Notes on Contributors
Andrew Azzopardi
is Associate Professor and Dean of the Faculty for Social Wellbeing. His lecturing and research focus on inclusive education, sociology, critical pedagogy, disability politics, youth and community studies. He has contributed extensively in a number of other lauded journals, and has published various texts on disability politics, young people, and inclusive education. He is a Member of the Editorial Panel of the highly acclaimed International Journal of Inclusive Education, and co-editor of Inclusive Communities: A Critical Reader (Sense, 2012). Azzopardi has also edited Youth: Responding to Lives – An International Reader (Sense, 2013), co-edited Perspectives on Wellbeing: A Reader (Brill, 2019) and also edited two issues of societas.expert.
Amanda Bezzina
is Head of Department of Personal, Social and Career Development (PSCD) within the Maltese Ministry for Education and Employment. She is a Visiting Assistant Lecturer at the University of Malta and a lecturer at the Institute of Education. For ten years, she has also been a guidance teacher and the President of the Malta PSD Teachers Association. In this role, she used to organise a series of conferences focusing on addictions, self-esteem, holistic wellbeing, sexuality and career development. She also used to assist PSCD teachers in their concerns and needs. She is also a member of the Board of Governors at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology, Malta. Her areas of specialisation and research interests are: holistic education, youth and community development, effective teaching strategies, facilitation and teaching skills and strategies.
Trevor Calafato
is Senior Lecturer with the Department of Criminology, Faculty for Social Wellbeing, University of Malta. His Ph.D. research was about security studies and terrorism research. He has extensive experience working as a probation officer. He has also been involved in a voluntary capacity with non-governmental rescue organisations occupying different responsibilities. His research interests and publications focus on various criminological themes such as: homicide, security, risk management and terrorism. He has recently been involved in EU financed projects concerning counter-terrorism measures and security in prisons.
Joanne Cassar
is currently the Head of the Department of Youth and Community Studies at the University of Malta. Her research interests comprise youth studies; in particular youth leisure, gender, young people’s sexualities and the construction of sexual identities, masculinities and femininities in different contexts. Her academic publications discuss the notion of young people’s identities as social, discursive and materialist constructs. She has presented papers in numerous international conferences and is also an author of children’s books. Dr. Cassar has carried out various research studies about young people, on a local level as well as in collaboration with other international research partners.
Marlene Cauchi
is a Senior Lecturer within the Department of Counselling at the University of Malta. She coordinates supervision for all courses, including the Post Graduate Certificate in Counselling Supervision. She teaches on the Master’s programmes in Counselling and Transcultural Counselling, the Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, and the Bachelor’s Degree in Social Wellbeing. Her lectures revolve around group work, cultural competence, psychoanalysis, and social research methods. Dr. Cauchi’s research interests include the psychology of religion, culture, attachment, and youth work, and her publications have addressed young people’s experiences of religion, church attachment, and school counselling. She is also a counselling psychologist, with a focus on working with adult survivors of trauma and abuse, addiction, spirituality, and groups. She is highly engaged in the community through formation for priests and youth work.
Carmel Cefai
(Ph.D. (Lond.), FBPS) is Founding Director at the Centre for Resilience and Socio-Emotional Health, and Professor (and former Head) at the Department of Psychology, Faculty for Social Wellbeing at the University of Malta. He is Honorary Chair of the European Network for Social and Emotional Competence, joint founding editor of the International Journal of Emotional Education, and a member of the coordinating team of the European Commission Network of Experts on Social Aspects of Education and Training. He has led various local, European and international research projects in social and emotional learning, mental health in schools, and resilience and wellbeing in children and young people. He has more than 100 publications including peer reviewed journal papers, books, research reports and book chapters.
Marilyn Clark
is Associate Professor with the Department of Psychology at the Faculty for Social Wellbeing, University of Malta. She is a social psychologist with a criminological background and a particular in interest in addiction, criminal careers, victimisation and the safety of journalists. She holds a doctorate from the University of Sheffield and is published internationally. Professor Clark is a member of the Board of Administrators of the Malta Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society, a member of the National Addictions Advisory Board and an assistant to the Magistrate of the Juvenile Court. She is President of the Malta Chamber of Psychologists.
Maureen Cole
(B.A. (Melit.), B.Soc.Wk. (Hons) (Monash), Ph.D. (UEA)) is Professor in social work, University of Malta. Her lecturing centres around social work theory and practice and social work supervision. Maureen’s research focuses on the practice and experience of social work supervision however she is also interested in social work education and in the development of the social work profession in Malta. She has published in these areas amongst others and from a personal perspective about live kidney donation. Maureen served as the first Dean of the Faculty for Social Wellbeing, University of Malta and as Head of the Department of Social Policy and Social Work for a number of years. She is Rector’s Delegate for Student Wellness at the University of Malta.
