The ceremony will be opened by the Rector Corrado Petrocelli, followed by a speech by the historian and essayist
The University of the Republic of San Marino will inaugurate the 2025–26 academic year with a ceremony scheduled for Tuesday, October 28, at the Kursaal Congress Center. The keynote address will be given by Luciano Canfora, director of the History and Law Department, a prominent figure in the San Marino academic community for nearly three decades, and the author of research and books of national and international renown.
The historian's contribution to the audience, entitled "The 'Pestles' of War," will be part of the initiatives the University of San Marino has recently dedicated to peace, which will continue in the coming months with the involvement of all departments. Launched with the messages expressed during the inauguration ceremony of the last academic year, these initiatives have continued through public and internal activities such as workshops, exhibitions, and more.
Professor Emeritus of the University of Bari "Aldo Moro," born in 1942, Canfora has taught at institutions such as the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences in Paris and the Collège de France. He also served on the scientific committees of the Fondazione Istituto Gramsci in Rome and the Treccani Italian Encyclopedia, as well as journals such as the Journal of Classical Tradition (United States) and Historia y Critica (Spain).
Awarded the Gold Medal by the President of the Italian Republic for meritorious service to science and culture, he has won the Benedetto Croce National Prize and the Pavese Prize, among many other honors. Corriere della Sera and La Stampa are among the newspapers that have featured his contributions.
The ceremony on October 28th, free of charge and starting at 15 pm, will open with a presentation by Rector Corrado Petrocelli, who will describe the initiatives and results of the last academic year and his entire career on San Marino: eleven years spent so far at the helm of the University of San Marino, during which courses, locations, research, enrollment, international collaborations, opportunities for students, activities serving the local area and beyond have increased, up to the recent recognition of the Institutional Evaluation Programme (IEP), an independent international body that evaluates the quality of academic institutions and has produced a report dedicated to the University of San Marino.
In addition to Petrocelli and Canfora, the Secretary of State for Education and Culture, Teodoro Lonfernini, the student representative in the Academic Senate, Luca Donati, and the representative of the technical-administrative staff, Maddalena Lonfernini, will also speak.