SAIS 2022 Prize

The SAIS 2022 prize in the humanities, social, political and legal sciences was awarded ex-aequo to Dr Chiara Jermini-Martinez Soria and Dr Laura Marciano, assistants at USI Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society.

Every year, the Italian Society of Academics in Switzerland (SAIS) awards prizes for the best PhD theses in the fields of STEM, life sciences, the humanities, social, political and legal sciences. The theses must be discussed at Swiss universities by Italian and Swiss citizens whose native language is Italian; the selection by the evaluation committee is based solely on merit.

The jury, composed of members of SAIS, including Cesare Alippi, professor at USI Faculty of Informatics, and the Italian Ambassador to Bern Silvio Mignano, awarded the prestigious prize in the field of the humanities, social, political and legal sciences, ex-aequo

• to Dr Chiara Jermini-Martinez Soria, with the thesis "Reframing as an Argumentative Competence in Dispute Mediation", in which she has addressed the issue of mediation by outlining with extreme effectiveness the role of the mediator as a third party, comparing models, theoretical frameworks and historical experiences, highlighting, in particular, the crucial concept of reframing in every aspect and under all possible perspectives.
• to Dr Laura Marciano, with the thesis "Neuroticism and (problematic) digital media use in adolescence: From cross-sectional associations to individual longitudinal effects", in which she describes the phenomenon of the spread of technology and digital media, especially from the angle of social welfare, addressing with accuracy the risks related to the emergence of neurotic phenomena in adolescence. A rich appendix of data and tables enrich the conclusions drawn by the scholar.

The SAIS prize consists of a cheque for 1000 CHF, a diploma and a medal. It is sponsored by the Embassy of Italy in Bern and will be presented to the winners on 2 June 2022, during the celebrations for the Italian National Day, at the Residence of the Italian Embassy in Bern.