UNIVERSITY OF MALTA
FACULTY OF ARTS
DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL SCIENCES
ANNUAL REPORT:
ACADEMIC YEAR 2012-13
(October 2012- September 2013)
GENERAL OVERVIEW OF TEACHING
The Department of Anthropological Sciences is now in its second year at the Faculty of Arts, having transferred from the Mediterranean Institute. Our main focus this year was on consolidating and rationalizing its teaching, especially at the undergraduate level, whilst not neglecting the research interests of its staff. As regards the former, particular attention was focussed on developing new courses that can provide anthropology students with new transferable skills in data collection, evaluation, and analysis that would be useful for new research challenges and in the workplace on graduation. Two new courses come on-line in October 2013, that we hope will strengthen and broaden the training of anthropology students.
Undergraduate dissertation-oriented research by Honours students was also restructured. Students were organized in research teams that concentrated on studying
Valletta, both because of its intrinsic research interest and also with a view of providing insights that could assist in the shaping of V18. Students researched the following topics: the Valletta market ( is-Suq ), “Yuppie” settlement in Valletta,
Concepts of Poverty in il-Manderaggio , the St Augustine Parish, Perceptions of V18 among Valletta residents, and cultural narratives informing the displays at the
National Museum of Archaeology.
The Department continued to benefit from teaching visits of staff from Durham
University: Prof Layton gave a course on the social order of extreme contexts (such as
POW camps), Prof Alan Bilsborough provided an important contribution to the teaching of Evolutionary Anthropology which the Department would like to develop further but is hampered by lack of suitable staff; Dr Steve Lyon lectured on Cyber
Anthropology and Online Communities. Dr Lyon (Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at
Durham University) was also our external examiner. In addition, Prof Marcello Sorce
Keller lectured on Ethnomusicology, and Prof Noriko Sato on the anthropology of
Christianity in the Middle East. Prof Sato, on sabbatical from Pukyong University,
Korea, spent a year in the Department as a Visiting Research Fellow, and published two academic articles as a result of her stay.
The Department appreciates the very valuable contributions of anthropologists based full-time in other Departments to its teaching, supervision, and research development
(Prof MA Falzon, Sociology; Ms Rachel Radmilli, Faculty of Economics,
Management and Accountancy; Dr Victoria Sultana, Faculty of Health Sciences; Dr
David Zammit, Civil Law), as well as part-time and attached members of staff (Dr
Elise Billiard, Mr John Micallef). They enable us to offer a wide and varied range of courses, and to collaborate with other Departments and Faculties in mapping-out
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exiting and intellectually provoking interdisciplinary courses (such as
‘Anthropological Perspectives on Human Rights’, taken by anthropologists and law students), in Medical Anthropology, Material Studies, and in Gender Studies that we augur are useful to students in seeking local and international careers. Equally important is their engagement in research. This contributes to the richness and variety of Departmental life. Reference, where pertinent, is made below to their academic activities that deepen their active linkages to the Department.
We were pleased to note that Dr J.P. Baldacchino has been promoted to Senior
Lecturer. His new course on Psychoanalysis and Anthropology was particularly popular with Psychology students.
The Department hosted Dr Colette Piault, anthropological film-maker (formerly at the
CNRS, Maison Archéologie & Ethnologie, René-Ginouvès, Universite de Paris X), with the generous support of the French Embassy and gave a series of public showings of anthropological films followed by discussion. This complemented the visit by Emeritus Prof P. Loizos (LSE) last year, whose unexpected recent demise we record with much sadness.
We record the invaluable engagement of our Secretary, Ms Annelise Calleja, in the smooth functioning of our Department.
POST-GRADUATE RESEARCH SUPERVISION
Staff were also involved in supervising post-graduate students: Dr Baldacchino is supervising two PhD students, one of which is a STEPS scholarship recipient, Mr. R.
Fsadni is academic advisor/supervisor for a PhD thesis at the Mediterranean Institute, as well as supervising an MA in Anthropology,
EXTRA-DEPARTMENTAL EXAMINING
Invitations to examine theses and dissertations, both local and overseas, also occupied staff time. Dr Baldacchino examined one local MBA and an LLD, and Prof Clough was appointed external examiner of the anthropology-style dissertations and module essays and exams for the M.Sc. in Global Health and Development at the Institute for
Global Health, University College London. Prof Sant Cassia examined 2 local PhD dissertations, and one PhD at Goldsmith’s College (University of London).
CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS
The Department collaborated with The Mediterranean Institute and the Mediterranean
Centre of Busan University, South Korea to host an international conference at the
Valletta Campus between 4-7 February 2013 on ‘Secularism, Mysticism and
Religious Hybridities in the Mediterranean’. This was well attended and resulted in a number of interesting presentations, which it is anticipated, to publish with an international publisher.
Together with Prof P. Mayo and Mr M. Briguglio, Prof Clough continues to convene the Work in Progress Seminars where both local and visiting scholars present papers.
EDITORSHIPS OF JOURNALS
Staff was heavily involved in editing academic publications. Prof P. Clough continues as Chairman of the Editorial Working Group of “ Journal of Mediterranean Studies” ;
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Dr J.P. Baldacchino is on the editorial board of “The Australian Journal of
Anthropology” , and Prof P. Sant Cassia relinquished his editorship since 2000 of
“History and Anthropology” to join its International Editorial Advisory Board, as well as of “Mediterranean Review” (Institute of Mediterranean Studies, at Busan
University of Foreign Studies, South Korea). Dr David Zammit is Executive Editor of the Mediterranean Journal of Human Rights .
