Insubria Awarded Its First UNESCO Chair

A UNESCO Chair is established, following a careful selection process based on applications submitted at national level, for a four-year period through an agreement signed by the Director-General of UNESCO and the host university.

With the establishment of the UNESCO Chair, the University of Insubria becomes part of an international network comprising approximately 700 chairs worldwide, 27 of which are currently active in Italy.

«Gender inequality is still present in many parts of the world and, due to migration flows from non-EU countries to Italy and other EU Member States, continues to have potentially negative effects,” explains Professor Pozzo. “The UNESCO initiative aims to develop and enhance knowledge and awareness of human rights, particularly with regard to women’s rights, including their right to participate actively in public life. The project seeks to help remove prejudices that are often rooted in a lack of historical and cultural knowledge and awareness. In terms of knowledge transfer, the programme will address issues related to the recognition of women’s rights as fundamental rights and to gender equality. The analysis will focus on the evolution of women’s rights in Italy within the broader European context, as well as in selected non-European legal systems (in particular China and India). The overarching perspective is that of the emergence of a multicultural society, in which rules, institutions and customs circulate alongside migration flows. The UNESCO Chair aims to enable students to gain a framework of reference for the main issues of equality and diversity, from both a cultural and a legal perspective, with specific reference to women and gender,” Professor Pozzo concludes.

The establishment of the Chair includes educational activities comprising 35 hours of teaching, as well as the organisation of seminars and conferences, in collaboration with other public bodies and Italian and international universities. In spring 2019, a Visiting Professor, Professor Tanya Hernandez from Fordham University in New York, will arrive in Como.

Alongside theoretical lectures aimed at illustrating the topics covered in the course, debates on films, documentaries and other materials are planned, with the aim of enabling in-depth discussion and the development of a critical perspective on the subject as a whole.

The course will also be accompanied by a film series entitled Women in a Multicultural Society – Gender Issues in Dialogue Between Cultures, which will begin on 24 October.