Leicester’s Virtual Community during Lockdown

Leicester’s physics PGR cohort attend virtual social events

As social distancing becomes a fixed feature in our lives, maintaining social connections virtually becomes more vital than ever.

This has been a high priority for the Physics PGR Reps Manika Sidhu, Harneet Sangha and Naomi Rowe-Gurney. In an effort to maintain and expand the social relationships between the PhD students, as they may feel more isolated than ever, the Reps have been organising virtual social events for the PGR students to join.

One of these was a virtual film night, which took place on 13 May, via the PGR Discord Server. The PGR students who were able to, used the app to watch the film together. The group watched Disney’s Moana, chosen by the winners of the PGR Virtual Pub Quiz, which took place a week prior.  Along with this, the Reps have organised a weekly showing of a TV series. This started on 5 May and has been a success, with people returning every week.

On 6 May, the PGR Reps hosted a Virtual Pub Quiz for the Physics PGR cohort. Using Discord, they were able to stream the presentation which contained all of the questions (and later on, answers) for the quiz. Included were a news round, history round, geography round, science round, music round and a picture round. The event was a great success, with a good number of PGR students taking part. The winners Rob Eyles and Emily Ferris were awarded the prize of choosing the film that was to be watched at the first PGR virtual movie night, which was to take place the following week.

A big thanks to the PGR Reps for organising these events, and supporting the PGRs during these strange and unfamiliar times!