Week Against Racism celebrated at USI

From 21 to 30 March 2025, the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) took part in the Cantonal Week against Racism. The aim of the initiative, this year entitled ‘Questione di parole’ (A Matter of Words) was to reflect on the importance of language in the context of racism, understanding its meaning and impact, in order to promote a more conscious and inclusive use of words.

The Equal Opportunities Service with USI's International Relations and Mobility Service, the Group for Inclusive/Image Exclusion Project of the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society and the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, in collaboration with the SUPSI Gender and Diversity Service, the Dalle Molle Institute for USI-SUPSI Artificial Intelligence Studies (IDSIA), Zonaprotetta and the Centre for the Prevention of Discrimination (CPD), proposed the project ‘Questione di parole e immagini’ (A Matter of Words and Images), divided into various activities:

‘Voices against Prejudice’ - Didactic-educational meetings to raise awareness of the issue of racism integrated into USI's regular curricula:

• ‘'Race' as a category of difference’ - held by Prof. Jolanta Drzewiecka.
• ‘Understanding implicit communication to overcome discrimination’ - held by Dr. Claudia Coppola.
• ‘Against diversity. Ethnocentrisms, racisms, nationalisms, sovereignisms’ - held by Prof. Vincenzo Matera.
• ‘'Race', racisms and exclusion’ - Prof. Jolanta Drzewiecka.

Bias and algorithms: can AI combat racism? - A practical and experiential activity on the use of artificial intelligence that explores the learning process of AI tools and their link to the reproduction of implicit biases.

These initiatives actively involved the academic community and the public, promoting awareness and dialogue on issues related to racism and discrimination, raising awareness of the importance of combating all forms of discrimination to promote open and constructive dialogue.

Information materials and gadgets were also distributed in the USI and SUPSI premises, including a bookmark that links to a virtual notice board containing titles of films, songs, magazines, podcasts, books, etc. that deal with the theme of racism and discrimination as food for thought. Below is the reportage from Il Quotidiano.