THE
LUMINARY
UNIVERSIT Y OF MALTA ALUMNI NEWSLET TER
www.um.edu.mt/alumni
March 2013
New Faculty for Social Wellbeing
The University of Malta’s 14th Faculty - The Faculty for
Social Wellbeing - was officially inaugurated recently.
The setting up of this Faculty has brought together a
number of already existing entities of the University and
some newly created ones. These all address different
aspects of ‘social wellbeing’.
The new Faculty, which was established by the
Council of the University in July 2012, comprises the
Departments of Counselling, Criminology, Family
Studies, Psychology, Social Policy and Social Work,
Youth and Community Studies, and the Disability
Studies Unit. These offer a wide range of diploma,
undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Regular
seminars and conferences are also organised and
serve as excellent opportunities for continuous
professional development for practitioners in the
social sector.
A number of members of staff of the Faculty contribute
to research projects at national and international level
and several of them are widely published scholars
in their field of specialisation. In addition, many of
the members of staff engage with the community
from left to right: Ms Maria Victoria Gauci, Coordinator, Disability
Studies Unit, Dr Dione Mifsud, Head, Department of Counselling,
Prof. Carmel Cefai, Head, Department of Psychology, Dr Maureen
Cole, Dean and Head, Department of Social Policy and Social Work,
Rector Prof. Juanito Camilleri, Prof. Angela Abela, Head, Department of Family Studies, Dr Jacqueline Azzopardi, Head, Department
of Criminology and Dr Albert Bell, Head, Department of Youth and
Community Studies.
through their contribution to government boards and
committees, to non-governmental organisations and
professional associations.
Dr Maureen Cole is the Dean of the Faculty for Social
Wellbeing.
New Cottonera Resource Centre to Promote HE
The University of Malta Cottonera Resource Centre has
been set up to act as a bridge between some of the
communities in the inner harbour area and the University
of Malta. It seeks to act as a hub that co-ordinates
links between these communities and the University,
facilitating resource-transfer and capacity building.
The main aims of the Centre are to promote higher
and tertiary education among these communities by
building on existing skills and resources, providing
information as well as support and guidance to
those interested in furthering their education.
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New School of the Performing Arts
Photo by John Grech
An inaugural performance was held at the MITP, Valletta
to establish The School of Performing Arts which brings
together the disciplines of Dance Studies, Music Studies
and Theatre Studies, and provides a sound basis for the
development of new programmes of study together with
more specialised fields of research. The performance
dimension of the respective disciplines is highlighted,
integrating the interplay between the technical and
artistic aspects of performance and the ability to reflect
critically on performance within an array of theoretical
contexts in contemporary and historical practice.
The School of Performing Arts guides students
to develop the skills, knowledge and expertise
in their respective disciplines, pertinent to
Malta’s needs in the 21st century. This means
that the programmes consider the integration
of theoretical approaches with artistic practices,
focusing on the education of concepts, frameworks
and principles that support creative processes.
Initially, students are expected to master the
orthodoxies of their discipline (Dance, Music or
Theatre) and engage in collaborative approaches
where appropriate, but at the same time challenge,
through experimentation and risk taking, established
systems and conventions of performance. As they
progress through their Bachelors’ or Masters’
programmes students are encouraged to further
explore notions of interdisciplinarity. Essentially,
graduates well-grounded in theory and practice can
make informed choices about their personal areas of
specialisation. There is a whole range of professional
opportunities existing today, locally and internationally,
and it is crucial that students can graduate and
work
creatively
in
performance,
education,
community, research and cultural management.
Five International Summer Schools Offered this June
The University will be offering five summer schools in
June this year. Eminent Maltese professors as well as
distinguished professors from the USA, UK, Slovenia,
Italy and Israel will be lecturing at these summer schools.
