Organisation of the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society
The Faculty's governing bodies are the Faculty Council, the Board of Professors, and the Dean's office.
Faculty Council
The Faculty Council exercises its authority on all general matters related to the interests of the Faculty, especially those pertaining to teaching and research activities. More information are available in the Faculty statute.
Board of Professors
The Board of Professors identifies the Faculty members that are called upon to sit in a commission for the appointment of professors, assigns courses to lecturers, and proposes the awarding of Honoris Causa and Professor Emeritus. More information is available in the Faculty statute.
Dean’s office
The Dean’s office is formed by the Dean and the Vice Deans. It is the executive body of the Faculty. The Dean, assisted by the Vice Deans, leads and manages the Faculty by implementing the decisions of the Faculty Council and the Board of Professors. The Dean represents the Faculty in the USI CounciI. More information is available in the Faculty statute.
One of the two Vice Deans acts as the Study Delegate, in charge of preparing the decisions concerning the application of the Study Regulations.
Current members of the Dean's office:
Luca M. Visconti
Dean of the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society
Luca M. Visconti is Full Professor of Marketing at USI IMCA (Institute of Marketing and Communication Management) and at ESCP Europe, Paris. He is Lecturer at IFM (Institut Français de la Mode) and Sciences Po, Paris. Prior to his current appointment, he was Full Professor at ESCP Europe (2011-2017) and Lecturer in Marketing at Università Bocconi (1999-2011), where he received his Ph.D. in Business Administration and Management. He has been Visiting Scholar at Leeds School of Management, University of Colorado (2004-2005), and at École Supérieure des Affaires, Université de Lille2, Lille (2007-2008 and 2010). Since September 2020, he is Dean of the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society.
Katharina Lobinger
Associate Dean and Study Delegate of the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society
Katharina Lobinger is Senior Assistant Professor for online communication at the Institute of Digital Technologies for Communication (ITDxC) at Università della Svizzera italiana. Her main research interests include networked photography, online communication, digital (visual) culture, ethics for the digital age, and creative and visual research methods. Katharina Lobinger obtained her Ph.D. in Journalism and Communication at the Department of Communication at the University of Vienna in 2010. Her thesis on Visual Communication Research was awarded the Doctoral Dissertation Award “Media-Culture-Communication”. Before joining USI she was Doctoral Researcher at the Department of Communication at the University of Vienna (2007-2011), Post-doctoral Researcher at the Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI) at the University of Bremen (2011-2016) and Associated Junior Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies (HWK), Delmenhorst (2014-2016). Katharina Lobinger is Associate Dean and Study Delegate of the USI Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society.
Sara Greco
Associate Dean of the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society
Sara Greco (Ph.D., 2009) is Associate Professor of argumentation at the Institute of Argumentation, Linguistics and Semiotics (IALS) at USI, where she teaches verbal communication and argumentation. She is Associate Dean of the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society. Her research mainly concerns the role of argumentative dialogue as an alternative to conflict escalation, considering interpersonal conflict as well as broader public controversies. She directs research projects and doctoral dissertations on these topics within the IALS. Since 2018, she is leader of the empirical working group within the European Cost Action entitled: European network for argumentation and public policy analysis. She is regularly invited as a guest lecturer or guest speaker at several universities in Switzerland and abroad. Previously, from 2010 to 2011, Greco has been visiting lecturer at University College London, while from 2011 to 2012 she has been visiting researcher at the University of Surrey, Guildford, UK. From 2008 to 2012 she has been lecturing at the University of Neuchâtel, where she is now an associate researcher at the Institute for Psychology and Education.
Graduate Studies Committee
The Graduate Studies Committee prepares the decisions related to the doctoral schools. It is formed by the representatitves of the Faculty institutes and is chaired by the PhD Programme Coordinator. The current PhD Programme Coordinator is Prof. Suzanne Suggs.
Institutes
According to the USI statute, Institutes are education and research units supported by one or more Faculties, subject to approval by the University Council.
The responsibilities, tasks, organisation and members of the Institutes are defined by specific agreements between the Faculties and the Rectorate. These agreements set the scope and limits within which an Institute can engage in its own right with third parties. The contract has limited duration and is renewable.
The Institutes do not have a distinct legal personality and are headed by a Director appointed among professors (Full or Associate) of the Institutes, according to the terms of agreement. Specialised sub-units (centres, observatories, laboratories, groups ...) can be created inside or in cooperation between the institutes, with the aim of carrying out specific research projects and/or handling specific aspect of the training.
The list of the Institutes supported by the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society is available at this page:
www.com.usi.ch/en/faculty-communication/institutes
