https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/15625 Sat, 12 Sep 2026 10:48:59 GMT 2026-09-12T10:48:59Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148604 Title: The ring metaphor and the spirit of Sofia and other essays, by Lino Bianco [Book review] Authors: Bugeja, Norbert Abstract: Alongside his profession as an architect, engineer and scholar, H.E. Lino Bianco has also placed an active contribution to the strengthening of his country’s ties and foreign relations through his diplomatic roles over the years. These have included a highly productive stint as Ambassador of Malta to the Republic of Bulgaria. And the sense that stayed with me as I leafed slowly through the pages of his latest book, a collection of essays titled The Ring Metaphor and the Spirit of Sofia, is precisely Bianco’s seamless ability to bring diverse views gained as an architect of many years, together with historiographic reach and diplomatic nous, to bear on the cities, urban and cultural spaces he revisits in these writings. Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148604 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148400 Title: What would a new, attention-driven pedagogy look like? Abstract: In this long-form piece, Dr Benjamin Nickl, Discipline of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies (University of Sydney), Dr Christopher John Miller, Discipline of Media Studies (Macquarie University) and Dr Marija Grech, Department of English (University of Malta) explore the attention ecology within higher education, from current challenges to new ages. Through their interdisciplinary lens, they discuss the effects of our current ‘attention haze’ on learning environments and the necessity of recalibrating our educational approaches to foster sustainable attention and meaningful interactions amidst the clamour of modern distractions. Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148400 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148089 Title: The art of puppetry Abstract: Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone met up with Theatre Anon’s Liliana Portelli and Pierre Stafrace to discuss ancient and contemporary puppetry. Puppetry is an ancient performing art, with diverse origins and traditions all over the world. Theatre Anon started using puppets in their very first production – Voltaire’s Candide, in 1994. The company draws upon eastern and western traditions of puppetry, from shadow puppets (for example, in Agamemnon in 2006) to tabletop puppets and everything in-between. They have spent decades researching and experimenting. [excerpt] Description: An online version of this article is available at the following link: https://x2.timesofmalta.com/20260714/sunday-circle/when-theatre-brings-the-inanimate-to-life/ Wed, 01 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148089 2026-07-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/147750 Title: The shadow : poems for the children of Gaza, by Ahmed Miqdad and John P. Portelli [Book review] Authors: Bonello Rutter Giappone, Krista Abstract: In their volume The Shadow: Poems for the Children of Gaza, the poets Ahmed Miqdad and John P. Portelli offer what they call a ‘poetry of resistance’ (2024: 7), the fruit of their long-distance collaboration and solidarity. This is a friendship forged in adversity, as they both contend with the ravages of the body and spirit through war (Miqdad) and cancer (Portelli).; For the most part, the poetry (particularly Miqdad’s) eschews metaphor: the images are literal, realised. As the ‘blood mixes with the flour I carry’ (AM, ‘Blood and Flour’), we are taken beyond the visual, to the tactile, and physical. [excerpt] Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/147750 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z