Up to date, interactive, playful

23 August 2011. During the public lectures in fall term 2011, the university will present itself as, among other things, keen to debate and up to date by tackling hot topics such as the Swiss public health system, the environment and climate change, the history of sustainable energy concepts and Switzerland’s relationship to Europe. In the context of the general elections this fall, „HSG on the Pulse“, a program that was launched in the spring semester, will enable the public to debate with faculty members over two nights.

Connection to the city

HSG’s connection to the city is a central concern for the university. This becomes especially clear during the lecture series in which politicians, lecturers and an artist will try to answer the question of whom the city belongs to. In the same lecture hall where Roman Signer will stage his artistic event, the head of the Natural History Museum will invite chemists to demonstrate experiments relating to sustainability in research and everyday life. The university’s cooperation with the city’s theatre and the association “Latin Cultural Month” will stress its link to local institutions. In addition, HSG will spread out and schedule some lectures at various places in the city and region, such as the St.Katharinen ceremonial hall, the post office building, city hall and, outside St.Gallen, at the cantonal school in Wil.

From Nippon to Italia

The university’s international orientation will be stressed in lectures on Japan’s economy and society, the history of the Shiites, Chinese culture and literature and world music. Western themes also will be amply presented: the period between world wars in Europe, the Italian ‘60s, or Sessanta, and French and American culture and society of the 19th and 20th centuries as represented in literature. Additional literary highlights of the term will doubtlessly be the three appearances of Swiss author Urs Widmer and lectures on the genre of the German epistolary novel, Chekhov and Nobel Prize laureate Mario Vargas Llosa’s work on the occasion of his visit to HSG at the beginning of the term.