Katya De Giovanni
is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and Scientist also holding a Fellowship with the British Psychological Society. Her Ph.D. research focused on the transition of female students from compulsory to further education. Between 2002 and 2012 she served as lecturer at the Inclusive Education Unit and Vocational Teacher Training Unit following which she was appointed Deputy Director and Director at the Institute of Community Services, MCAST. She is currently a Senior Lecturer within the Department of Psychology at the University of Malta and is also the Director of the University of Malta Cottonera Resource Centre. Dr. De Giovanni served as the technical member of the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee within the Office of the Prime Minister and presently chairs the Malta Psychology Profession Board as well as the Board of the Social Care Standards Authority.
Melanie E. Demarco
is a Senior Lecturer within the Faculty for Social Wellbeing, University of Malta. She lectures on postgraduate courses within the Department of Counselling and undergraduate courses in Social Wellbeing. Melanie is a Counselling Psychologist in private practice and works with a diverse range of issues including anxiety, work stress, depression, trauma, relationship and self-esteem issues. She has worked in various organisations including NHS Primary Care, drug and alcohol services, as well as staff counselling services both in the UK and in Malta. Melanie holds an M.Sc. with Distinction in Counselling Psychology (City, University of London). She completed her Ph.D. at City, University of London focusing on the psychological wellbeing of healthcare employees. Melanie is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society.
Andreana Dibben
is Resident Academic with the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at the University of Malta. She obtained her Ph.D. in Social Policy at the University of Bristol, UK focusing on teenage pregnancy and motherhood in 2016. She has been the Chairperson of the Women’s Rights Foundation since 2016. Andreana graduated as a social worker from the University of Malta in 2002 working with socially disadvantaged mothers, asylum seekers and persons experiencing housing problems. She served on the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality (NCPE) (2010–2013). She was also the Director for the University of Malta’s Cottonera Resource Centre in its inception year in 2012 and is currently the Chairperson for the same Centre.
Ruth Falzon
is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Malta and a founding member of the Department of Counselling at the Faculty for Social Wellbeing. Her areas of expertise include Personal and Social Development (PSD) and Neurodiverse Profiles. She coordinates counselling research modules at the University of Malta. Her research interests are PSD, counselling in schools, Neurodiverse Profiles and auto/ethnography as related to wellbeing. Dr. Falzon is an executive council member of the International Association for Counselling, a Board Director of the European Dyslexia Association and a Council Member of the International Society for Policy Research & Evaluation in School-Based Counseling (ISPRESC). On a local level, she is on the Executive Councils of the Malta Association for the Counselling Profession and the Malta Dyslexia Association and is the Honorary Secretary of the Malta Federation of Professional Bodies.
Marvin Formosa
(Ph.D.) is Associate Professor in Gerontology at the Department of Gerontology and Dementia Studies, Faculty for Social Wellbeing, University of Malta. He holds the posts of Chairperson of the National Commission for Active Ageing (Malta), Rector’s Delegate for the University of the Third Age (Malta), and Director of the International Institute on Ageing United Nations – Malta (INIA). Professor Formosa published widely in the field of ageing studies, and his most recent publications include Active and Healthy Ageing: Gerontological and Geriatric Inquiries (BDL Publisher, 2018), The University of the Third Age and Active Ageing: European and Asian-Pacific Perspectives (Springer, 2019), Population Ageing in the Middle East and North Africa: Research and Policy Implications (INIA/MEAMA, 2021), and Ageing and COVID-19: Making Sense of a Disruptive World (Routledge, 2021). He is Malta’s Country Team Leader for the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE).
Natalie Kenely
is Senior Lecturer and Resident Academic in the Department of Social Policy and Social Work within the Faculty for Social Wellbeing. She teaches on personal and professional development, macro-practice, management and leadership. She coordinates Placements of social work students and provides supervision to social workers in the field. Her research interests include management, leadership, emotional intelligence, resilience, self-care and reflective practice. Her doctoral research, Emotional Intelligence and Transformational Leadership in Social Work, sought to explore issues of organisational climate, human resource functions and leadership in the light of their effect on relationships within a major social work Agency. She has published in these areas and presented her research in conferences both locally and abroad. She holds a Social Work warrant and is a member of the Maltese Association of Social Workers.
Dione Mifsud
is the Immediate Past President of the International Association of Counselling (IAC) having been its president from 2012 to 2019. He is the former Head of the Department of Counselling and the Department of Psychology at the University of Malta, a former Head of the University of Malta Counselling Unit and past President of the Malta Association for the Counselling Profession (MACP). He designed and presently coordinates the first Master in Counselling programme offered by the University of Malta. He also co designed and coordinates an international Master programme in Transcultural Counselling currently offered as a collaborative degree with the University of the Cumberlands, Kentucky, USA. He also designed and co-ordinates the Post Graduate Certificate in Counselling Supervision (PGCCS). His research interests include topics around counselling ethics, counselling supervision and transcultural counselling. Dr. Mifsud is a member on the editorial board of BACP’s Counselling and Psychotherapy Research and the editor of its International Edition.
