Luiss University Diaspora Program: 5 seminars to get to know the world

Webinar series to take off on 26 january

ROM A – The university is about to open up its doors to the world to portray an ideal of Italy with global horizons which promotes talent and invests in the foreign community to support internationalisation and the sharing of knowledge. This is the approach of Diaspora Program, a series of lectures and debates promoted by Luiss Guido Carli starting from Tuesday 26 January, 12:00 PM (GMT).
   The online lectures in Italian, English and French, which start on Wednesday 26 January, are organized on the basis of a new signed agreement between the University and the association Le Réseau. This association represents African diaspora in Italy and is a member of the National Council of Diaspora.
   “Our commitment is not only to support the university’s goal of internationalisation, already launched some time ago through major initiatives, but also focus hard on student’s leanings and guide them. Italy is considered as one of the chief training centres in Europe not only by students from the developed world but also by those from different contexts such as from Africa, Latin America or Asia“, pointed out Cleophas Adrien Dioma, coordinator of the Migration and Development Working Group for the National Council for Development Cooperation as well as Chairman of Le Réseau, during an interview with the press agency Dire.
According to Raffaele Marchetti, Deputy Rector for Internationalization Luiss University, “cosmopolitan education represents the university’s mission based on our strategic choice to focus on  those countries which surround the Mediterranean basin and lie south of the Sahara Desert”. Moreover, in the last few years, this choice has been “confirmed by the increase in the number of enrolments of students who come from universities in these areas”.
“Apart from traditional recruitment , from Ghana to Kenya”  added Prof. Marchetti, “several study bursaries have been guaranteed by Italian companies and humanitarian organizations  which work in Africa, such as Eni and the Fondazione Terzo Pilastro – Internazionale of Emmanuele Emanuele, which is promoting the Mediterranean Project. Other humanitarian projects include that of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which is promoting the University Corridors financed by the University Community of Alumni”.
The first few lectures will be dedicated to this exchange with Africa, a kaleidoscope of 54 counties and one thousand languages and cultures where the average age is less than 20.
The inauguration is planned for 26th January with a webinar entitled “Diaspora, knowledge and community”.
Both the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Emanuela Claudia Del Re, and Vice Technical Director of the Italian Agency for Cooperation and Development (Aics), Leonardo Carmenati, have confirmed they will speak.  
The Pro-Rector of the Free International University for Social Studies (Luiss) Raffaele Marchetti together with Cleophas Adrien Dioma will open the event after a welcoming speech from Prof. Paola Severino, Vice President of Luiss, in charge of the promotion of International relations of the University, and an introductory speech by Marco Francesco Mazzù, recruiting leader and Prof. of Marketing and Digital Studies.
Later on, Jean Leonard Touadi, Chairman of the Centre for Relations with Africa on behalf of the Italian Geographical Society and Iam Ouaga, General Director of the Burkinan University, will join them.
Edouard Firmin, Deputy Director for Africa at Unesco, and several representatives from the African diaspora and the “young generations” are also expected to speak.
The webinar series  will continue with monthly meetings, with the opportunity of meetings with companies and open sessions for interactions and the opportunity for students to ask questions and take the lead. It will focus on key themes in 2021 and on the post-pandemic world, in particular ,the unfolding of current crises and events. The main titles of the lectures include “Innovation, Digitalization and Sustainability as a way to social and ecological transition”, “Italian and African Geopolitical Perspectives”, “Data Science to Support a Changing World” and “Italian and African business perspectives”.
According to Prof Mazzù, the project goes way beyond the goals of traditional recruiting, embraces the horizon of circular migration and invests in social and economic development. Bearing this in mind, he said: “We should do our upmost to turn our students into global actors who are capable of acting ethically and meticulously. Moreover, it is thanks to their competence that they acquire in this multicultural environment that, in due course. they will be able to apply their knowledge in a wide  spectrum of situations in the main countries and institutions both on a global level and in their respective countries of origin thus becoming ‘decision makers’ and promoters of growth and development”.