Papers by Manuel Joseph Ellul
Taboo: A Journal of Culture and Education, 2025
One of the greatest challenges that gay men face is that of body image since the “obsession” of a... more One of the greatest challenges that gay men face is that of body image since the “obsession” of achieving the “perfect” body creates considerable stress. This provocative and controversial autobiographical study delves into the experience of being perceived as ugly within the Maltese gay community and seeks to understand the reasons behind such an overemphasis on body image, explaining how education can address the challenge. Karen Cooper’s educational conceptual framework and psychoanalytical theory are used to analyze the autobiographical story of the author, who was brought up in Malta, a country redolent of conservative Catholicism whose power extends everywhere and nowhere at the same time. An explanation of body image fixation within the Maltese gay community is proposed through the concept of the juvenile ego state, the claim being that an adolescent rather than an adult ego is why some gay men place undue importance on body image. Finally, various higher education teaching modes, mainly through a social constructivist epistemology and “action through agency, ”are proposed, to show how teacher education can and should challenge body
image misconceptualization. The conclusion elaborates on the implications, limitations, and future directions for education.
SCIREA Journal of Sociology, 2024
This SSHRC-funded study critically analyzes equity policies across 14 Ontario school boards, base... more This SSHRC-funded study critically analyzes equity policies across 14 Ontario school boards, based on their engagement with equity-related concepts and data collection practices. The analysis reveals a spectrum of policies, from weak to robust, and the risk of perpetuating inequalities through diversity-heavy rhetoric. It explores how the absence of clear demographic data collection and reliance on school climate surveys in weaker policies can impede efforts to identify and address systemic barriers. It also emphasizes the need for adopting apophatic language, promoting transparency, and radically revising professional development for meaningful transformation. The study underlines the urgent need for a reflexive policy blueprint that adheres to the ideals of the Ontario Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy. Recommendations from this study offer pathways towards fostering authentically equitable educational environments.
Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 2024
Introduction People who belong to a sexual and gender minority often face prejudices that have th... more Introduction People who belong to a sexual and gender minority often face prejudices that have their roots in heterosexism, a sociocultural system that can manifest itself in different ways and sometimes in a seemingly benevolent fashion. The present study examined the psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Heterosexism Inventory (MHI), a scale assessing aversive, amnestic, paternalistic, and positive stereotypic heterosexism, in an Italian sample. Methods Two hundred one cisgender and heterosexual individuals (129 women and 72 men) aged 18 to 81 years (M = 36.42, SD = 12.56) were recruited online between May and October 2022 and answered questions about social dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism, ambivalent sexism, and attitudes toward lesbians and gay men. Results Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the original 4-factor model of the scale fit the data well. Predictive and convergent validity of the Italian version of the MHI was adequate, whereas discriminant validity was not fully achieved due to overlap of multidimensional heterosexism with hostile and benevolent sexism and authoritarianism. Scores were higher for aversive and amnesic heterosexism in men than in women, but not for paternalistic and positive stereotypic heterosexism. Finally, less educated participants, those with no LGBTQI + friends, and religious participants were higher in all MHI subscales than their counterparts. Conclusions This study provides the first evidence for the validity and reliability of an Italian version of the MHI. Policy Implications Using the MHI can help to make visible not only the explicit but also the subtle forms of heterosexism, thus recognizing the multidimensional nature of heterosexism produced in social institutions.
