今日黑料

'Stories are Us: When History and Literature Meet'

Chair: Prof. Claire Vassallo

Speakers:

• Prof. Dominic Fenech
• Prof. Ivan Callus
• Prof. Emmanuel Buttigieg
• Prof. Maria Frendo
• Prof. Immanuel Mifsud
• Prof. Daniel Vella

The six speakers delivered a short talk each dealing with the interrelationship between history and literature. These were be followed by a Roundtable Discussion and a brief Q&A with the audience. 

• Dr. Matthew Attard (History of Art)
• Dr. Brendon Scicluna (Health Sciences): Cholesterol and Christmas Cheer: Friend or Foe at the Feast?
• Dr. Amy Colman (Interpreting Science) : The Untranslatables of Christmas: Can AI capture the magic of Christmas in Flanders?
• Dr. Niki Young (Philosophy): On cockroaches

• PHYSICS - Dr Connor Sant Fournier
• ASTRONOMY - Dr Gordon Caruana Dingli
• BIOLOGY - Ms Erika Puglisevich
• ANTHROPOLOGY - Dr Omar NShea
• LITERATURE - Ms Maria Theuma

The Symposium was reviewed in by Andrea Cuschieri.

1. Dr Valentina Cassar (Department of International Relations): Searching for Humanity: Obstacles and Opportunities for Stability in the Middle East
2. Dr Christian Attard (Department of Art and Art History): Death, Hope and Redemption in the Manger
3. Prof. Emanuel Buttigieg (Department of History): On Knights and Princesses.
4. Prof. Charles Savona-Ventura (Faculty of Medicine & Surgery): How The Grinch stole a Maltese Christmas in 1675

On Wednesday 15 November 18:00, the Aula Magna of the  hosted the public talk “In Conversation with Joe Sacco”, which was moderated by  and  from the , under the auspices of H今日黑料S.

Renowned cartoonist and graphic novelist Joe Sacco will be in Malta to receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature. The Honoris Causa was conferred by the Faculty of Arts of the University of Maltaon Friday 17 November at the Church University in Valletta at 16:00.

Joe Sacco was born in Malta in 1960. A year later his family immigrated to Melbourne, Australia, where he spent his childhood. In 1972, his family relocated to the United States. In 1978, Sacco majored in journalism at the University of Oregon, and in 1986 he started working for Fantagraphics, one of the most distinguished American publishers of independent comics and cartoons. Over the following years, his critically acclaimed strips and graphic novels focusing mostly on war-torn countries and geopolitical issues won him the name of father of comics journalism. In 2012, he earned the PEN Literary Award in Graphic Literature for Outstanding Body of Work.

The Symposium will be moderated by Professor Clare Vassallo, H今日黑料S Coordinator, Faculty of Arts. 

• Dr Colin Layfield - Faculty of ICT - Coherence in the Voynich Manuscript
• Professor John Abela - Faculty of ICT - Chat GPT and Machine Sentience
• Dr Claudia Borg - Faculty of ICT - Machine Translation in Maltese: Quo Vadis
• Professor Richard Muscat - Faculty of Medicine and Surgery - Human Intelligence: Genes, Cells, and Brain Areas

1. Ms A. K. Lakelett: Yule – Foods and Traditions in Finland - In Finland there are a lot of traditions around Yule, mostly about food, saunas ... and of course gifts brought by Joulupukki on Christmas Eve.
2. Prof. Paul Sant Cassia:"A children's hoax on adults?" - Some anthropological reflections on Christmas.
3. Ms Lara Bugeja:"The Abstracted Star" - Best known for his large-scale church paintings, this presentation seeks to explore the Christmas philatelic designs of EV Cremona during the "golden age" of Maltese Stamp Design from the collection held at the Malta Postal Museum.
4. Dr Philip Ciantar: Strophic Music and Participation in Carol Singing - Participation in carol singing is generally facilitated by the strophic form.  The music as structure is equally important for the collective singing of carols - as is the text and the pictures it evokes to build upon and to engage listeners. 

• E-Lit : Born Digital, Born Interdisciplinary - Clara Chetcuti
• Speaker/Author Profiling in Maltese - Amanda Muscat
• The Contraceptive Pill - a chemical revolution - Mariella Scerri
• FRB Detection using Machine Learning Algorithms - Anastasia Seifert
• A linguistic analysis of the form and function of online hate speech in Malta - Rebecca Vella Muskat

• When Biomedical Science meets Space Science - Professor Joseph J. Borg
• The New Neolithic Discoveries at Tas-Sil摹 - Mr David Cardona, Curator, Heritage Malta
• Book Presentation on his recent publication We Went to the Moon, Kite Books 2021 regarding the first Moon Landing from a Malta point of view - Dr Gordon Caruana Dingli
• What are Algorithms? And how are they Different to Conventional Algorithms? - Professor John Abela
• Guido Lanfranco: His Life and Work - Dr Sandro Lanfranco

