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Mr Andrew Debono Cauchi
Department of Classics and Archaeology, Faculty of Arts

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494) was one of the youngest yet most prodigious thinkers of the Italian Renaissance. Over a lifespan of just 31 years, he produced a body of work that displayed a virtuosic command of several literary and philosophical schools of thought, ranging from Platonism to Aristotelianism, Scholasticism, and even the Kabbalah. Given Pico’s intellectual debt to antiquity, particularly Greco-Roman antiquity, a reading of Pico’s work from the perspective of classical reception is significant for at least two reasons. First, it yields new insights on Pico’s ideas with an emphasis on the role of classical antiquity rather than that of the Middle Ages and/or the Italian Renaissance. Second, such a reading also sheds light on how ideas and concepts more broadly travelled from Plato to Aristotle through to their commentators and eventually to the Italian Renaissance.

Applying classical reception theory as a framework, this presentation focuses on the 'Prohemium' (Preface) of one of Pico’s less studied works, the metaphysical treatise 'De ente et uno'. The discussion will begin with an outline of Pico’s life and work, followed by a theoretical framework which aims to identify the various processes of classical reception found in Italian Renaissance philosophy. Through this framework, the 'Prohemium' of Pico’s 'De ente et uno' will then be read. By reading a text even as brief as a preface, this presentation hopes to demonstrate the broader impact of classical reception on our understanding of Pico’s intellectual contribution to the Italian Renaissance. 

Mr James Moffett
Department of English, Faculty of Arts

J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fall of Arthur, an unfinished alliterative poem published posthumously in 2013, remains an under-examined fragment within both Arthurian literature and Tolkien studies. This doctoral research presents the first full-scale study of the work, investigating its form, structure, and relevance within the literary landscape of the interwar years.

The study employs a dual methodological lens: analysing the poem as a published artefact and situating it within its historical moment of composition (c. 1930–1937). Central to this analysis is the argument that Tolkien operated as a ‘traditionalist contrarian’.

While contemporaries such as T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf utilised Modernist experimentation to reflect post-WWI disillusionment, Tolkien turned to the rigorous constraints of Old English alliterative metre. By bridging early literature and medieval traditions with modern anxiety, the poem serves as a mythic defiance against the prevailing nihilism of the era.

By grounding the narrative in a sub-Roman, 5th-century setting, Tolkien explores themes of eschatological decline and moral trauma through a realistic, introspective lens. Ultimately, this thesis demonstrates that The Fall of Arthur is a vital literary bridge that facilitates ‘Recovery’ from wartime trauma. It reclaims the fragment’s significance as a profound response to the 20th century’s spiritual crises and a foundational stepping stone for Tolkien’s subsequent mythological evolution.

Ms Melissa Mawdsley
Department of English, Faculty of Arts

Literature has long been shaped by collaborative literary practices; from the oral tradition, where storytelling was a communal experience, to the 19^th-century poetry salons, which fostered poetic experimentation, and to 20^th-century groups like the avant-garde Oulipo, which thrived on collective experimentation. With the rapid advancement of generative artificial intelligence, specifically Large Language Models, in recent years, human-machine collaborative methods of creative production have significantly increased, thereby prompting changes in the way these collaborative practices are theorised and performed.

This paper explores critical questions that AI raises about the methods and implications of human-non-human collaboration in a contemporary, digitally driven world. While grounded in literary studies, it addresses broader, timely theoretical and practical issues concerning agency, authorship, and ownership that are increasingly relevant across various disciplines. By engaging with the work of scholars like Hannes Bajohr and N. Katherine Hayles and examining representative contemporary texts such as K. Allado-McDowell’s Pharmako-AI, this study provokes a plethora of questions, including whether AI should be thought of as an ‘author’, collaborator, co-creator, or advanced tool, and the resulting implications of human-non-human collaboration. Ultimately, the paper argues for the urgent need to rethink traditional concepts of authorship, highlighting how these innovative human-machine partnerships are redefining our understanding of creative production, collaborative practices, and the future of the human role in these processes.

Mr Simon Farrugia
Department of Music Studies, School of Performing Arts

This paper presents an ethnomusicological study of Maltese funeral marches within the wind band tradition employing ethnography supported by audio-visual methods. While funeral marches are most visible during Good Friday processions, in Malta, they also circulate through band clubs as well as in workshops, bars, and in everyday conversations. In a rapidly transforming Malta, where public events are increasingly shared by locals and foreign residents alike, the study asks: what meanings do funeral marches hold? With whom do they resonate, and how are these meanings negotiated through performance, listening, and discourse?

The research utilises participant observation and semi-structured interviews integrated with consent-based filming. By documenting gestures, pacing, and the ‘spatial placing’ of sound, the camera captures details that are often difficult to fully document through written notes or audio alone. Although limited by its inability to record non-visual senses, the camera effectively documents how musical experience is shaped by bodies in relation to objects and contexts.

Supported by audio-visual examples, this paper highlights the benefits of ethnographic filming as a research tool in exploring Maltese funeral marches. It specifically examines these marches’ potential to express devotion and mourning while blending personal memory with collective identity, noting how musical meanings shift across contexts, modes of participation, and listening positions.