Francesco Torrisi

Interview with the Director of the Résidence Julie-Victoire Daubié

 

Tell us about your background and your arrival at the Cité internationale.

I’m a forestry and water resources engineer, I also earnt my Master 2 in environmental law and have a doctorate in agricultural and environmental economy and I’m part of the professional order of Agronomic and Forestry Engineers.

I worked as a teacher-researcher at the University of Florence and then as the director of the employers’ organisation of agricultural and forestry contractors at Confindustria and as a board member of the European organisation in Brussels.

My marriage with Laure bought me to Paris, where I’ve since worked as an independent expert in the field of environmental and territorial development for several countries such as France, Italy, Belgium and Tunisia.

What do you think it is that makes the Cité internationale a unique campus in the world?

The Cité was founded on diversity as a common ground. This practical application of multilateralism in the domain of academic teaching has resulted in an institution that houses tens of countries engaged in the promotion of culture and in the housing of students and researchers from all origins and disciplines. The Cité is both an accelerator and an incubator for ideas thanks to confrontation and exchange and it is also a breeding ground for talent.

If you had to sum up the Cité internationale in one word, what would it be and why?

Tolerance: practiced daily by the intermingling of residents of different nationalities and disciplines in the Maisons, tolerance represents the basis for coexistence and hence a climate of peace and reciprocal acceptance. In a word, the spirit of the founders.

VANESSA SCHERRER

Vanessa Scherrer is General Delegate of the National Foundation Cité internationale universitaire de Paris. She was appointed on 11 January 2024 by a joint decision of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the national foundation and the Rector of the Île-de-France academic region, Rector of the Paris education authority, Chancellor of the Universities of Paris and Île-de-France.

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