Faculty International Office hosts faculty-wide Christmas celebration

On 16th December, to mark the end of term and the winter break, the Faculty International Office team organised a faculty-wide online event to celebrate the festive season together.

We brought together staff and students from the Faculty of Social Sciences to entertain them with a fun-filled programme. All attendees were encouraged to grab a festive drink, a snack, and a party hat to join the fun!

The event commenced with a warm Santa’s greeting from our Dean, Prof Jane Falkingham, and our Associate Dean International, Prof Sabu Padmadas. Prof Falkingham later returned to present “Dean’s awards” to recognise exceptional students from each school for going above and beyond during the pandemic and present prizes to the winners.

We next enjoyed a delightful overview of worldwide winter wonders and festive traditions. We would like to thank our staff Ardel Richardson, Prof Nikos Tzavidis, Prof Laura Costanzo, Prof Traute Meyer, Prof Emily Reid, and Song Pan Utz for sharing their stories of how different cultures celebrate the season in the Caribbean, Greece, Italy, Germany, Scotland, China, and the USA.

Throughout our event, we continued to set the mood with merry music performed live by talented guest musicians. Lucy, a Music alumna, sang traditional Christmas carols accompanied by Joe on piano, and Elisa, a current Music student at Southampton, sang a beautiful French song called Petit Garçon. Prof Sri Kandiah also warmed the soul by leading the audience in reflections and prayer.

To test our festive knowledge, we closed the event with a cracking Christmas quiz delivered by our fantastic Faculty Operating Service colleagues, Clare Old and Sarah Harding.

We are glad that so many attendees joined our event to celebrate with us, we loved seeing you there! A big thank you to our wonderful colleagues and students who took part!