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.
Marco Maggi
Associate Dean of the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society
Marco Maggi is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Literary Theory and Director of the Master in Italian Language, Literature and Civilization. He is a philosophy graduate from the Catholic University of Milan (1997) where he also obtained a PhD in Linguistics, Philology and Literature, part of his research taking place in the University of Geneva. Post-doctoral fellowships allowed him to spend two years in the Istituto per gli studi filosofici (Naples) and one year in the Institut d´Études littéraires of the Collège de France (Paris). He holds the Italian national scientific qualification as associate professor in Italian literature (10 / F1) and in literary criticism and comparative literature (10 / F4). Marco Maggi is a member of the scientific board of Arabeschi. Rivista di studi su letteratura e visualità, of the book series 'Istituto di studi italiani' (USI/Olschki), and of 'Crossovers. New Perspectives on CompLit' (European Society of Comparative Literature/ibidem press, Germany). He is a member of IAWIS/AIERTI International Association for Word and Image Studies), ASLGC (Swiss Association for general and comparative Literature), ESCL/SELC (European Society of Comparative Literature), International Walter Benjamin Society and Associazione Sigismondo Malatesta. He is the curator of the papers of germanist and comparatist Lea Ritter Santini at Fondazione Centro studi storico-letterari Natalino Sapegno.
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