• Symbiotic-parasitic relationship promoting evolutionary change - Dr. Sandro Lanfranco
• Socio-biological factors & infection in science fiction 鈥� Prof. Victor Grech
• As below, so above: decentralised systems, infectious and malicious actors, and the common good 鈥� Dr. Joshua Ellul
• Visual/Aural 'Unquietness': Viral Outbreaks on Screen - Prof. Gloria Lauri Lucente

• The Neapolitan Presepe: Popular Culture, Fine Art 鈥� K. Sciberras
• Dreaming of an AI Christmas 鈥� C. Debono
• The war with your Card starts with 鈥楳erry Christmas鈥� 鈥� E. Said
• From the North Pole to North Oxford: Tolkien's Father Christmas Letters 鈥� P. Vassallo
• A trip to Diabesityland: the Father Christmas tale 鈥� S. Cuschieri

• IN COMMEMORATION: Tessie Camilleri and Blanche Huber - the first two women admitted to university studies in Malta 鈥� P. Camilleri
• Is it that true that education not only takes women forward, but educated women take society forward? 鈥� E. Coombs
• Maltese women in academia: Has the glass ceiling cracked? 鈥� L. Sciriha
• IN CONVERSATION with the Registrar 鈥� V. Grech
• Through the looking glass: transformative education and contested spaces 鈥� B. Murphy
• Hors Concours: Women and Higher Education - Introducing the Exhibition 鈥� R. Vella
• IN CONCLUSION: 100 years of women at the University of Malta: past achievements, future challenges 鈥� C. Sammut

• The Sette Giugno: perception and perspective 鈥� D. Fenech
• The 1958 riots in Malta: teaching silenced history in Maltese school classrooms 鈥� Y. Vella
• 鈥淰iva el rey y muera el mal gobierno鈥� (Long live the King and Death to bad Government). The Insurrection of Tupac Amaru II 鈥� C. Vassallo
• Digital Platforms. At the service of insurgents and peddlers of surveillance capitalism - A Grech
• The press and insurrection: From fake news to controlled news and back again 鈥� M. Edge
• Civil unrest and the economic motive 鈥� P. von Brockdorff

• I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas ... The Story of the Snowflake 鈥� E. Brejza
• A Treat not a Truce: World War II Christmas Dos at Kalafrana 鈥� J.A. Schembri
• Festive Flora and Fauna - D. Dandria
• Documenting Christmas: The Cultural Documentation of the Yuletide Season 鈥� M. Kosciejew
• Christmas in Hospital: A Time of Good Cheer 鈥� M. Scerri
• The Poetic Writings of Maltese Physicians: A Prescription for Christmas 鈥� A. Fiorini

• World War I: Fumbling for a Meaning 鈥� D. Fenech
• World War I: Effects on progress in Medical Science 鈥� C. Savona Ventura
• 鈥淟est we Forget鈥�: The Illusion of the Great War on Celluloid 鈥� G. Lauri Lucente
• European Literary Modernism and the Great War: The Experience of Robert Musil and Robert Walser 鈥� I. Callus
• No Comic Matter: Technology in the Great War as depicted by Four Graphic Novel Authors 鈥� J.C. Betts
• Beating (chemical) ploughshares into swords: How World War I influenced the fate of artificial nitrogen fixation 鈥� A.J. Vella

• Viscum, Virgins, and Valentine's: why sex exists 鈥� S. Lanfranco
• Plonk at the London National Gallery 鈥� V.E. Grech & L. Said
• Speed, prestezza and artistic virtuosity - K. Sciberras
• 2 Billion Drones for Santa Claus - J.C. Betts
• The first Christmas: fact and fiction - J. Friggieri
• Giovan Francesco Buonamico (1639-1680): mill-poe偶ija sal-botanika, u ftit aktar - B. Micallef & E. Lanfranco

• Introduction: Women and Work: A few words from Virginia Woolf 鈥� C. Vassallo
• Women Inventors and Women in the World of Science - E. Portanier Brejza
• Marriage Alliances for the Sake of Art: The Case of Renaissance Messina (Sicily) - C. Vella
• Determination of Gender - C. Savona Ventura
• On the Vocation of Women 鈥� C. Galea
• Women in the Bible: With Special Reference to the Hebrew Bible 鈥� A. Frendo
• Would I Rather be a Girl than a Cyborg? On Monstrous Dolls and the Possibility of TechnoFeminism 鈥� M. Theuma

• The Star 鈥� V.E. Grech & I. Callus
• Angels on Horseback - M. Gera
• The Neapolitan crib: God in man's image? 鈥� A. Borg
• Naughty or Nice? Can you remember who you are? 鈥� G. Fenech
• The Heavens at Christmas - G. Caruana Dingli
• Christmas and Comedy - K. Bonello
• Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh 鈥� E. Sinagra

• The Battle of Trafalgar and Death of Nelson 鈥� D. Fenech & J. Cacciottolo
• Spirit of Trafalgar 鈥� E. Sinagra
• The other Horatio Nelson 鈥� P. Vassallo
• Wither weather? ...and climate? Atmospheric geographies as they conditioned naval strategy at Trafalgar 鈥� J. Schembri
• Napoleonic Wars, Offshore Surveys and Archaeology - T. Gambin
• Food Consumption in 19th Century Malta - C. Cassar
• Disease in 19th Century British sailors stationed in Malta - C. Savona Ventura