Each summer school, which will be of two to three weeks’
duration, will be held at the unique and historic Valletta
Campus of the University of Malta which dates back to
1592. The University of Malta Co-ordinators are Prof.
Anthony Frendo for the summer school on Near Eastern
Studies, Prof. Denis De Lucca for Military Architecture,
Prof. Keith Sciberras for Caravaggio, Dr Timmy Gambin
for Underwater Archaeology and Prof. Victor Asciak for
Mediterranean Coastline - Threats and Opportunities.
The summer school on Near Eastern Studies will
provide participants with a short but intensive exposure
to the Near East from an archaeological and historical
perspective. It also provides a comprehensive overview
of the most important languages of the region.
The
International
Institute
for
Baroque
Studies is offering the Summer School on the
military architecture of the Baroque age entitled
‘Hospitaller Malta – Bastion of the Christian World.’
The Summer School on Underwater Archaeology
is based on a balanced mix of practical experience,
lectures, site visits and seminars. Excavation and
survey work will be carried out on the site of a Roman
shipwreck first excavated by Honor Frost in 1967.
The intensive summer school titled ‘The Mediterranean
Coast - Threats and Opportunities’ is aimed at a wide range
of audiences and would be suitable for anyone dealing
with environmental law, environmental management,
environmental
engineering,
and
economics.
The Summer School on ‘Caravaggio Art and
Knighthood’ will study the dramatic and exciting context
of Caravaggio’s turbulent life and will review his Maltese
and Late Period masterpieces within the general story of
his works. It also includes a close study of the works of art
themselves and will discuss issues of style and technique.
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March 2013
Older Men
as active
Learners
Events
Coming Up
Dr Marvin Formosa from the European
Centre for Gerontology is taking part in
a GRUNDTVIG programme on older men
as active learners in the community. This
programme is in conjunction with other
European partners from the University
of Ljubljana, University of Tallinn, and
University of Algarve. This project emerged from the concern
that the success of the Women’s
Movement in calling attention to women’s
greater vulnerability and need for societal
protection has led to old men remaining
relatively
invisible
in
educational
scholarship. Indeed, literature on lifelong
learning, even that focusing on men and
masculinities, has largely omitted old men,
with its gaze focused on younger men and
the related issues of unemployment and
vocational skilling The partnership deals
with community education and learning,
the accessibility of programmes for older
men and the actual attendance of older
men in the community organisations.
It is hoped that as a result of this project the
issue of ‘older men’ will be treated more
seriously in educational gerontological
circles and government policies on lifelong
learning. The first mobility meeting took
place in Malta during which partners
took the opportunity to exchange their
knowledge and experiences.
ICT BUILDING NEARS COMPLETION
The new Faculty of Information and Communication Technology
building is nearing completion. This ERDF 017 Project which
costs 17 million Euro is part-financed by the European Union
under the European Regional Development Fund Programme
2007-2013, with a Co-financing rate of 85% EU Funds, 15% National
Funds.
Sustainable Energy
Conference (21/3)
A one-day conference
on sustainable energy
research and applications, will be held on
21/3, at the Dolmen
Hotel, Qawra. More.
Medicine and Law
Conference (25/3)
The Faculties of Medicine and Surgery, Laws
and Theology will be
holding an afternoon
conference on the
theme: ‘End of Life Decisions’ on 25/3, Auditorium, Medical School,
Mater Dei Hospital.
More.
IT Services Building
Inaugurated
The €8 million ERDF 064
project is part-financed by
the European Union under
the European Regional
Development Fund Programme 2007-2013, with a
Co-financing rate of 85% EU
Funds, 15% National Funds.
The facilities housed
within the building include:
extensive videoconference
facilities; the University’s
Main Data Centre which
provides a highly secure
and reliable environment
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for the University’s
core business servers,
as well as for other
research servers and
supercomputer clusters;
open access learning
spaces
that
have
proved very popular
with students for both
individual research and
collaborative work; five
computer-equipped
training rooms which
are heavily used by all
University departments.