to curate a postgraduate events programme that both reflects our postgraduate community, but also entices postgraduates to get involved with the Students’ Union!
This article aims to present the wide range of postgraduate events hosted by the Students’ Union this year, and therefore highlight the growth of its postgraduate involvement within its structures.
International PGR Mixers
A great addition to the postgraduate events programme was the International PGR Mixer series, taking place in both December and April. At these mixer events, international postgraduate researchers could meet their fellow cohort, as well as various important staff contacts, from advisors and the careers team to the Doctoral College and Advice and Counselling.
Library Away Days
With semester two tending to be the more research and writing heavy months for postgraduate students, our Postgraduate Engagement Assistant hosted a series of Library Away Days to Senate House Library between May and June. There were multiple sessions for these trips, split between postgraduate taught and postgraduate research, so that students could meet other researchers while getting some of their own work done in one of London’s most beautiful libraries!
Culture Trips to the Globe Theatre
Another event series hosted by our Postgraduate Engagement Assistant was a trilogy of Culture Trips to the Globe Theatre between May and July. Attendees of these events saw Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ and ‘Richard III’ in the modern reconstruction of Shakespeare’s original Globe Theatre. To see a Shakespeare play at the Globe Theatre is a Londoner’s rite of passage, so this was a great opportunity for postgraduates, who may be new to London, to share this iconic experience.
Chelsea Physic Garden Trip
On the topic of trips off-campus, in June, our VP Communities led a trip to Chelsea Physic Garden as part of the Cabinet Cultures event series. This trip included a tour of the recently renovated Cool Fernery, exploring human-houseplant relations in the context of East London’s ecologies. The tickets to this event were subsidised by the Students’ Union, making the trip an affordable and easy way for postgraduate researchers to expand their botanical knowledge.
LGBTQ+ History Research Showcase
The Students’ Union also hosted a LGBTQ+ History Research Showcase in June, which spotlighted some of the fascinating areas of LGBTQ+ history that our postgraduates are currently researching. We heard talks on ‘Anarchist Lesbian Identities of 1930s Spain in Fiction’ and ‘Gay Activism in 1960s America’, which were followed by a Q&A and trip to a local pub. Another great opportunity to combine learning and research with socialising!
First-Year PGR Summer Celebration
June and July were celebratory months for the Students’ Union, as we congratulate our postgraduates for their vast achievements from the academic year. The first event hosted for this was our First-Year PGR Summer Celebration in June, where first-year postgraduate researchers could meet their cohort over free pizza at The Griff on our Whitechapel campus. The first year as a postgraduate researcher can be extremely overwhelming, therefore it was great to take this time to celebrate our first-year community’s achievements – however big or small they may be.
PGR Palooza
Our second end-of-year celebration was our PGR Palooza, which was a celebration of the Students’ Union’s Postgraduate Consultation Group participants and a presentation of its findings. The event was organised by the PGCG hosts, our VP Communities and Postgraduate Research Representation Assistant (photographed above!) Hosted on the Graduate Centre Terrace, this event was one of the most luxurious postgraduate events of the year’s programme, with cheese boards, meat platters and vegan platters. From networking to a Kahoots Quiz, this event truly had it all and was a real highlight of the academic year!
End-of-Year PGR BBQ 
Finally, but certainly not least, was the Students’ Union’s End-of-Year PGR BBQ, hosted last week on the Charterhouse Square lawn. The event was in collaboration with the Mexican Society, which is one of the Students’ Union’s only societies formed largely of postgraduate research students. The members of the society complimented the barbecue with a range of salsa and tortillas made by the researchers themselves! This final event of the year was a perfect way to close this year’s events programme, with sunshine, good food and lots of mingling amongst our postgraduate community.
The Students’ Union will be taking a short break from postgraduate events in August, to prepare for the upcoming academic year, but please keep an eye out for our updated events programme in September!