Each spring, the Department of English at the University of Malta holds an international postgraduate symposium. This year's edition is themed ‘Placing, Spacing, Displacing’ and will be held at the Intercontinental Hotel on the 7 and 8 April. It is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme as part of the Mediterranean Imaginaries project.

This year's edition is themed ‘Placing, Spacing, Displacing’ and will be held at the Intercontinental Hotel April 7 and 8. It is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme as part of the Mediterranean Imaginaries project.

One sign of a flourishing department is the consistently growing engagement it has with its student body. Though the Department of English holds frequent seminars, workshops, and get-togethers, the yearly symposium is the culmination of the department's postgraduate programme.

The event is organised and coordinated by the department's postgraduate students and serves as an important benchmark in the transition towards postgraduate study. Students are encouraged to present their research in public for the first time, a milestone in professional development. The symposium also, however, allows students to develop skills that are complementary to their academic ones, including organisational skills, project management, public speaking, and PR.

Students are encouraged to present their research in public for the first time, a milestone in professional development. The symposium also, however, allows students to develop skills that are complementary to their academic ones, including organisational skills, project management, public speaking, and PR.

Moreover, the social aspect offers a chance not only to mingle, but also a sense of belonging to a broader community.

The symposium offers publication opportunities. Antae, an internationally peer-reviewed postgraduate journal set up by students of the Department in 2013, has been steadily publishing three issues per year, including two symposium-related issues so far, with another one in the offing this year.

The experience of working with fellow student editors in the process of publishing an academic paper is certainly not one to be discounted. The feedback that one gets, the realisation that one is being read, opens the mind towards considering rich new possibilities.

For more information visit: https://www.um.edu.mt/events/psd2017 and https://antaejournal.com/#/       

James Farrugia is a PhD student with the Department of English at the University of Malta.

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