The Malta Institute of Cultural Studies (MIOCS) set up last year as a privately owned organisation dedicated to publishing, academia and related cultural activities, has now opened for membership.
In its first year, the publishing division focused on the in-house Journal of the Monastic Military Orders. The first edition was published in October 2008 and has been widely acclaimed, both professionally and publicly, in Malta and abroad. The second issue will be available later this month. The division has also scheduled the publication of two books for 2010 while it is considering other works that have been submitted for publication.
Furthermore, MIOCS’ Hospitaller section has started promoting Hospitaller studies at a tertiary level through the establishment of a Master of Arts degree in Hospitaller Studies at the University of Malta. Last summer, more than 30 post-graduate students enrolled for this new course, sponsored by MIOCS. In January 2010 they will be sitting for their first semester examination.
During next year, MIOCS plans to intensify its cultural activities through a series of lectures and cultural tours locally and possibly abroad focusing on Maltese history, the Crusades and the Monastic Military Orders
“While seeking economic sustainability to finance its own development and that of its direct activities, we are mindful of MIOCS’ self-imposed philanthropic imprint. Consonant with the best of Hospitaller traditions, we have resolved that 50 per cent of all eventual profits will be devolved to charitable, academic and cultural institutions such as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), the Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, the University of Malta and other philanthropic institutions,” explained Dr Buttigieg.
MIOCS is the brainchild of Comm. Raymond Bugeja OStJ, a Maltese resident in Milan, and Comm. Dr George Gregory Buttigieg KM. Comm. Bugeja co-founded in 2005 the Fondazione Fra’ Roggero Caccia Dominioni with SMOM’s Grand Prior for Lombardy and Venice. This Foundation operates a leprosy centre and a care centre for street children in Brazil. Dr Buttigieg, a Knight Grand Cross of Malta, is Malta’s Plenipotentiary Ambassador to the Government of SMOM in Rome.
Annual membership of the Institute will entitle members to a postage-paid free copy of the in-house Journal of the Monastic Military Orders which is planned to be published twice a year. Joining before 30 June 2010 will entitle members to receive the first and the second issues of the journal. Thereafter, members will be free to select which two issues of the journal they wish to acquire. Members will be able to purchase, at a 10 per cent discount, any additional copies of the Journal as well as any of MIOCS’ other publications such as the book, Of Craft and Honour and a Templar’s Chronicles, winner of the foreign book section of the Malta National Book Award 2006. The initial membership fee will be e120 for the first 12-month period. In addition to the two free editions of the in-house journal and the 10 per cent discount on all purchases, members will in effect be contributing to the Institute’s donations programme.
Further information may be obtained from [email protected] or by visiting the Institute’s website at http://miocs.org/.