Food and the Pilgrim

Dane Munro is a resident academic at the Institute for Tourism, Travel and Culture (ITTC) at the University of Malta, where he lectures and supervises undergraduate and postgraduate students. He holds an MA in Classics and a PhD in the Cultural Anthropology of Pilgrimage and Religious Tourism from the University of Malta. He also holds a PhD in History from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. His research in Classics and History has resulted in a standard work, Memento Mori, a companion to the most beautiful floor in the world (2005), a study on the sepulchral art at St John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta, Malta. Munro is also an active pilgrim and researcher in the field of faith-based tourism and is widely published. He is a co-editor of New Pilgrimage Routes and Trails: Society, Peace and Development (Peter Lang 2023). Munro is also a visiting professor and pilgrimage consultant at the University of Primorska, Slovenia, on religious events and pilgrimage tourism.

Noel Buttigieg is a senior lecturer and an academic researcher at the Institute for Tourism, Travel and Culture of the University of Malta, specializing in cultural heritage with a particular interest in food culture. His current projects include research on food and pilgrimage, food tourism and culinary heritage and his ongoing bread history and culture project. He is currently involved in a number of projects related to educational programmes intended for professionals in the cultural heritage sector. Furthermore, he is engaged in researching audience behaviours in museums through the use of innovative technology. He was the main sponsor for the successful application for Ftira [a traditional sourdough flatbread] to be included in the UNESCO List for Intangible Cultural Heritage. He is the director of Taste History Limited, an arm of the national agency Heritage Malta. He is currently a committee member of the Malta Historical Society and a council member of the Sacra Militia Foundation.

Daniel H. Olsen is a Professor in the Department of Geography at Brigham Young University. His research interests revolve around religious and spiritual tourism, heritage tourism, and the management of sacred sites, with secondary research interests in tourism in peripheral areas and tourism and disabilities. He is co-editor of Religion, Tourism and Spiritual Journeys (2006), Religious Pilgrimage Routes and Trails (2018), Dark Tourism and Pilgrimage (2020), Religious Tourism and the Environment (2020), The Routledge Handbook of Religious and Spiritual Tourism (2021), and New Pilgrimage Routes and Trails: Society, Peace, and Development (Peter Lang 2022)