Best Interests of the Child - Biography 1 | Page 14
Laura MERLA
Laura Merla est politologue et docteur en sociologie. Elle occupe
actuellement les fonctions de co-directrice du Centre Interdisciplinaire
de Recherche sur les Familles et les Sexualités (CIRFASE) et de chargée
de cours invitée à la Faculté ESPO, Université catholique de Louvain.
Elle est également Honorary Research Fellow à l’Université d’Australie
occidentale. Ses travaux portent principalement sur la sociologie de
la famille, avec une attention particulière portée à la thématique du
care et des solidarités intergénérationnelles dans les familles dites
‘transnationales’, à l’articulation entre vie professionnelle et familiale,
à la paternité, et aux politiques sociales. Elle a publié deux ouvrages
collectifs en 2014: ‘Distances et liens’ paru chez Academia-L’Harmattan
(avec Aurore François); et ‘Transnational families, migration and the
circulation of care: understanding mobility and absence in family life’ paru
chez Routledge (avec Loretta Baldassar).
Ruth FARRUGIA
Dr Ruth Farrugia is an advocate and senior lecturer in the Faculty of
Laws at the University of Malta. She studied at the University of Malta,
University of Strasbourg, Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies
and Metropolitan Ecclesiastical Tribunal. She is a former consultant to
the deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Social Policy, the Minister
for Family, the Social Affairs Committee in Parliament and the United
Nations High Commission for Refugees Office in Malta. She served for
a number of years as Chairperson of the Children Care Orders Board
and drafted numerous laws including the Child Protection Bill currently
before Parliament. Ruth has served as legal advisor to many national
and international entities and has published widely in the field of family
law, child law and human rights and has been Coordinator of the
University of Malta Human Rights Programme since 2012. In June 2014
she was appointed the first Director General of the President’s Foundation
for the Wellbeing of Society.
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