PAPERS PRESENTED AT CONFERENCES (October 2012-September 2013)
J. P. Baldacchino: 'Mysticism and Psychotic Delusions: St George Preca- a case study'.
Paper presented at the International Conference: ‘Secularism, Mysticism and
Religious Hybridities in the Mediterranean’ , February 2013.
Elise Billard: March 2013: Nantes, « La cohésion sociale urbaine. Paceville, exemple d’un espace public menacé », in. Droits de Cité, Université de Nantes
P. Sant Cassia: ‘ Exploring the problematic of Crypto-faiths, Conversion, and
Syncreticism in the Eastern Mediterranean’ . Paper presented at the International
Conference: ‘Secularism, Mysticism and Religious Hybridities in the Mediterranean’ ,
February 2013
N. Sato: “A strategy for survival: The case of Syrian Orthodox Christians in Syria,”
Mediterranean Institute, University of Malta.
: “Reshaping the ancient Christian Tradition and confirming modern Syrian Identity:
The Case of Syrian Orthodox Christians in Syria ,” Mediterranean Studies Association
2013 Annual Conference
David Zammit (authored with Robert Suban): “Combating Discrimination in
Employment, including Access to Work and Workplace Discrimination.” Pan-
European Conference: Work: A Tool for Inclusion or a Reason for Exclusion?
IOM-
Malta April 2013
PUBLICATIONS
A number of publications by full-time and attached staff have been submitted this academic year, and accepted for publication after October 2013, all with international publishers. In line with standard practice, a full list will be submitted in the next academic report once they have been published.
RESEARCH
Staff (both full-time, part-time and attached) continued to pursue their research in a variety of areas that demonstrate a rich engagement in a wide variety of topics and strengthen the research interests of the Department:
Dr JP Baldacchino is conducting an ethnographically based project on space and social dancing in Malta and Europe focusing on the development of Argentine Tango for the V18 Cultural Mapping project.
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Dr Elise Billiard continues her research on food culture and national cuisines on the one hand, and is exploring the privatisation of Public Spaces and the decline of urban connectivity in Malta.
Prof Paul Clough is working on African migrants in Malta
Mr Ranier Fsadni intends to complete his PhD on Libya within the next year.
Mr. John Micallef is working on drug dependency and recreational drug use among youths in Malta.
Prof Paul Sant Cassia is pursuing his historical-anthropological interests on conversion, apostasy and syncreticism in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Dr Vicky Sultana is researching disability in Malta with Prof Sant Cassia and Dr
Elena Gatt.
Dr David Zammit has been awarded a grant of € 10,000 by the Strickland Foundation to conduct and coordinate research on the impact of Maltese court delays on Human
Rights in the framework of the project “Human Rights Can’t Wait.”
DEPARTMENTAL PLANS
It is appropriate to conclude with Departmental plans for the future. Following extended Departmental discussions, the Department wishes to implement the following in the subsequent order:
1. Developing a local “A” Level at the Intermediate level to be grouped within the
Science Cluster and concentrating equally on Biological and Evolutionary anthropology as Cultural Anthropology. This would be in-line with recent European developments and provide an essential bridge between the humanities/social sciences and the human sciences for which role Anthropology is eminently suited as “the science of mankind”. We see the linkage between the two as an important challenge in training A-Level and University students
2. Developing teaching of Biological and Evolutionary anthropology at
Undergraduate level through (a) the appointment of a biological/evolutionary anthropologist (even if necessary through revolving 3 year short-term lower-scale
Teaching/research contracts to enable employment of recent Doctoral graduates as part of their career progression); and (b) the provision of teaching samples of skeletal and bone casts as well as a teaching lab (this could be explored with Archaeology).
We have obtained assistance and advice from Prof A. Bilsborough, Emeritus
Professor of Biological Anthropology at Durham in identifying a list of skeletal casts not available locally that we would like to obtain once 2 (a) above is realizable and realized. It should be added that the costs of 2(b) are far from prohibitive.
3. Increasing our PG intake, both from the local pool and overseas. We are mindful that PG study/research abroad for local anthropology graduates is an important and attractive incentive that Malta Anthropology will always have to adjust to.
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4. Developing an International MA/MSc with overseas partners, that would offer training in areas that (a) capitalize on our local academic strengths and Malta’s location, as well as on our partners’; (b) is realizable with our limited staff resources
(c) is different and singular, attractive, and sustainable.
We are however conscious of our limited staff resources (we have only recently returned to 4 FT members of staff), increasing pastoral care – as anthropology teaching and training is staff-time intensive, our expanded teaching and the inevitable new courses – essential for keeping anthropology teaching abreast of current developments, and the criticality of sustaining a framework whereby staff can remain research-active, an ever-present challenge in academia. Nevertheless we are encouraged by the positive reports of our external examiners that within our limited staff resources our teaching is innovative, hands-on, wide-ranging, and of high intellectual quality.
Prof Paul Sant Cassia
Head of Department
6 October 2013
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