Graduation Without Borders - Summer 2021
Graduation Without Borders - Summer 2021 took place on the 4th of August 2021, with the School of English celebrating our summer graduates on our social media accounts. With Graduation Ceremonies delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Graduation Without Borders is a celebration of our graduates and their achievements. This is to allow those achievements to be celebrate with the end of their course, while they are waiting for their rearranged Graduation Ceremony. Our celebrations from the day have been archived on this page.
Message from Head of School
To the Class of 2021,
Message from Svenja Adolphs, Head of School, to this year's graduates.
So this is it. You’ve made it. You are successfully graduating from one of the largest and most comprehensive Schools of English in the UK. And you have completed your degree in the middle of a global pandemic which is an outstanding achievement in itself. All the staff in the School are absolutely in awe of what you have managed to do during this particularly difficult time.
I know that the knowledge and skills you have gained while studying English at Nottingham will stand you in good stead to thrive in the world, and to make sense of global challenges such as the one we are currently experiencing. Your degree has allowed you to develop your critical thinking skills, your ability to analyse and engage with creativity in all its forms, to understand different audiences and how to communicate with them, to use different data sources to make sense of the human past and present. Most of all, studying Language and Literature develops your skill to see things from different perspectives, which in turn is the basis for empathy, compassion and kindness. I know that you will draw on your experience as graduates from the School of English as you start the next chapter, and I can’t wait to hear about all the exciting things you do next. So please stay in touch with us, and we are all looking forward to seeing you next year when the university plans to hold the graduation ceremonies that had to be postponed due to the pandemic.
Until then, many congratulations on your graduation and all the very best for your future,
Svenja
Professor Svenja Adolphs, Head of School
Message from Joe Jackson, Director of Teaching, to this year's graduates.
According to one of my QuickMark comments in TurnItIn, you ‘shouldn’t use hyperbolic language’ because it’s rhetorically counter-productive. Then there are the cases where nothing but words like ‘extraordinary’ will do. Graduating in 2021 means you have experienced university studies unlike any generation before you. I have made liberal use of the word ‘unique’ to describe the past 18 months. Despite the challenges presented by new forms of studying, ongoing constraints in social life, and the over-arching uncertainty of the pandemic, the class of 2021 has succeeded, showing tremendous resilience and achieving terrific academic results. In our Town Hall meetings over the course of this year I’ve been at pains to point out that, while we as teachers have been all too aware of the situation students are in, academic benchmarks have not changed. That makes your achievements all the more striking.
In recognising and celebrating that resilience and achievement, I don’t want to ignore the difficulties that many students have faced – we know that the tribulations of the past year and more have been widespread. In normal times we would be celebrating with you in person at graduation, and I fervently hope we’ll get the chance to do that. For now, speaking as Director of Teaching on behalf of all my colleagues, I want to congratulate you all, and wish you every success for the future. We hope you will stay close friends of the School.
Joe
Dr Joe Jackson, Director of Teaching
A message from Lilith Lear Hudson, Education Rep for English 20/21.
A message from Joe Paternoster, President of the English Society 20/21.
Congratulations to all our graduates!
Professor Peter Stockwell congratulates our Distance Learning Graduates.
School of English Summer Prizegiving
The School of English awards a number of annual prizes to our students to acknowledge their efforts and achievements during their studies. The Summer awards go to Undergraduate and Postgraduate Research students.
Find out more about Student Achievement awards