Expeditions is founded upon a vast network of enthusiasts that make our programs work each year. Information on the faculty joining us for this years’ edition can be found below. Not all of them will be present in all three sessions, as they all are volunteers taking time off from their regular work or studies.
University of Edinburgh, UK
Verity has been studying Archaeology and Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh and first came to Gozo as a student in the June session of Off the Beaten Track 2022. Her research on village and branch libraries was a great excuse to tour the entire island and get great value out of her bus card while chatting to librarians. She’s currently writing up the results of that research process for two papers. She’s looking forward to returning to Gozo this summer for the views, the food and the rooftop conversations!
University of Newcastle, Australia
Mel keeps busy being a mother and a Ph.D. student and Research Assistant at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Her research interests are psychosocial care and equitable healthcare for people with a cancer diagnosis and their loved ones. She enjoys combining quantitative and qualitative research methods, including creative research methods. As a student at the field school in 2018 and as staff in 2019, Mel's research focused on edgework and emotional labor in scuba dive instructors in Gozo.
Expeditions, Research in Applied Anthropology, Belgium
The chairman of Expeditions and program director of the summer school. As a researcher, his main focuses are the anthropology of food while also having a great interest in architecture and urban planning topics. In 2020, originating as a ‘lockdown hobby’, he started a guitar building course and soon ‘anthropologized’ this new pastime into a personal research project on the physical and museological relationship between humans and musical instruments. He has worked as a researcher for Expeditions since 2003.
University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Táillte Cooney-Newton is from Galway, Ireland and currently lives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where she studied Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology. At present, her research interests include queer solidarity movements and methods of building community through queer activism, but the list is ever-growing. She first attended the Off the Beaten Track field school in 2021 and returned as staff in 2022, where she focused her research on bridging the gap between Catholic life and LGBTQIA+ youth identity formation. Táillte enjoys travelling to new places and hiking in new terrain, but while at the field school, she can be found at her happiest discussing positionality and creative research approaches or sharing vignettes from the field until deep into the night.
University of Bristol, UK
While she was a student in the OtBT summer school on Gozo, in 2019, Maria looked into people's relationship with chocolate and sweets and how people interacted with it. Next to finishing her Master's degree in Anthropology at University of Bristol, she is looking into embodied knowledge of movement and mobility studies, and she wants to understand how people engage with different environments. During her free time, Maria enjoys taking portrait photography, drawing or painting random landscapes, or going for a swim.
Washington State University, USA
With a background in anthropology and geography, Ray is primarily interested in ethnographic research pertaining to food in Europe and Southeast Asia. He first came to Gozo as a participant in the field school in the summer of 2019. on Gozo, he researched the intersection of food, tradition, and tourism at several of Gozo's restaurants. When not in class or conducting fieldwork, Ray enjoys live music, foraging, and reading science fiction.
University of Leuven, Belgium
Our Belgian-born research and field work mentor who gets lost between human geography and anthropology now and then. Her research interests include migration and mobilities, the anthropology of food, and manifestations of difference and inequality in the organization of space. She has carried out research on the savory ‘pastizzi’ as cultural brokers on Gozo, and remains fascinated by stories of change on the island. Marjan stays up late for discussions about methodology, creative ways to share research findings, and most other topics (given that they come with a late-night snack).
The Ohio State University, USA
Emily participated in the Off the Beaten Track 2022 Summer School program as a student. In Gozo, she researched the impact of football on community and identity. Beginning in Autumn 2023, Emily will be a Ph.D. student at The Ohio State University. She is particularly interested in studying sports and mental health with an emphasis on promoting protective factors. Emily is very excited to return to Gozo and Off the Beaten Track to continue to learn new ideas from and develop friendships with Gozitans and summer school staff and students alike. This summer, she will continue her quest to find the best ice cream/gelato in Gozo. Grab time with Emily whenever you need an adventure or a laugh!
University of Pittsburgh, USA
Dana first came to the field school in 2018 and studied the many ways animal welfare on the island intersects with colonialism. Now she is finishing her MLIS in archives and records management and her praxis revolves around community archives and subverting the gaps in the archival record. Ethnography and anthropology continue to influence her work as an archivist, encouraging reflexivity and reciprocity when working with community materials. She also enjoys crocheting, books on the history of scientific philosophy, and meeting new people!
