Cultural activities
USI hosts every year around 120 public events on a wide range of topics related to its educational, research and knowledge transfer activities.
Thanks to the special events series (such as the public lectures of the Borromini Chair, the Lecturae Dantis, and the Lessons in architecture), to the professors’ national and international networks, and to the partnerships with local and extra local institutions, associations and businesses, the USI public lecture rooms offered citizens the opportunity to listen to acclaimed personalities, including:
- Nobel Prize winners:
Robert F. Engle, Jules Hoffmann, Robert Shiller, Muhammad Yunus; - internationally acclaimed scientists, intellectuals and notables from the cultural scene
such as Giorgio Agamben, Alain Aspect, Zygmunt Bauman, Barry Bergdoll, Massimo Cacciari, Manuel Castells, Jean-Louis Cohen, David Lyon, Fabiola Gianotti, Bruno Giussani, Gilles Kepel, Leslie Lamport, Evgenij Morozov, Paolo Nespoli, Thomas Piketty, John R. Searle, Liliana Segre, Salvatore Settis, Jimmy Wales, Michel Wieviorka; - foreign heads of State:
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Giorgio Napolitano; - acclaimed architects
such as Pritzker Prize winners Tadao Ando, Frank O. Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Jacques Herzog, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Rafael Moneo, Ryue Nishizawa, Jean Nouvel, Renzo Piano, Kazuyo Sejima, Álvaro Siza, Peter Zumthor; - renowned writers, artists, actors and journalists
such as Ferruccio De Bortoli, Luciano Fontana, Milena Gabanelli, Andrew Gowers, Luca Guadagnino, Theo Jansen, Ezio Mauro, Silvio Orlando, Beppe Severgnini, Gian Antonio Stella, Oliviero Toscani, Marco Travaglio, Tony Wheeler; - leading experts from the business world
such as Jean-Pierre Danthine, Sergio Ermotti, Thomas Jordan e Fritz Zurbrügg.
And many more.
In addition to hosting guest lecturers and public events, the Academy of Architecture organises regular exhibitions open to the public and is well known for its publishing activity of artistic and architectural culture.
In its role as the sole university in Switzerland of Italian language and culture, USI is engaged in defending the Italian language, literature and culture with:
- the academic and cultural activities of the Institute of Italian Studies
- other relevant promotional activities.
