On Friday 27 January 2023, Professor Adrian-Mario Gellel, a member of the Faculty of Education, University of Malta delivered a lecture titled Retelling the narrative of the 1429 siege of Mdina within a contemporary secular and pluralistic context, at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Mdina.

The lecture discussed the cultural elements attached to the 1429 siege as a case study on how to retell a story that for centuries was deeply interpreted through a Christian lens in a context that is now becoming ever more secular and pluralistic. It shed light on the centrality of symbols in the construction of personal and national symbolic repertoires, as well as the pedagogical approaches that may need to be adopted in order to continue to value the collective memory. 

The one hour event also featured the premiere of a video animation of Mattia Preti’s painting ‘St. Paul conquering the Moors’ produced by Stargate Studios and the launch of an accompanying teaching manual published by the Symbol Literacy Project and the National Literacy Agency.

To note, that this lecture is part of the ongoing development of the Symbol Literacy pedagogical approach, which aims to to enable young children’s engagement with the metaphorical and symbolical underpinnings present in paintings, narratives and rituals. It aims to enrich children’s cultural capital as well as the acquisition of observation, interpretation and reasoning skills.

On 19 December 2022, the UM Rector officially awarded grants to the leaders of selected research proposals, including, Prof. Adrian-Mario Gellel, Department of Early Childhood & Primary Education (Faculty of Education) & Department of Pastoral Theology, Liturgy & Canon Law (Faculty of Theology), to further his research focusing on "A pedagogy to facilitate children’s sensemaking: Engaging with art and narrative to develop a symbolic repertoire". 

The Research Funds Committee awarded €60,000 Research Excellence Funds for 2023-24 to five awardees coming from five thematic areas. 

The decisions were based on the review reports and scores assigned to the submitted proposals by independent, external evaluators. Five projects were selected for award, one from every thematic area: Arts, Humanities, Engineering, ICT & Built Environment, Medical and Health Sciences, Natural Sciences and Knowledge Sciences and Social Sciences & Education.