Expeditions, Research in Applied Anthropology, Belgium
Graham joined the field school as a student in 2012 and during his time on Gozo he spent far too much time in the sun at the worst times of day. To cool off he spent his siestas playing bocce with the older crowd in Sannat, which led him to focus his research on decision making and indeterminacy within games, sport, and life itself. Currently, he works as a Product Manager for a sustainability-focused meal delivery company that connects local, independent restaurant operators in North America with corporate customers. In his spare time, he likes to stay active by playing amateur/club rugby, attending functional fitness classes, and getting out on the hiking trails of Eastern Pennsylvania. He also has been dedicating a portion of his free time in the summers to gardening and likes to donate any surpluses to his local community.
Oxford Brookes University, UK
During their stay on Gozo in 2022, Jacob conducted his first experience of anthropological fieldwork with OtBT. His research followed a local queer organisation, and the impact increased queer legal protections are having on the lived experience of young LGBTQIA Maltese. They found this area particularly interesting when considering the high demographic of Catholics on the island. Benefitting from personal growth as a student at the summer school, Jacob is looking forward to sharing his experience in the capacity as a staff member and returning to the beautiful Xlendi. A keen advocate for sustainability and environmentalism, Jacob is always up for a hike and chat on wildlife, conservation, or vegan cakes.
Georgetown University, USA
Julia first attended Off the Beaten Track as a student in 2022 where she focused on history-making, narrative, and identity at Gozo’s Citadel. In her time at Georgetown, her research focussed on similar topics within the context of place-making in the “American West." She hopes to continue working with these themes as she cross-pollinates them with more in-depth fieldwork and some additions from her deep interests in ecology, philosophy, and spirituality. Originally from Denver, Colorado, Julia now resides in Washington D.C. where she enjoys lots of time in the kitchen, concerts, yoga, and time outside with friends."
University of Calgary, Canada
Kristan's time as a field school student in 2018 was spent exploring the ways the food environments in Gozo have intersected with other cultural and geopolitical elements in Malta's recent history to shape the health of Gozitans today. Her work at the University of Calgary since then has built on this idea by blending anthropology with data science to understand the health inequities experienced by socially marginalised populations. As a former competitive swimmer and professional swim coach, Kristan loves being in the water and will likely be found taking her siestas at one of the many beautiful bays and beaches around the island.
University of Leuven, Belgium
Lee is coming to the summer school through a research network on “Solidarity in Diversity” that visited the base camp in Gozo and participated in activities by Expeditions in 2022. Lee has an interest in queer, postcolonial, antiracist and, more broadly speaking, antidiscrimination knowledge and activism. Their current research focusses on the ways activist groups in Flanders apply understandings of intersectionality (the interwovenness of different forms of oppression) in their activist practice. Lee also has a passion for collaborative research methods and horizontal knowledge production. They are looking forward to discussing these approaches with summer school participants. In the free moments, you will likely find Lee at the beach and in the water.
University of Illinois, USA
Jacob participated as a student in the field school in the summer of 2018, on Gozo. His fieldwork then focussed on the formation and growth of sports clubs around the island and how their membership, resources, and growth strategies can give us some insight into the effects of globalization and neoliberal policies on people and communities, especially in the rural, “peripheral”, communities of Gozo. He looks forward to returning to Gozo as a staff member this summer, meeting and learning from students and staff, and pursuing his research.
University of São Paulo, Brazil
Marianna participated in the OtBT program as a student in 2022, when she studied the relation between funerary and religious spaces on the island, trying to approach the construction of the idea of 'self' from the intersections of these themes. She studies anthropology at the University of São Paulo, in Brazil, where her research focuses on Visual and Urban Anthropology. Among the study topics of her interest are body, death, social grief, cinema, photography, and cemeteries. In her spare time, she volunteers for animal protection NGOs and cuddles her dog, Magenta.
University of Manchester, UK
Marie participated in the June 2022 session of the OTBT summer school, as part of her doctoral fieldwork in Malta, which she completed in August 2022. Her fieldwork on Gozo focused on the lived experiences of Gozitan grand-mothers in relation to motherhood, reproduction and religion. Her research interests are informed by ideas of reproductive justice and are particularly centred on abortion rights, in Malta and beyond. Marie is looking forward to being back in Gozo and to support many others with their research projects, and to re-connect with research participants. If not found on Barruf talking about reproduction, Marie will likely be found swimming or hiking around beautiful Gozo, reviewing local gelato vans along the way!