DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY OF MALTA
ANNUAL REVIEW OF ACTIVITIES
ACADEMIC YEAR 2013-14
General Overview
The academic year 2013-14 was both a consolidating year for the Department of
Anthropological Sciences, and one when we commenced a process for some radical
rethinking of the content, identity, and orientation of what a contemporary, broadbased anthropological training should offer. We revisited some aspects of our
teaching programme by developing a second-year key skills course in Research
Methods to complement our Ethnographic Research Strategies course. This new
broad-based course exposes our students to a wide repertoire of research methods
(including statistical techniques) useful for their undergraduate research, as well
providing them with greater transferable skills for the world of work – as our
anthropology graduates (as indeed is the case overseas) follow extraordinarily
different career paths. All members of the Department were engaged in teaching this
course, and we record our appreciation of the statistical training contribution by Dr
Liberato Camilleri. This new course complements, and dovetails with, our current
reworking of our First Year teaching to develop a more integrated (and wider)
exposure to social, biological, and evolutionary anthropology which we anticipate
will come on-line over the next 2 years.
Although the Department remains small in terms of the number of FT staff (4), we
provide major inputs to other teaching programmes, and thus in a modest way ‘punch
above our weight’: most notably the Confucius Institute (Dr JP Baldacchino who
teaches the anthropology of Korea, Japan, and China) and the Dept of Psychology
(many of whose students take one of Prof Clough’s first year courses); joint courses
with Law (on ‘Anthropological Perspectives on Human Rights’, given with, and
mainly by, Dr David Zammit and with contributions from Prof P. Sant Cassia and Dr
JP Baldacchino), and the new MA in Mediterranean Studies run by the Faculty of Arts
(with contributions by Prof P. Sant Cassia). And Ms R. Radmilli, whilst based at
FEMA, contributes within that framework to the wider applications of
anthropological knowledge to Management (courses on Sustainable Enterprise and
Cross-Cultural Management). Anthropology thus, either through its small
Departmental core, or through its wider network of practitioners in other
Departments, continues – we augur – to provide a wide and valid multi-faceted
contribution to University academic life.
The Department’s teaching also proved attractive to overseas Erasmus students
(particularly from the UK) who, on exposure to our courses and fieldwork
possibilities, have in some cases extended their anticipated stay with us from 1
semester to a full year.
The Department continues to benefit from the generous teaching input from a number
of anthropologists located in other University Departments and Institutes (Ms Rachel
Radmilli, Dr Victoria Sultana, Dr David Zammit) as well as attached occasional staff
(Dr E. Billiard, and Mr John Micallef – a UoM MA graduate in Anthropology who
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has now registered full-time for a PhD). Their academic achievements are also listed
in this report. We are deeply grateful to them for their generous and dedicated input.
This enables the Department to offer a wide and rich variety of courses in Material
Culture, Feminism and Anthropology, Medical Anthropology, Anthropology of Law,
and Human Rights. We thus continue to provide a comprehensive and wide training
in anthropology that proves to be particularly useful to our graduates when jobseeking, as well as solid training for post-graduate studies overseas (many of whom
on their return have commented to us that the undergraduate training they obtained
with us placed them in a pole-position when compared to their student peers from
other universities in post-graduate courses overseas). Finally, we are pleased to
register that Dr JP Baldacchino has obtained a Masters Degree in Psychoanalysis
(Clinical and Research) from Victoria University. This complements his teaching of
the Psychoanalysis and Anthropology course and further widens the Department’s
thematic spread.
This was the final year external examining by Dr Steve Lyon, Senior Lecturer in
Anthropology, University of Durham. We wish to register our appreciation of the
innovative courses he delivered to our students over the past 3 years, as well as his
valuable and perceptive suggestions made as Visiting External Examiner.
Undergraduate Research
As part of our policy on developing an ongoing programme of active undergraduate
integrated and collaborative research on the Grand Harbour area, our Honours
students for the third year in a row conducted fieldwork in Valletta. This resulted in
the following BA (Hons) dissertations:
Mark Anthony Borg: Crowds and Conclaves: Encounters with Gentrifiers and
Gentrifier Types in Valletta
Ann Finn: Facing the Future in the 21st Century – An Anthropological Study of Shop
Traders in Valletta: Challenges and Opportunities.
