Scuola Normale Superiore

«To share not only a study course but also curiosity and passion is enlightening». – Giovanni Mascellani #sempernormalista

Citizens or Subjects? Stanford scholar and 2025 Balzan Prize winner Josiah Ober joins La Normale delle Idee to examine how social crises can lead to autocratic rule or participatory government, through the ancient Greek cases of Deioces and Solon. 28 October, 6 pm, in Pisa and online

Why does matter prevail over antimatter? At CERN’s LHCb experiment, SNS Physics PhD student Giulio Cordova develops ultra-fast algorithms to reconstruct proton collision points in real time, helping identify events that could reveal the answer. #laricercaèNormale

This month’s list is a long one! There are workshops, hackathons, trainings, internships, info sessions and challenges, for students, academics and staff across the alliance. ⏳All opportunities and application links are on the EELISA Digital Campus. digitalcampus.eelisa.eu/activities

Alumnae and alumni from different generations joined current students on 17 October for a gathering organised with the Associazione Normalisti: an opportunity to reflect on their time at the Normale, their careers, and how interests and expectations change over time.

The Director of the Scuola Normale Superiore, Alessandro Schiesaro, inaugurated today the 2026/2027 Academic Year, the 216th since the Napoleonic decree that established the institution.

Philosopher Judith Butler (UC Berkeley), Ciampi Visiting Scholar at SNS, joins La Normale delle Idee with “Experimental Thought in Dark Times: Arendt, Benjamin, Kafka”, exploring the possibilities of thought in times of crisis. 19 October, 6 PM | Sala Azzurra, Palazzo della Carovana and online

The @eelisa.eu Summer School "Archaeology & Architecture" has come to an end in Agrigento. Students and researchers from Italian and European universities worked on excavations at the Valley of the Temples, gaining hands-on experience and sharing archaeological research methods.

The lecture rooms are filling up again as the new academic year begins. At the SNS seminars take place in small groups, where dialogue with faculty and fellow students is part of everyday study. Teaching and research are closely connected from the very start.

For one week in September, 10 EELISA universities shared a piece of their own history for European Heritage Days: a mine, an astrolabe from 1216, a wind tunnel from 1931, a school's drawings from the 1920s, and more. Read the compilation: eelisa.eu/eelisa-herit...

“Roots-Routes” is the theme of TEDxPisa 2026. First brought to Pisa by SNS students, TEDxPisa still sees SNS students involved in its organisation, with SNS as a partner. A day of talks and workshops exploring the roots that shape us and the paths ahead. 📅 25 Oct 📍 San Giuliano Terme

Remains of frescoes from an ancient Domus found during the archeological excavations at Agrigento. The frescoes were uncovered near the ekklesiasterion, the assembly area of Akragas, during an SNS field school led by Professor Adornato. Read the news normalenews.sns.it/resti-di-aff...

"Pisa restaurata" by Vittoria Brunetti traces the conservation and restoration of Piazza dei Cavalieri from the late 19th century to the 1970s. Published by #EdizionidellaNormale, it stems from the Piazza dei Cavalieri project (by the SNS with Fondazione Pisa). Open Access. 🔗 shorturl.at/fDuz1

«At the Normale I learned here that you don't need to have a clear idea of your future at twenty years of age. In these last few years I have been able to give myself time to explore». – Sarah Agata Quartarone, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences #chifalaNormale

«Make the most of the opportunities that the Normale offers you. Keep your curiousity alive. [...] Welcome». Director Alessandro Schiesaro, together with the SNS community, welcomed 73 students who today embark on their journey at the SNS.

For European Heritage Days, SNS opened some of Piazza dei Cavalieri’s historic buildings to the public. SNS students led guided tours of Palazzo della Carovana, Palazzo dei Dodici, the Torre della Fame and the churches of San Rocco and San Sisto. #EuropeanHeritageDays

Antonio Tabucchi was born in Pisa on 24 September 1943. In a 2008 lecture at the Scuola Normale, the acclaimed writer traced a journey through 20th-century literature, exploring Pessoa’s “disquiet” as a defining condition of modernity. 🔗 Watch on Alla Enne: allaenne.sns.it/video/tabucc...

