This article was written by Izzy Collett (Social Sec) and Kathryn Dungey (Vice President)

Meet the Committee! 

Vice President – Kathryn Dungey

Secretary – James Dooley

Treasurer – Rosie Jones

Publicity Ambassador –  Abi Murphy

Staff-Student Liaison Officer – Ariella Quint

Charity Ambassador – Mary Beth Conrad Majanil

Social Sec – Izzy Collett

With BEDsoc being dormant since the Covid-19 Pandemic, this academic year saw the comeback of our society! Our committees aim going into this was to bring English Literature students back together, to prove that our society can offer something for everyone and to encourage a sense of community. We felt it was extremely important to provide socials once a month, to ensure that BEDsoc socials are something that students can continually look forward to as regular events. With a total of 104 members, BEDsoc has succeeded in bringing English students back together and this could not have been possible without everyone who has attended our events – we are extremely thankful to all of our members who make organising these events worthwhile.

Our first semester on committee included running socials such as Pub Golf, Quiz Night with ELAL, Inhumane Bar Crawl (with other humanity societies), Winterbourne Garden trip and a Little Women screening with FilmSoc. The collaborations allowed us to connect with other societies, provide fun socials for more people, and also allowed our members, particularly freshers, to make friends with people who are perhaps not on their course or modules.

Regarding semester two socials, it was extremely important to us that we create events that our members want. So, at the end of semester one, we put up a poll asking what events our members would like to attend in their second semester and the responses included: trips, a ball, a theatre trip and a karaoke night. We listened and made each one of these happen! Our most successful of these was the theatre trip to the RSC to see a Midsummer’s Night Dream, which was extremely entertaining and made a great evening out. To end the year, we have our sold out Summer Ball, where students will have the chance to party like a true Gatsby!

Whilst the socials have definitely been the best way that our members have gotten involved in the society, we have also enjoyed interacting with them in other ways. From posting on our stories and keeping our DM’s open to all, to raising money for the Nasio Trust, our nominated charity for the year, through our BEDsoc bake sale. The Nasio Trust helps communities in Kenya with issues such as access to education and healthcare. We have enjoyed working with them on such an important cause.

A big highlight of the year was being shortlisted for the ‘Kick-Start’ Guild Award. This category involves societies who are new or have been saved through the ‘Save A Society’ scheme, as BEDsoc was. Being shortlisted despite the range of deserving societies who were also nominated was a real achievement for us and we would not have been so successful without our wonderful members and the hard work of our committee. Guild Awards itself was a great evening and we especially enjoyed chatting with the lovely Redbrick team on our table. We’re hoping to continue collaborating with other societies such as Redbrick in the future and to keep working towards more awards as we know our members deserve them!

Bringing back BEDsoc has been all about giving the friendly and active English Department community a range of socials and a space to get to know other people on similar courses and across year groups. We’re so glad that it was a success this year and really hope we can keep boosting our instagram followers, memberships, and connections to other societies, growing the community and providing even more for future students. We can’t wait to end the year with the BEDsoc ball as a chance to relax and celebrate the end of exams and to see what BEDsoc has in store next year.

If you enjoyed this Society Spotlight, check out these previous articles from Guild societies:

Society Spotlight: Uni Boob Team

Society Spotlight: Make a Smile

Society Spotlight: Student Action for Refugees (STAR)