Yuri Omar Khan : The Management and representation of deprivation in Valletta
Miriam Sammut Alessi: Valletta Elderly’s Perceptions of, and Relations to,
Medicine: How these may affect their Social Relations
Rachel Tedesco Triccas: Invisible Homeless in Valletta
Post-Graduate Research
Post-graduate research was also active: Ms Gisella Orsini (our first PhD student)
submitted her dissertation on Eating Disorders in Italy and Malta Compared, and
Ms Angele Deguara progressed from registration for an MPhil to the PhD, working
on Secularization and sexual relationships in Malta. Both students have been ably
supervised by Dr JP Baldacchino. Abner Fabro successfully obtained his MA on a
study of the Hamrun Festa (Restoring the Feast: Contested Identities in the
transitional context of Hamrun ) (co-supervisors: Mr Ranier Fadni and Prof M.A.
Falzon; external examiner: Prof J. Boissevain). Mr Fsadni continues to co-supervise a
PhD thesis for the Mediterranean Institute.
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Public Lectures and Conferences
The first Sir Jack Goody Lecture in History, Society and Culture was given Professor
Alan Macfarlane, FBA, Kings College, Cambridge on 9 April, 2014, entitled: “The
East and the West: Reflections on China and Europe” at the Valletta campus. The
Department warmly thanks the University authorities for their support. Prof
Macfarlane also delivered a special lecture to our students on ‘History, Anthropology,
Memory’. Prof Macfarlane donated to the Department a series of films featuring
interviews of eminent anthropologists. We anticipate the Goody Lecture by a
distinguished academic becoming an annual event, and that Prof Sir GER Lloyd
(Cambridge) (who has just received the Fyssen Award) will give the Second Goody
Lecture in April 2015.
Members of the Department attended the 6th biennial Scientific Workshop of the
Mediterraneanist Network (Mednet) of the European Association of Social
Anthropologists (EASA) on 31 October-2 November 2013 at the Mediterranean
Institute, ably and efficiently organized by Prof Clough, who also read a paper to the
Workshop. Dr Elise Billiard and Prof P. Sant Cassia also delivered papers at this
Workshop.
Two members of the Department (Prof P. Sant Cassia, Mr R. Fsadni) attended a
Horizon 2020 Brokerage Meeting in Paris with the aim of exploring cooperation with
other university departments to attract research funds. Prof Clough, together with
Prof P. Mayo and Dr M. Briguglio, continued to convene the WIPS (Work in Progress
Seminars) held in the second semester of 2013-14.
External Examining and External Reviews:
Members of the Department examined the following Higher Degree Dissertations
submitted to other UoM and overseas Departments:
Elise Billiard: Digital Exclusion and Middle Aged Adults: Understanding socioeconomic and gender disparities in e-competence. MA dissertation by Nadette
Azzopardi: (UoM: Department of Sociology).
Paul Sant Cassia: Towards the Rediscovery of Maltese Bread. The Maltese ‘panivour’
(1741-1798). PhD dissertation by Noel Buttigieg: (UoM: Institute of Tourism, Travel
and Culture)
:
: Du Voyage Fictif au Roman Vrai: Voyage, Recit et Fiction: Foigny, Prevost
et la Barnibais le Gentil (1676-1744) (MA in French by Christine Bartolo. UoM,
Department of French)
:
Boxing Obsession and Realness in London Rap: Racism. Temporality,
Narcissism. (PhD dissertation by Emilio G. Berrocal:, University of Durham)
And also reviewed as Readers the following book manuscripts for overseas
publishers:
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Paul Sant Cassia: Down to Earth: Exhumations in the Contemporary World, by
Francisco Ferrandiz and Antonius C.G.M. Robben (eds) for Univ of Pennsylvania
Press.