«I sometimes say that in the first part of my life I studied the soul of the human being and in the second part the human body». – Costanza Chiapponi, #sempernormalista Photo by K Czoppelt, TUM Klinikum Rechts der Isar

🚲A bike ride for sustainability, was held during #BikeToWork2026, FIAB’s campaign for sustainable mobility. The event brought together Scuola Normale, Università di Pisa, Sant’Anna, INFN and CNR, and was sponsored by the Municipality of Pisa. #MobilityWeek

✨ BRIGHT Night 2026: from 23 to 25 September, the Normale’s research reaches the public in Pisa and Florence. Talks, readings, cinema, collections and archives, activities for children and a closing concert bring research closer to the questions shaping our present.

Ten years ago, Carlo Azeglio #Ciampi, an SNS alumnus and former President of the Italian Republic, passed away. Named after him, the Normale’s Istituto di Studi Avanzati fosters dialogue and collaboration across the sciences, humanities and social sciences.

🚲 The Scuola Normale Superiore joins #BikeToWorkDay2026, the national initiative promoted by FIAB. On 18 September, communities from the universities and research institutions of Pisa will cycle together through the city to promote more sustainable daily mobility. #MobilityWeek

🏛️ Heritage at Risk: Revive, Resist, Reimagine. At the Normale, works from the Luigi Pecci Centre for Contemporary Art inhabit the historic Palazzo della Carovana, creating new dialogues between contemporary art and its Renaissance spaces. #EuropeanHeritageDays #WeAreEELISA @eelisa.eu

Oral exams are underway for admission to the Normale. Every year, students from across Italy come to Pisa and Florence for a selection process which is also a moment of genuine dialogue, where critical thinking and reasoning matter as much as knowledge. Good luck to everyone!

Many concepts still central to language study can be traced back to Herodian. SNS researcher Maria Giovanna Sandri is reconstructing his works and their transmission to explore a crucial chapter in the history of European grammar. #laricercaèNormale

🎬 Revolution! History, utopia and rebellion on the big screen. Five evenings, five films exploring different forms of revolution. The Cinema della Normale returns to Piazza dei Cavalieri, Pisa, 11-15 September at 9 pm. Free admission.

Two awards for doctoral theses go to two researchers from the Theoretical Physics Group Salvatore Raucci and Giacomo Brunello are the winners, respectively, of the INFN’s “Premio Fubini 2026” and the “Prix de These en cotutelle” from the Università Italo-Francese. Read the news 👇

Scuola Normale Superiore mourns the passing of Fabio Mussi A student of the Faculty of Humanities from 1967 to 1971, Mussi is remembered by Director Alessandro Schiesaro as a politician who “conducted his political career with integrity and dignity”. Read the news: normalenews.sns.it/cordoglio-al...

Gaslighting can undermine autonomy and create dependency and subordination. Here, Carla Bagnoli examines it as a form of domination that extends beyond manipulator and victim, questioning the role and responsibility of those who witness it. #EdizionidellaNormale: edizioni.sns.it/prodotto/gas...

Scuola Normale Superiore is participating in the Erasmus+ PROCEED project, which is dedicated to piloting a joint European degree, as well as in three new joint educational activities funded under the EELISA alliance (@eelisa.eu).

Knowledge grows when ideas cross borders. With your 5×1000, you can support the Scuola Normale Superiore’s international community and its commitment to mobility and collaboration. Sign the research and universities box and enter tax code 80005050507.

In Memoriam: Antonella Del Prete, Historian of Philosophy and SNS Alumna normalenews.sns.it/addio-ad-ant...

