Joseph Buttigieg, the father of US presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, has been awarded a posthumous honour during today’s Republic Day celebrations.

His son may be in the spotlight of US and world politics during the lead up to the 2020 Presidential elections, but today is dedicated to his father Joseph who received a posthumous honour from Malta.

HONORARY MEMBER

PROF. JOSEPH A BUTTIGIEG MOM (POSTHUMOUS)

Born in Hamrun in 1947, Professor Joseph A. Buttigieg completed his undergraduate work and a master’s degree at the University of Malta. He earned a second postgraduate degree, a B.Phil from Heythrop College in Oxford, England and then migrated to the United States in order to pursue his Doctorate in English at the State University of New York where he earned his Ph.D in 1976 with a dissertation on aesthetics in James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. That same year he moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico, to teach at New Mexico State University. In 1979 he was naturalized as a US citizen.

Buttigieg specialized in modern European literature and theory publishing numerous articles, essays and books. He also translated and edited the three-volume English edition of Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks. He was also a founding member and President of the International Gramsci Society. At Notre Dame University (Indiana), Buttigieg held many leadership and administrative roles, including as Chair of the Department of English, Director of the London Program, and Director of the Hesburgh- Yusko Scholars Program, where he mentored some of the college’s most promising undergraduate students, with an emphasis on service and leadership.

Buttigieg was one of sixteen members to be honoured during today’s Republic Day Celebrations.

His ambitions and the leadership qualities he exemplified have clearly rubbed off on his son Pete, who has experienced increased favourability to become the Democratic candidate for the US Presidential elections in 2020.

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