Brenda Murphy
is Associate Professor and a founding member of the Department of Gender & Sexualities, University of Malta, where she is involved in the design and delivery of postgraduate programmes; research; activism; and community engagement. She has served as President, and General Secretary, for the University of Malta Academic Staff Association (UMASA). She researches for several institutions: European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), COST, and Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) and is expert/researcher for European Parliament, Commission and Council. She has been National Coordinator for the GMMP since 2000, and is founder of an education and activism NGO, Mediating Women, which works towards better gender-balanced media. Her personal research is located around: Gender Equality, Gender Mainstreaming & Leadership (gendered places and spaces); Media & Gender – portrayal, representation and politic (identities, gendered bodies, symbolic violence, cyber cultures, online hate, male gaze, activism etc.); Mediated Identities and Performances of Consumption (national, gender, ethnic etc.); and Masculinities.
Claudia Psaila
is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Policy & Social Work at the University of Malta. She also lectures on the Master programme in the Department of Psychology and has contributed to the Master programme in Counselling. She is a warranted counselling psychologist and social worker. In addition to her clinical practice, she provides supervision to social workers and psychologists. She is committed to developing practitioner reflexivity and reflective practice through supervision and the educational formation of helping professionals. Her research interests include spirituality and practice, resilience, and reflective practice. She has published, provided training and presented on spirituality and practice both locally and abroad. She has also delivers presentations and training in other areas including wellbeing, resilience and self-care. She was Executive Secretary of the Malta Chamber of Psychologists and is a member of the Malta Psychology Profession Board.
Sandra Scicluna
is a Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Criminology, Faculty for Social Wellbeing, University of Malta. Her Ph.D. research was about prison rehabilitation in Malta. She has an extensive lecturing portfolio and at present focuses on restorative justice, community corrections and prisons. She has past experience working as a Probation Officer and was elected and served as member of the CEP Board for three years. She collaborates with the Maltese Department of Probation and Parole and is part of a team working on an EU financed project to better the Maltese prisons. She has produced and contributed to various publications on topics which include: substance abuse, domestic violence and the development of probation and prisons in Malta.
Anabel Scolaro
is a state registered physiotherapist with the Council for Professions Complementary to Medicine and works at St. Vincent De Paul Long-Term Care Facility. She graduated in 1998, obtaining her degree in B.Sc. (Hons.) Physiotherapy and has always had a special interest in geriatrics. In May 2016, she completed the two-year full-time course of Master of Gerontology and Geriatrics at the University of Malta. She received the Dean’s Award from the Faculty for Social Wellbeing for Outstanding Master’s Students Award and won the Hilltop Gardens Award for Best Master’s Gerontology and Geriatrics Thesis 2016.
Her dissertation, Dignity in Care Homes for Older People: A Qualitative Study, constituted a research investigation on the extent that older residents in a Maltese long-term care facility experienced dignified living, and some of its results were published in Autumn 2018, in the edited publication Active and Healthy Ageing in Malta: Gerontological and Geriatric Inquiries.
Miriam Teuma
has been Chief Executive of Aġenzija Żgħażagħ, Malta’s national youth agency, since December 2010. As Chief Executive she is responsible for implementing and coordinating Malta’s national youth policy Towards 2020 – A Shared Vision for the Future of Young People. Miriam Teuma has been lecturing at the Youth and Community Studies Department for the past fifteen years. She is a founding member and was president of the Maltese Association of Youth Workers for eight years. She also has extensive experience at European Union, Council of Europe, Commonwealth and international level on youth related issues and is the former vice-president of ERYICA (European Youth Information and Counselling Agency). She has also worked with the European Knowledge Centre for Youth Policy, SALTO and the EuroMed Youth Platform and has contributed papers on youth work policy and practice to a number of international studies. Presently she has been elected as chairperson of the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee for Youth.
Anna Maria Vella
graduated in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Perugia, Italy in 1992. She holds a Ph.D. in Addiction from King’s College London (2019). Her Ph.D. work is about the effect of maternal opioids on unborn children from 0–3 years. Dr. Vella has been working in the Substance Misuse Unit (Sedqa: National Agency for Dependencies) for the past 25 years where she is a senior medical doctor specialising in care for pregnant women with a substance misuse problem and women who are involved in prostitution. She is a Public Health and Addiction specialist. She is also a visiting senior lecturer at the University of Malta lecturing about Addiction. She chairs the National Centre for Freedom from Addictions which is part of the Malta’s Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society.
Sue Vella
is currently Head of the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at the University of Malta, where she lectures in social policy including the origins and development of the welfare state; social policy analysis; governance and administration; and project management. Prior to joining University, Sue had almost twenty years’ experience in senior positions in the public sector, including the Employment and Training Corporation and Malta Enterprise. She was a member of the EU’s Employment Committee for seven years and chaired its technical group during the financial crisis. Sue has been a Board member of a number of social organisations and currently chairs the Discern Research Institute. Her research and publication interests include poverty, care, housing, employment and social security, and families.
Carla Willig
is Professor of Psychology at City, University of London, and a Counselling Psychologist in private practice. She has a long-standing interest in qualitative research methods and has published widely on the subject. She is the author of Introducing Qualitative Research in Psychology published by OUP/McGraw Hill (2021), which is currently in its 4th edition. She also published a book entitled Qualitative Interpretation and Analysis in Psychology (McGraw Hill, 2012), and she is co-editor of The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology (Sage, 2017).