Luiss Guido Carli University is a place where the intersection of knowledge and experience is forged. It is a place where identities, cultures, and disciplines get hybridized; it fosters the development of a rare kind of vision that belongs to those who are able to imagine and create. Such “substratum” is where the Luiss Global Fellowship, a recognition awarded to people who stand up in the scientific, technological, socioeconomic, and cultural frameworks, is rooted.
The four Global Fellowships Luiss has celebrated on June 26, 2023 correspond to four amazing stories.
Max Ciociola has invented Musixmatch, the world’s largest lyrics archive. Started in Bologna, Musixmatch’s project is grounded in a simple eureka moment that has evolved through constant innovation, generating millions of shares through partnerships with Google, Spotify, Instagram, and many others. Alberto Dalmasso left Cuneo to create Satispay, a payment system «independent from debit and credit cards». He has chosen to base the enterprise on a relationship of trust among customers and providers. Their stories are an evidence that there are as many “Silicon Valleys” as minds and hearts of people.
Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London to Bengali parents and raised in the USA. She has chosen to live in Italy (perhaps because “Roma” was the name of the ship her father took to reach Great Britain!) and writes in Italian. She owns a “global passport” that shows the many possibilities that uprooting and re-rooting travels may offer.
Moving from Tuareg culture and from the desert (that is, per excellence, a place of intersections, migrations, and exchanges), Ibrahim al Koni is a writer able to reinvent the sand of empty expanses and camel caravans, calling it “Gold Dust” (the title of one of his books). An author translated into 50 languages, he has lived in Russia, Switzerland, and Spain.
There are several intersections between literature and entrepreneurship. Not only is it a matter of creativity allowing to imagine new worlds, but also of courage: without courage, without the risk of getting lost traveling through different worlds, there is no chance to find themselves and to generate innovation. We recommend to our students that they make their own decisions, taking paths not yet traced, so they can tell themselves today the kind of life they would like to tell the others tomorrow.
Luiss’ community warmly welcomes Alberto, Ibrahim, Jhumpa and Massimo! We are proud of their fellowships and will keep on listening with enthusiasm to their teachings, where thoughts ad lives intersect.
