History of the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society
The Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society was founded in 1996 with the name Faculty of Communication Sciences. It is one of three original faculties of Università della Svizzera italiana together with the Academy of Architecture and the Faculty of Economics.
The Faculty’s educational and scientific project took shape back when the World Wide Web was taking its first steps, though it was already clear that it would have radically changed the media landscape, and the way people interact in the public sphere, at work and in private.
From that point on, communication needed to be approached with specific dynamics in different contests of interaction: from the media, to public institutions and companies, all the way to specific sectors such as health, fashion, tourism or finance. The Faculty was, in a sense, established to take up the challenge.
From the very beginning, the Faculty aimed, in both education and research, at an interdisciplinary understanding of human communication addressed in all its breadth, drawing simultaneously on the humanities, social sciences, and technologies.
"The vision was to immediately develop a virtuous link between the teachings of the corporate world, and those usually confined to the literary and cultural field, with careful attention also to the technological aspects of communication. We talk about communication sciences, a plural that is anything but random, that is why it is essential for our horizon to be interdisciplinary and multicultural. On this simple and pioneering ground, we have added a crucial ingredient: the importance of the word responsibility".
Eddo Rigotti, First Dean of the Faculty of Communication Sciences
With the creation, in 2007, of the Institute of Italian Studies, the Faculty entered a new phase. Its humanistic dimension became stronger and its interdisciplinary vocation was redefined in a new way, through a broad idea of Italian civilisation in which language and literature are interwoven with art and music, with particular attention to the contribution of Italian civilisation in the European context.
Another important milestone was reached, on Monday, December 9, 2010, when, during its plenary session, the Parliament of the Canton Ticino (Grand Council) approved the amendment to the law dating 3 October 1995 on Università della Svizzera italiana and on the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Italian Switzerland, which brought about a change in the name of what had been until then the "Faculty of Communication Sciences". This new name best responds to the current challenges of society, highlighting the strengths developed over the years by the Faculty, and is more in line with its current educational offering.
Today, the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society is underlined by an ever-increasing plurality of disciplines, languages and perspectives. It has embarked on a new journey of development, which can be summarised by as "Communication, culture and society", with the aim of taking up major present and future challenges, with boldness and responsibility.