Although there are many teaching resources to help educators understand the reality of LGBTQ fami... more Although there are many teaching resources to help educators understand the reality of LGBTQ families and their children, Tara Goldstein's newest book, constructed on the narratives of such families and their experiences, struggles, and successes, has a lot to teach us on how to create an educational system that is more just and equitable. During the past two academic years I have sought to incorporate content on LGBTQ families and children in a study unit on sexuality and the curriculum at the University of Malta, which unit is intended for preschool teachers and Learning Support Educators. To this end, Goldstein's book, Our Children Are Your Students: LGBTQ Families Speak Out (2021), has proven extremely informative and accessible to discuss aspects of this often neglected element in pedagogy. Goldstein is professor on Gender, Sexuality and Schooling at the Ontario Institute for the Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. She is also an ethnographer and a play writer. The book features discussions from thirty-seven interviews that Tara Goldstein and her team conducted between 2014 and 2020 with LGBTQ families. Goldstein's book is divided into five chapters. In the first chapter, titled 'From Anonymity to Testimony and Autobiography' Goldstein departs from an explanation why the inclusion of LGBTQ parents is a matter of human rights, while ideologically locating cycles of oppression and discrimination within individual and institutional practices which need to be countered through experiences (p. 19). Goldstein used to endorse a pedagogy of anonymity, one which allowed her to break the silences of homophobia and transphobia in the classroom by encouraging students to express themselves 'through anonymous response writing' (p. 123). This eventually led her to develop a pedagogy of testimony and autobiography, the former being 'the stories people tell about their experiences [and] linked to a group or community experiencing marginalization and oppression' (Crosby & Brinton, 2019, p. 233). These stories were autobiographies when they were not communally linked (Goldstein, 2021, p. 22). More multimodal in style, the second chapter of the book is titled 'This is our Family: A Verbatim Theatre Piece' and consists of a play with twenty-one scenes of monologue and dialogue, a series of projected images, and three original songs by team member Kate Reid (p. 41). Ryan, one of the actors in the play, conveys the narrative intentions clearly when he says that '[t]hrough this play, each of us are embodying people of different backgrounds, nations, identities and experiences that are not their own.' Thus, 'polyfidelitous' families with three or more parents (p. 51) are protagonists in Scene 1, while Scene 3 speaks of the importance to be 'constantly
Il-Malti. Rivista tal-Akkademja tal-Malti. Harga Akkademika XC , 2017
Then International Journal of Critical Cultural Studies, 2021
The study of social and cultural transitions that directly affect sexual minority rights is becom... more The study of social and cultural transitions that directly affect sexual minority rights is becoming more pertinent, especially because an increasing number of societies are making their way through a post-closet era. There is a body of research on coming out narratives emanating from individual perspectives and experiences but the coming out of societies features less in research agendas. This article aims at contributing to this area of study by focusing on collective efforts that work toward more equitable cultures and societies. It engages with the social novel “Zamel” (Buffoni 2009) to study multiple factors that enable shifting definitions of sexual minority rights. In particular, we focus on the role of religion in social and cultural transitioning by examining the historical shift from an era that considered homosexuality an aberration to a time when people belonging to sexual minorities could live without fear or punishment.
Forum italicum: A Journal of Italian Studies , 2016
Il saggio prende in esame la figura del Virgilio di Dante secondo l’interpretazione offertada uno... more Il saggio prende in esame la figura del Virgilio di Dante secondo l’interpretazione offertada uno dei critici danteschi piu` autorevoli del nostro tempo: Robert Hollander, che nellostudio Il Virgilio dantesco: Tragedia nella ‘‘Commedia’’ (1983) presenta Virgilio non piu` comesimbolo della ragione umana, ma come una ‘‘tragedia’’ nella Commedia. Anche se Dantenutre tanta ammirazione verso il suo maestro, questo non gli impedisce di collocarlo perl’eternita` nell’inferno. A differenza di altri personaggi pagani che vengono sottratti dalladannazione eterna, fra cui Stazio e Rifeo, Virgilio non viene salvato da Dante. Questoaspetto rende, secondo Hollander, il Virgilio di Dante una vera e propria tragedia
Chapters in Books by Manuel Joseph Ellul
Trevor Zahra. Bejn Storja u Miti. Gabra ta' Kitbiet , 2020
is an associate professor and currently the head of the Department of Youth and Community Studies... more is an associate professor and 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. She has carried out various research studies about young people, on a local level as well as in collaboration with other international research partners.
Books by Manuel Joseph Ellul
Questo mare. Poetica. Traduzione delle poesie dal maltese all'italiano a cura di Manuel J. Ellul. Gruppo Albatros, Roma , 2024
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Papers by Manuel Joseph Ellul
image misconceptualization. The conclusion elaborates on the implications, limitations, and future directions for education.
Chapters in Books by Manuel Joseph Ellul
Books by Manuel Joseph Ellul