Less than a month to go until BRIGHT Night 2026, the European Researchers' Night. Scuola Normale Superiore will take part with workshops, experiments, guided tours, talks and activities for all ages. 📅 24-25 September 📍 Pisa

First day of written exams for the admission competition to the Scuola Normale for the 2026/27 academic year. Good luck to everyone!

«It was 1982 [...] As a computer scientist, I was fascinated by the way in which the digital tools were applied to fields completely different from my own, and I tried to observe and learn from all these experiences». – Roberto Di Cosmo #sempernormalista

At the Scuola Normale Superiore, research thrives on the exchange of ideas across disciplines and perspectives. By donating your 5×1000, you can help a model that invests in research, education and the people who will contribute to society through science, culture and innovation.

For centuries beauty was considered a purely human concern. Lorenzo Bartalesi challenges this view, showing how the sense of beauty extends across the natural world. Watch the video: shorturl.at/hZqlI

While we wait for the lecture rooms to fill up again, here’s a snapshot from a lecture last spring. #studylife #universitylife

At the Scuola Normale Superiore, students can fully dedicate themselves to study and research, regardless of their financial circumstances. By donating your 5×1000, you help sustain a model based on the right to study and equal access to higher education.

What if Shakespeare had had a sister with the same genius? Lina Bolzoni revisits Virginia Woolf's Judith Shakespeare to show that women's absence from literary history stems not from a lack of talent, but from the denial of education, independence and opportunity. Video: shorturl.at/sYwGH

A break in the common room of the Collegio Timpano. #universitylife

How can we build more sustainable, inclusive and democratic food systems, and what roles can citizens, institutions and organizations play? #DEMETRA, a Horizon Europe project coordinated by SNS, explores new Deliberative Participatory Processes (DPPs). 👉 Watch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qMT...

Drawn by Cambridge's vibrant academic community, Pierluigi Musumeci (SNS Faculty of Humanities) spent his Erasmus study stay at the University of Cambridge, conducting research on Plato's dialogues and engaging in seminars, conferences and reading groups. #normaleinternazionale

The results are in! Launched in April with a budget of over €250K the call has aimed to turn EELISA's Joint Education Roadmap into courses, degrees, and programmes that students can take across the alliance. Explore the winning proposals eelisa.eu/eelisa-joint...

The Sala del Gran Priore in a 1932 photograph. One of the most representative rooms of Palazzo della Carovana, it served the Order of Saint Stephen for centuries and has undergone several transformations over time. Today it hosts institutional meetings of the Scuola Normale Superiore.

Vittoria Pipino (SNS Faculty of Humanities), chose Cyprus to experience a place shaped by centuries of cultural encounters. During her Erasmus traineeship at the Cyprus Institute in Nicosia, she developed skills in 3D modelling and digital storytelling for cultural heritage. #normaleinternazionale

MSCA Call Postdoctoral Fellowships 2026: choose the SNS, where researchers can benefit from an interdisciplinary environment, close interaction across different fields, and dedicated support in preparing competitive proposals. For further information: ricercaeuropea@sns.it

The 2nd EELISA PhD Symposium is coming: two days of learning, collaboration, & connection built for the next gen. of researchers. This year's focus: innovation as part of the research journey. 🗓️ 3–4 Nov 📍 Paris / hosted by @psl-univ.bsky.social & @ecoledesponts.bsky.social eelisa.eu/2nd-eelisa-p...

Created through this year's Comparative Literature course at the Normale, dedicated to melodramatic aesthetics from Euripides to TV series, this Spotify playlist began with songs chosen by students and keeps growing thanks to the SNS community: open.spotify.com/user/3145oia...

Applications are open for admission to the SNS Faculty of Political and Social Sciences. Study in an international, interdisciplinary environment with parallel courses at Unifi; free board and lodgings, plus an income-based grant. Apply by 30 July. 🔗 www.sns.it/it/concorso-...