The chief objectives of the Institute of Anglo-Italian Studies established in 1988 are to conduct research in the field of Anglo-Italian cultural relations, with special reference to literature and language and to hold international conferences, seminars and similar meetings on topics in this area of interest. Postgraduate degree courses (by research) in Anglo-Italian Studies are now being organized within the Faculty of Arts under the auspices of the Institute. 

The first issue of the Journal of Anglo-Italian Studies was published in 1991.  To date eight volumes have been produced. The Journal, which is listed in the Modern Languages Association Directory of Learned Journals, has established itself as one of the leading journals in this interdisciplinary field of studies.  The Journal's advisory committee is composed of scholars of international repute in this field of study and includes Piero Boitani (Rome), Peter Brand (Edinburgh), Lilla Crisafulli (Bologna), John Gatt Rutter (La Trobe), David Farley Hills (Swansea), Francesco Marroni (Pescara), Sergio Rossi (Milan), Corinna Salvadori Lonergan (Trinity College, Dublin), Valeria Tinkler Villani (Leiden), John Woodhouse (Oxford) and Gloria Lauri-Lucente (Malta).The General Editor of the Journal is Professor Peter Vassallo (Malta).

The Institute has established a name for itself in the field so much so that in March 1995, the Association for Italian Studies based at Oxford held its biennial conference in Malta. Over sixty academics from various British Universities including Oxford, Cambridge, London, Edinburgh, Warwick and Trinity College, Dublin, attended.

The Institute has ongoing research links with the Universities of Oxford and Bologna and is collaborating with the latter in the production of the Journal of Comparative Literature entitled Romanticismi. Further collaboration has resulted in the setting up of a Centre for European Literary and Cultural Studies at Bologna. The publication of a Directory of Scholars who are actively engaged in research in this field of study and their research interests is a more recent joint venture. 

Rev. Professor Alphonse Sammut's unfinished Bibliography of Anglo-Italian Studies was also completed and published in 1997 under the editorship of Professor Peter Vassallo with the assistance of the late Professor Franco Lanza from the University of Viterbo.

Professor Vassallo, Chair of the Institute, also sits on the Advisory Editorial Board (Comitato Scientifico) of the periodical La Questione Romantica which is devoted to literary and cultural studies in European Romanticism. Professor Gloria Lauri-Lucente, Director of the Institute, teaches Italian and Comparative Literature in the Department of Italian, Faculty of Arts.

In September 2005, the Institute hosted the Fifth International Conference on England and Italy: Literary and Cultural Relations from 1300 to the present day, previous conferences having being held in 1990, 1993, 1997 and 2000. The conference was well attended by a number of specialists in this interdisciplinary field of study.