The Mediterranean Institute offers an interdisciplinary environment for postgraduate research on the Mediterranean. Our students work across disciplinary boundaries, exploring the region through its histories, cultures, politics, communities, environments, languages and forms of representation.
Postgraduate research at the Institute reflects the breadth of Mediterranean Studies itself. Projects undertaken by our students have examined subjects ranging from cultural cartography, political discourse and labour history to ageing, heritage, food practices, literature, performance and community memory.
Students form part of the wider intellectual life of the Institute and are encouraged to participate in its seminars, workshops, research activities and international collaborations.
Anyone interested in pursuing an M.A., M.Phil or Ph.D. degree at the Mediterranean Institute should contact the Director, Prof. Norbert Bugeja, in the first instance to discuss their proposed area of research and supervision possibilities.
Elena Cardona
Ph.D - Current
Lost World Dialectics: Encounter of Memory and Representation in Eastern Mediterranean Life Writing.
This doctoral research contributes to the Institute's ongoing work on memory, representation and cultural life in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Consiglia Azzopardi
Ph.D - 2013
Maltese Lace of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Its History, Technology and Economic Appreciation (Aspects)
Marian Muscat Azzopardi
Ph.D - 2015
Autonomy and Meaningfullness in Old Age: Ethical Perspectives arising from Mediterranean Portrayals of Ageing.
David Busuttil
M.Phil - 2016
Towards a Cultural Cartography of the Mediterranean: developing an analytical tool for Policy Makers.
Patricia Camilleri
Ph.D - 2019
Community and Heritage in a Post-Museum Context: Conceptualising sense of place, space and identities in Bormla, Malta.
Tamara Griffiths
Ph.D - 2020
Contemporary Mediterranean Foragers in the Apennine Mountain Area, Central Italy.
John Vella
Ph.D - 2021
Grassroots Museums: How Curators of Macro-Museums interpret and present their Community-Mediterranean Historical Imaginary.
Vanessa Szymanska
M.A. - 2019
The Youth and the Twins: A Phenomenological Reading of Puberty Intiations.
Luke Scicluna
M.A. - 2022
'Malta l-Ewwel u Qabel Kollox' and Dom Mintoff's Political Discourse: Interpellative Rhetoric in a Mediterranaen Setting.
George Mario Attard
M.A. - 2024
Maltese Ghana: Folksinging, Representation and Performance
Kluivert Galea
M.A. - 2025
The Maltese Labour Movement within an Anti-Colonial Mediterranean Context 1945 - 1980s.
Research undertaken at the Institute does not end with the submission of a thesis. Postgraduate researchers and graduates contribute to the Institute's seminars, workshops and wider public programme, creating opportunities for research to enter into conversation with academic and non-academic audiences.
One recent example is George Mario Attard, whose postgraduate research on Maltese għana developed into the Mediterranean Institute seminar “Contemporary Għana, A Social Field”, delivered in February 2025. Such activities reflect the Institute's commitment to connecting postgraduate scholarship with the cultural and intellectual life of the Mediterranean.
Postgraduate students at the Mediterranean Institute are part of a wider research community extending across the University of Malta and beyond. Students are invited to engage with the Institute's four areas of research - Democratisation, Displacement and Development; Body, Health and Food; Belief, Identity and Exchange; and Space, Narrative and Memory - as well as its seminars, international collaborations and research initiatives.
The Institute's platforms, projects and networks provide further spaces for exchange between students, established researchers, practitioners and wider publics.
Students have a voice in the governance of the Mediterranean Institute through representation on the Institute Board. The current Student Representative is Ms Elena Cardona, a doctoral researcher at the Institute.
University of Malta's Research Ethics (UREC) webpage
The Mediterranean Institute is affiliated with the Faculty of Arts for purpose of ethics reviews.
Kindly submit the self-assessment forms available on the Faculty of Arts website.