In 2014, Dr J.P Baldacchino was re-appointed to the International Peer Review Panel
of Experts in order to rank research grant applications to the Ministry of Science
Education and Technology of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Mr Ranier Fsadni assisted
the Rector with the University contribution to the Malta EU Presidency in 2017, and
up till September 2013, advised the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on European-Arab
League relations.
Among attached staff, Ms R. Radmilli supervised several MBA dissertations at the
UoM on subjects that straddle Anthropology in the workplace (negotiating
multiculturalism in organizations, communication in (multi) media organizations, the
role of HR in employment opportunities for rehabilitated drug addicts, and managing
Migrant Centres).
Editorial Boards
Dr J. P. Baldacchino continues as member of the Editorial board of The Australian
Journal of Anthropology, and has replaced Prof Paul Clough as General Editor of
Journal of Mediterranean Studies. Prof Paul Sant Cassia continues as member of the
International Editorial Boards of History and Anthropology and the Mediterranean
Review.
PUBLICATIONS BY FULL-TIME AND ATTACHED MEMBERS OF STAFF:
Jean-Paul Baldacchino (2014) In Sickness and in Love? Autumn in My Heart and the
Embodiment of Morality in Korean Television Drama. Korea Journal, vol. 54, no. 4:
5-28.
Elise Billiard: ‘The privatization of Public Spaces and the decline of urban
connectivity in Malta’. Omertaa, pp 606-610.
: ‘La moralité des espaces publics dans le quartier des plaisirs maltais’. In Urbanités,
3, Available online, http://www.revue-urbanites.fr/3-la-moralite-des-espaces-publicsdans-le-quartier-des-plaisirs-maltais/.
Paul Clough (2014): Morality and Economic Growth in Rural West Africa:
Indigenous Accumulation in Hausaland (Berghan Books: Oxford and New York.
John Micallef (October 2013): 'Invoking the Rational in Acknowledging the
Irrational: A Haunting in Malta' in Paranthropology: Journal of Anthropological
Approaches to the Paranormal Vol. 4 No. 4.
Papers Presented
Full-time and Attached Members of the Department were also active in presenting
papers:
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Jean Paul Baldacchino: 'Re-framing the boundaries of the subject: Querying Models
of 'Cultural Interaction' through popular Religion in the Mediterranean’. 2014
International Mediterranean Conference, Busan University of Foreign Studies
(24/01/2014).
Elise Billiard: ‘The privatisation of Public Spaces and the decline of urban
connectivity in Malta’. 6th biennial Scientific Workshop of the Mediterraneanist
Network (Mednet) of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA).
Malta: Mediterranean Institute (31 October-2 November 2013
:‘When the Dark Night Rises. The Morality of Public Space’. Work In Progress
Seminar in Social Studies, University of Malta (May 2014).
Paul Clough: ‘The use of biography in the study of African undocumented immigrants
in Malta’. 6th biennial Scientific Workshop of the Mediterraneanist Network
(Mednet) of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA). Malta:
Mediterranean Institute (31 October-2 November 2013
Ranier Fsadni: ‘Euro-Arab Relations and Early Warning Systems’. Paper presented
for a Jean Monnet seminar. Valletta. (European Parliament Representation) (October
2013)
John Micallef: 'The Precise Science of Ghostbusting: A Haunting in Malta'. Work in
Progress Seminar (University of Malta), March 2014.
Paul Sant Cassia: ‘ Conversion, Syncreticism and Crypto-Faiths: The Circulation of
Men, Women, and Languages in the eastern Mediterranean’. Opening Address to
the 6th biennial Scientific Workshop of the Mediterraneanist Network (Mednet) of the
European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA). Malta: Mediterranean
Institute (31 October-2 November 2013)
: ‘Why Class is a blunt analytical tool for local social analysis’. Paper presented at
the Symposium: Social Classes in Malta: Does it exist? Under which forms? ,
organized by the Centre for Labour Studies, University of Malta, (22/11/ 2013)
: ‘Tourism as a Tournament of De-Valuation to discover Ourselves. Leisure, Tourism
and Culture in Transition. Keynote Presentation: Environments of Exchange
(ATLAS Association for Tourism, Leisure Education and Research. (October 2013):
: ‘Time Still and Time Regained. The Dramatic Moment in the works of Poussin and
Caravaggio’. Mediterranean Institute Public Seminar Series (March 2014).
