My work focuses on queer studies and “LGBTI politics”. I’ve been involved as a queer activist for the past 9 years starting with the Malta Gay Rights Movement (MGRM). I was Secretary General of IGLYO – the International LGBTQ Youth Organisation, Executive Board Member of ILGA-Europe and since 2005 I’ve been one of the two European Representatives on the ILGA World Executive Board.
I received a B.A. (Hons.) in Sociology from University of Malta, an M.A. in Women Studies from University College Dublin, and currently working on my PhD at Trinity College Dublin. I have conducted auto/ethnographic fieldwork in Ireland and Malta for my doctoral research, which is a multilayered exploration and analysis of my personal experiences as a queer activist, migrant and researcher. I am particularly interested in understanding the experiences, challenges and shift practices around such phenomena as non-heteronormative sexualities and migration and engage in areas such as queer migrant narratives.
Research Interests: Queer studies, feminist theories, sexuality, trans/gender theory, queer desire and history, human rights and international queer activism, sociology of sexuality.
Dr Elise Billiard
Having spent my childhood travelling between France and the Congo I was inevitably exposed to a multitude of cultural differences and the ways in which these differences had resounding implications on societies. Rather than seeking the exotic I was drawn to mundane everyday domestic life, particularly that which revolved around the kitchen and the endemic dialectic that confronts tradition and modernity. This early interest would see me return to equatorial Africa (Cameroon) to complete my first degree in anthropology. I continued to question the very nature of tradition through food culture, a topic which was to be this subject of my doctoral thesis on National Identity and food culture in the Maltese Islands where I pointed out how traditions can be used to create a particular picture of the nation. My recent interests in material culture have led me to urban anthropology through TRANSIT, an urban art project that poses questions on the individual imaginary of urban space.
Dr Helena Dalli
My research interests are in governance, power and public policy. While my academic background is in political, legal and economic sociology, my hands-on experience in politics directly linked to decision-making is my immediate contact with people’s lives.
Marvin Formosa lectures in social gerontology at the European Centre of Gerontology, University of Malta and is a visiting lecturer at the Department of Sociology and Department of Education Studies (both University of Malta), and the United Nations International Institute of Ageing. His primary interests are older adult learning, social class dynamics, and social exclusion, on which he has contributed to many edited books and journals including Educational Gerontology, Mediterranean Journal of Educational Studies, Lifelong Learning Institute Review, Recerca, International Journal of Education and Ageing, Journal of Transformative Education, Journal of Maltese Educational Research, Education and Ageing, Ageing International, and BOLD. Recent published and forthcoming books include Social class in Later Life: Power, Identity and Lifestyle (The Policy Press, 2013 - with Paul Higgs) Lifelong Learning in Later Life: A Handbook on Older Adult Learning (Sense, 2011 - with Brian Findsen), and Class Dynamics in Later Life (Lit Verlag, 2009).
Dr Gillian Martin
Dr Martin came to academia as a mature student after a previous career in Nursing in the UK, and graduated summa cum laude BA (Gen) in Sociology and Philosophy from the University of Malta, then, with Distinction, MSc Sociology from the University of Manchester. In 2007 she was granted an MGSS scholarship to read for a PhD in Sociology at the University of Manchester under the supervision of Professor Nick Crossley. This was awarded in 2011 after defending her thesis exploring the social dynamics influencing the rate of childhood obesity in Malta.
Dr Martin has a keen interest in sociological theory, in particular the work of Mead, Goffman, Bourdieu and Foucault, and a particular interest in qualitative methodology with experience in creative interviewing and child-centred data generation techniques.
She is currently working on a mixed methods research project exploring micro, small and medium enterprises in the contemporary Maltese context.
Research interests: Social Capital, Social networks, social network analysis, sociology of the body, sociology of Health and Illness
Dr Mario Vella
Dr Vella's specialises in Political Economy and Economic Sociology of Development with special attention to Foreign Direct Investment. He is Visiting Professor for Political Economy and Economic Sociology at the Edinburgh Napier University's School of Management, Edinburgh. See http://www.napier.ac.uk/business-school/OurStaff/BusinessSchoolStaff/Pages/MarioVella.aspx
He teaches Political Economy and Sociology of Development and Economic Sociology at the University of Malta, is Visiting Fellow at Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University, and has been a visiting lecturer at the universities of Augsburg, Urbino and Milan (Cattolica).
He is director of FDI services with Grant Thornton in Malta.
A North Africa specialist, he follows the Libyan uprising at WATCHING LIBYA http://www.grantthornton.com.mt
He is working on a study of international industrial strategy and organisation, tentatively entitled "After Hymer: Towards a sociology of FDI."
21 May 2012
http://www.um.edu.mt/arts/sociology/visiting_staff
Literature and Comparison’ Research Seminar Series Thursday 17 May, 7:00 pm in Gate Way Hall C Prof. Gaetana Marrone (Princeton), ‘Power, Spectacle, and Representation: Liliana Cavani’s Transgressive Gaze’
