The Anti-Racism Week (SCR) 2026 continues: a survey for the USI community has been launched.

Following its participation in the Week Against Racism (SCR) 2026, the International Relations and Study Abroad Service invites the entire USI community to contribute to the new survey: “Cultural Diversity and Inclusion at USI: What Do You Think?” (for information, please contact [email protected])

Participation only takes a few minutes, is completely anonymous, and will help guide future initiatives toward the needs and experiences of our community regarding the topic of cultural diversity.

While we look forward to hearing your voices, let us revisit the events promoted during SCR 2026.

From March 23 to 27, 2026, USI took part in the Cantonal Week Against Racism (SCR), an initiative that has existed in Switzerland since the early 2000s and is promoted in Ticino by the Service for the Integration of Foreigners.

USI participated in the program with the project “Beyond the Gaze: Work Stories from Racism to Inclusion,” proposed by the Equal Opportunities Service and the International Relations and Mobility Service of USI, in collaboration with the Gender & Diversity Service of SUPSI, and supported by the Service for the Integration of Foreigners, Swisslos, and the Federal Service for Combating Racism.

The project made it possible to explore the topic of racial discrimination through a multidisciplinary approach, offering a cross-cutting analysis of a complex reality that, as an academic institution, we are called to address. The topic was discussed during several lectures integrated into USI’s regular study programs, which for the occasion were also open to the public:

• Prof. Marco Maggi proposed a reflection on the role of literature in shaping an inclusive perspective, through the work of writer and photographer Teju Cole, which challenges rigid identity categories and invites recognition of the plurality of experiences, particularly with regard to “Blackness,” understood as a complex and non-univocal reality. This gave rise to a “pedagogy of the gaze” that values differences as an ethical practice and promotes inclusivity based on the recognition of singularities, rather than assimilation.

• Prof. Vincenzo Matera addressed racism from a cultural anthropology perspective, highlighting its relational, dynamic, and historically situated nature. Racism was described as a set of practices that transform differences into inequalities, rooted in power relations and the distribution of resources. It emerged how such dynamics reproduce over time, continually redefining the boundaries between “us” and “others,” and how countering them requires not only educational interventions but also critical reflection on the structural organization of society.

• Prof. Jolanta Drzewiecka explored the concept of “race” as a social and historical construction, lacking any biological foundation. Through examples related to the European scientific tradition, it was shown how this concept has been used to justify hierarchies, exclusion, and exploitation, particularly in the colonial context. The lecture also highlighted the contradictions of the contemporary European context, where the rejection of the term “race” coexists with the persistence of discriminatory practices.

On the evening of March 24, a screening of the film “The Prodigious Transformation of the Working Class into Foreigners” was also held, in collaboration with the Lugano Human Rights Film Festival. This represented a key moment of reflection on the relationship between labor, migration, and the social construction of otherness. Following the screening, the discussion led by Dr. Vega Tescari (USI) and Prof. Spartaco Greppi (SUPSI) fostered dialogue between academic perspectives and public reflection, highlighting the role of historical memory in understanding contemporary forms of discrimination and the link between racism and labor exploitation.

In addition to the public lectures and the film screening, throughout the week many people—both from the university community and beyond—had the opportunity to engage and reflect on the topic of racism, also through thematic reading spaces set up in the USI and SUPSI university libraries.

Go to the survey “Cultural Diversity and Inclusion at USI: What Do You Think?”: LINK

Your contribution is important to further explore the topic of racism at USI from an intersectional perspective!