Current Research
Members of the Department have been actively engaged in their own research. Dr JP
Baldacchino has been commissioned by V18 foundation to conduct a study on Social
Dancing in Malta entitled: 'Communities of Dance: Social Dancing in Malta, an
ethnographic study' . This is now at the writing up stage. Prof Clough continues his
research on African Migrants in Malta. Mr Fsadni continues Ph.D. Research on
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Libya, including fieldwork by conducting interviews in Malta. Prof Paul Sant Cassia
is working on Conversion and Crypto-Faiths in the 16th-17th century Mediterranean,
as well as on the relationship between narrativity and depiction in the works of
Nicholas Poussin. Attached staff are also actively engaged in research: Dr Elise
Billiard is researching urbanism as well as Mediterranean cuisines, and Mr John
Micallef has begun ethnographic research on club (recreational / synthetic) drug use
among youths in Malta, He has now registered for a full-time MPhil/PhD in
Anthropological Sciences. Ms Rachel Radmilli is continuing her Ph.D. research with
the Vrije University in Amsterdam on the subject of The Maltese Wine industry
Ongoing Considerations
Departmental activities cannot sometimes be broken up in specific yearly time-frames
and Departmental work is also inevitably long-term, conceptual, organizational, and
structural. On the organizational side we have been exploring various practical
measures to enable us to organize our time (i.e. teaching duties) more effectively to
further pursue our research and writing. In 2013-14 we began the process of
exploring ways of bringing our first-year teaching more in line with theoretical
developments in the area of human sciences as reflected in teaching programmes
overseas, in particular with more exposure to first year students on the interface and
integration between socio-cultural and biological-evolutionary anthropology. We are
acutely aware that we are lacking in this critical disciplinary distinguishing feature of
anthropology and are thus currently re-planning our first year courses to expose
students to key issues in the study of human evolution. To render the study of
anthropology more hands-on and experiential we also planned out short first-year
fieldwork exercises that came on-line this academic year (2014-15). We also began
exploring how better to capitalize on the extraordinary intellectual richness of the
Goody Library at the Valletta Campus that is currently -to our regret - not a
borrowing library. The Department is also keen to attract more post-graduate
students, as well as contribute to other inter-disciplinary post-graduate initiatives
especially in the area of medical anthropology. We are also mindful that the current
spatial dispersal of our full-time staff in offices throughout the university is far from
satisfactory and we augur that the anticipated housing re-organization of the Faculty
of Arts will result in a root-and-branch reorganization of offices throughout the
Faculty such that we shall eventually be all housed together in close spatial proximity
as befits every Department at the university. This will further help integration and the
infrastructural projection of a corporate Departmental identity, with a small display
area on our activities. The current Faculty-wide arrangement of spatially dispersed
teaching and secretarial staff in ‘offices in corridors’ that currently obtains, certainly
impedes the cultivation of corporate Departmental identities. Furthermore, a dedicated
office with desk-space for full-time Arts Faculty research students would also be an
important asset; such facilities are offered by most of our Departmental ‘competitors’
overseas and the current lack of Arts Faculty FT research-student dedicated deskspace militates against both their recruitment and their integration in university and
departmental life. We are mindful of the financial and physical constraints as well as
the great progress in recent infrastructural development undergone by the University.
We augur that similar developments at the Arts Faculty, soon be implemented, shall
help attract and nurture a vibrant research student community that we, as a
Department, are keen to foster.
Finally, we wish to record the valuable and committed input by our secretary, Ms
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Annelise Calleja. I also personally wish to register my appreciation of my (FT and
Departmentally-attached) colleagues for their commitment to the Department’s
wellbeing and progress.
Prof Paul Sant Cassia
Head of Department.
21 December 2014
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