On 20 February 2018, Mr Derek Vella - on behalf of The Alfred Mizzi Foundation - presented a cheque of €1,000 to Ms Vanessa Buhagiar, the recipient of the bursary. The Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Prof Dominic Fenech, thanked The Alfred Mizzi Foundation for their continuing support, which he hoped others would be encouraged to follow. For his part, Mr Vella expressed his and the Foundation's satisfaction at being associated with an important endeavour such as the Faculty of Arts M.A. in Mediterranean Studies. The presentation was held in the Faculty of Arts Library.
Vanessa Buhagiar is a 22-year-old recent graduate in history from the University of Malta and has enrolled in the taught M.A. in Mediterranean Studies in the Faculty of Arts to further her academic studies and explore different fields of knowledge. Being interested in culture, the M.A. was a clear choice for her, as the programme examines the culturally variegated region that is the Mediterranean. Through her B.A. dissertation on cultural aspects of German Hospitallers in eighteenth-century Malta, as well as her research project on the Auberge d'Italie with MUŻA, she has come to appreciate the extensive interconnectivity of the Maltese Islands with the wider Mediterranean region. In her own words: "Having come from a background of history, I have learned that any subject or object of study needs to be placed within its wider context in order to understand how the bigger picture has become formative on the peculiar - what, if not the Mediterranean, has constituted the context of Malta for much of its history? The M.A. in Mediterranean Studies has certainly broadened my knowledge in this regard and has informed me on the different discourses and approaches concerning the Mediterranean as a region and concept. The M.A. has certainly changed the way I perceive the world and has especially elicited an appreciation in the multifaceted and complex region that is the Mediterranean."
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