https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/6272 Mon, 06 Jul 2026 12:08:53 GMT 2026-07-06T12:08:53Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/147476 Title: Embodied civic intimacy : small states, symbolic power, and the lived experience of democracy Abstract: How is democracy embodied in everyday life, and how can lived experience enrich how we measure it? Procedural indices offer fine-grained measurement of institutional architecture but capture less of the affective, embodied, and reputational textures of civic life in small, densely networked polities. Mainstream political sociology compounds this gap by centring large Western states and reducing small-state democracies to narratives of clientelism or elite capture. This thesis develops Embodied Civic Intimacy (ECI), a mechanism most legible in small state conditions but portable to compressed publics more broadly, to explain how compliance, dissent, and belonging are negotiated where visibility and proximity are inescapable, and where democracy is constituted through bodies, silences, and rituals as much as through institutions. The analysis is organised around three strands: the infiltration of elitism, the state management of dissent, and civil society's navigation of patronage networks. The question matters increasingly as compressed visibility, long characteristic of small states, now diffuses through digital publics and surveillance capitalism. Malta and Singapore are compared through a most-similar systems design: postcolonial island states sharing density and colonial inheritance yet diverging sharply in regime trajectory. A convergent parallel mixed-methods design integrates political ethnography, forty elite interviews, discourse analysis, and longitudinal V-Dem and Freedom House data (2004–2024), with divergence between strands treated as analytical evidence rather than measurement error. Extending Bourdieu's symbolic violence and building on Machin's embodied democracy, the thesis shows that despite divergent index scores, both states display convergent civic textures in which neutrality is conspicuous, absence is legible, and silence carries political weight. ECI operates through reputational sanction rather than material inducement or legal coercion. The contribution is empirical (small-state experience), theoretical (a relational, affective lens for ECI), and methodological (enriching quantitative indices with embodied evidence). Description: Ph.D.(Melit.) Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/147476 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/146941 Title: Translating medical language and terminology in dubbing : a case study of Grey’s anatomy in Italian Abstract: This study investigates the field of audiovisual translation by analysing three episodes of the American medical drama Grey’s Anatomy in their Italian dubbed version. The research aims to examine how medical terminology is rendered in the target language, while accounting for the constraints of dubbing. Selected episodes were viewed and transcribed in both their original and dubbed versions to extract instances of medical terminology. These instances formed a dataset that constitutes the basis of the present study, which was subsequently analysed using criteria specifically designed to distinguish medical jargon from general language. The findings indicate that, despite key constraints typically associated with the dubbing modality – such as lip synchronisation and isochrony – which tend to make the adaptation process and the preservation of medical terminology more challenging than in the dubbing of other audiovisual genres, professionals nevertheless opted to prioritise terminological accuracy. As a result, surrounding syntactic structures were often adjusted to maintain both semantic precision and fluency in the target language. However, slight modifications were occasionally introduced to enhance comprehensibility for non-expert audiences. Moreover, the choice of translation strategies varied depending on how medical terminology was integrated into the target-language discourse. The most commonly observed strategies were simplification, explicitation, nominalisation, and dynamic equivalence. Future research could be directed specifically towards investigating how medical terminology in television dramas such as Grey’s Anatomy diverges from the specialised language used in real-life clinical settings. Comparative studies may also explore discrepancies between the terminology employed in fictional portrayals and that used in real emergency contexts, taking into account emotional factors that influence communication, as well as regional variation in medical language. Furthermore, reception studies involving viewers – particularly non-specialists – would be valuable in assessing how medical discourse is perceived and understood by target audiences. Description: M.Trans.(Melit.) Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/146941 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/146940 Title: Enhancing Maltese translation company practices : an investigation into the integration of subtitling workflows Abstract: With the rapid expansion of over-the-top (OTT) platforms and social media, the field of audiovisual translation (AVT) has encountered an increasing need for subtitled content. This demand resulted in Language Service Providers (LSPs) and media localisation companies adapting their subtitling workflows to meet tighter turnaround times and to cater to language combinations that they have never worked with before. Local LSPs in Malta, however, were not affected by this phenomenon due to the limited perceived need for subtitled content in Maltese. Subtitling is still a primitive AVT mode in the local scenario, and while some local LSPs already do handle subtitling projects, their practices may not yet align with industry standards. To increase the awareness of subtitling in the local scenario and encourage locally based LSPs to expand their business for this service, this research study aims to identify recurrent subtitling practices adopted by foreign media localisation companies and examine how local LSPs align with these norms. Based on the identified gaps, this study also aims to suggest ways in which these workflows can be adapted to fit the current needs of these companies by proposing an alternative step-by-step, cost effective subtitling workflow. To do so, this study adopts a qualitative thematic methodology by conducting semi-structured online interviews with three locally based LSPs and three foreign media localisation companies based in different territories. The data revealed several recurrent processes that are applied across foreign media localisation companies. It also revealed that local LSPs frequently treat subtitling as an extension of the technical translations that they primarily take up, relying on Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tools that may not account for the specific technical constraints of subtitles. To be able to expand their businesses, this dissertation proposes a “hybrid” subtitling workflow that suggests the use of both CAT tools and temporary specialised software licenses to ensure high quality deliverables. By filling this research gap in localisation project management in Malta, this study provides a framework for local LSPs to scale their services. However, the suggested workflows may also be feasible for small LSPs abroad, who encounter similar challenges as those that are based locally. Description: M.Trans.(Melit.) Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/146940 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/146939 Title: Translation and migration : the representation of objects in Lou Drofenik’s Birds of Passage Abstract: This dissertation explores the intersection of translation and migration through an analysis of the role of objects in Lou Drofenik’s novel Birds of Passage. More specifically, the research questions include identifying the role and representation of the objects mentioned in the novel, as well as the effects brought about by the objects. Drawing on the theoretical framework of translationality as developed by Piotr Blumczynski and M. Carmen África Vidal Claramonte, the study examines how material objects function as carriers of cultural memory, identity, and linguistic negotiation in the context of migration. Selected extracts from the novel are translated from English into Maltese to foreground issues related to cultural specificity and the transference of meaning. The study demonstrates the way that objects are represented in the translational journey, by taking into account their symbolic features, cultural references and the way the migrant experience adds on to the experience of translationality. Particular attention is given to culture-specific items and their narrative significance, illuminating the ways in which translation becomes a dynamic process embedded in the migrant experience. This research contributes to the fields of literary translation and migration studies by highlighting the translational function of objects as both symbolic and communicative agents in literary translation. Description: M.Trans.(Melit.) Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/146939 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z