UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay in Modena for Unimore’s 850th Anniversary
The University of Modena and Reggio Emilia will host the ceremony on Friday 12 September 2025 at 11 a.m. at the Teatro della Fondazione Collegio San Carlo. The occasion will pay tribute to Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General, for whom the honorary degree in Law has been requested.
As Rector Professor Carlo Adolfo Porro emphasises, this is the most significant international moment of the anniversary celebrations.
A graduate of the École Nationale d’Administration, Audrey Azoulay studied at the Institut d’Études Politiques in Paris and earned an MBA at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom.
She has led initiatives to broaden children’s access to culture, launching programmes in artistic and cultural education. In government, she was responsible for strategic plans and legislative measures supporting the arts, cinema and the public information system.
She has played a decisive role in safeguarding cultural heritage at risk in wartime contexts, implementing the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. In 2017, she was elected Director-General of UNESCO, a position she continues to hold.
The proposal to award her the honorary degree was put forward by Professors Gianfrancesco Zanetti and Thomas Casadei, who chair the organising committee of the 34th National Congress of the Italian Society of Philosophy of Law, within whose framework the ceremony takes place.
The initiative – promoted in collaboration with the Fondazione Collegio San Carlo, the Department of Law, and CRID, the Interdepartmental Research Centre on Discrimination and Vulnerability – will bring together over 300 scholars from many Italian universities and 22 international universities and research centres, ranging from Brazil to the United States, France to Spain, Colombia to Norway. The programme focuses on the relationship between law, vulnerability and equality, with strong participation from early-career researchers.
The ceremony will include an address by Rector Carlo Adolfo Porro, the reading of the citation by Professor Carmelo Elio Tavilla, the presentation of the honorary graduand by Professor Gianfrancesco Zanetti, the conferral of the Honorary Master’s Degree, and Audrey Azoulay’s Lectio Magistralis.
The event will be streamed live on tv.unimore.it.
Categorie: International - english, Notizie_eng
Articolo pubblicato da: Ufficio Stampa Unimore - ufficiostampa@unimore.it