• Diving into the Unknown - where flatulence is of no use - T. Gambin
• Reconstructing the Past - B. Ellul
• Prescription drugs misuse: a global health challenge affecting women and girls - M. Clarke
• Medicine makers and dispensers in Malta: three centuries ago - I. Grima
• A journey into tomorrow's pharmacy - M. Cordina
• Chemists at war - E. Sinagra

• Music and cardiovascular disease 鈥� R. Sciberras:
• Bright Molecules with Sense and Logic 鈥� D.C. Magri
• The journey from Charity to Rights 鈥� V. Gauci
• Clocks though the ages: from irrelevance to a profound scientific art form 鈥� S. Attard Montalto
• Copy or Authentic? Gold ring from the National Museum of Archaeology, Valletta, Malta 鈥� D. Vella
• Politics of the Breast 鈥� J. Cacciottolo

• Ink 鈥� E. Sinagra
• Prophylactics 鈥� J. Cacciottolo
• Cement 鈥� J. Camilleri
• Adverts 鈥� V.E. Grech
• Pots 鈥� P. Camilleri
• Wine 鈥� L. Said

• Writers in quarantine 鈥� P. Vassallo
• Adoptions 鈥� S. Attard Montalto
• Travels in Prague 鈥� M. Darmanin
• How plants travel 鈥� S. Lanfranco
• GPS 鈥� P. Zammit
• Avian migration 鈥� L. Cassar
• The pains of travelling 鈥� C. Falzon
• Discourse on travel in neuroscience 鈥� J. Sultana
• Flying women 鈥� C. Savona-Ventura

• Changing depictions of Santa Claus in science fiction magazines and superhero comic book covers 鈥� V.E. Grech
• It鈥檚 the end of the world as we know it? 鈥� J. Lauri
• Christmas Spirit 鈥� J. Cacciattolo
• Not your Ordinary Doctor: From Scalpels to Scales - A Gift for Christmas. 鈥� M. Frendo
• Christmas 鈥� a pagan festival? 鈥� E. Sinagra
• The Star of Bethlehem: Scientific fact? Narrative theology, or both? - A. Frendo

• The Might of Healing Springs: Writing, Health and Disease in Shelley (and Mary Shelley) 鈥� M. O鈥橬eil
• Feminisation and the Maltese Medical Profession -J. Cacciottolo, C. Vassallo & G. Martin
• The Changing Faces of Future Doctors: Reflections of Contemporary Prospective Patients in Star Trek over Four Decades 鈥� V.E. Grech
• A Gynaecologist Looks at the Torah 鈥� C. Savona Ventura
• After Posthumanism: Medicine and Twenty-First Century Literature 鈥� I. Callus
• Beam me out Scottie! - An alternative to Caesarean Section 鈥� V.E. Grech & C. Savona Ventura

• Defining Woman in Medical Discourse and Science Fiction - C. Vassallo
• The Pinocchio Syndrome and the Prosthetic Impulse 鈥� V.E. Grech
• On Flesh and Prosthesis 鈥� V. Sultana
• The Medical effects of space travel: myths and facts 鈥� G. Caruana Dingli
• The Discourse of Doctor鈥怭atient Encounters 鈥� A Sociolinguistic Perspective 鈥� L. Scriha
• The accoucheur looks at the Torah 鈥� C. Savona鈥怴entura
• Persons with M.E. in Malta. Between critical realism and social constructivism 鈥� M. Brown & M. Briguglio
• Epilepsy: the falling sickness in literature and in the movies 鈥� J. Mifsud
• The face: an overlap of science and art 鈥� J. Cacciottolo
• Art and arthritis 鈥� C. Mallia
• Translating Medical Terms into Maltese: Practice or Theory? 鈥� C. Briffa
• Languages and evolution: the family tree and historical stratification 鈥� J. Brincat
• Childhood Obesity in Malta: a sociological perspective 鈥� G. Martin
• Hospitallers: Healing the Body, Healing the Soul, c.1580鈥恈.1700 鈥� E. Buttigieg
• Processes in Clinical Reasoning 鈥� A. Felice
• Image鈥恇ased technique in a mind鈥恇ody medicine approach and linking it to Asclepian dream incubation healing methods of Ancient Greece 鈥� L. Cassar
• Bipedalism and Obstetrics 鈥� an Exercise in Darwinian Evolutionary Medicine 鈥� Y. Muscat Baron
• Eros, Thanatos and the Inception of Psychoanalysis. The Case of Sabina Spielrein, Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud in the Filmic Versions of Roberto Faenza and David Cronenberg 鈥� G. Lauri Lucente
• Life after Posthumans: Some Reflections on Recent Scholarship at the Humanities鈥怣edical Sciences Interface 鈥� I. Callus