Sara Greco

Sara Greco (Ph.D., 2009) è Professoressa straordinaria di argomentazione presso l’Istituto di Argomentazione, Linguistica e Semiotica (IALS) dell’USI, dove insegna Comunicazione verbale e argomentazione. Dal 2020 al 2022 è stata vice Decana della Facoltà di comunicazione, cultura e società. Nella sua ricerca, si occupa prevalentemente di dialogo argomentativo come alternativa al conflitto, in diversi ambiti che vanno dai rapporti interpersonali alle controversie pubbliche. Su questi temi, dirige progetti di ricerca e tesi di dottorato entro lo IALS. Dal 2018, dirige il gruppo di lavoro empirico nella COST Action europea intitolata: European network for argumentation and public policy analysis (https://publicpolicyargument.eu). È regolarmente invitata come docente e relatrice in diverse università in Svizzera e all’estero. Precedentemente, dal 2010 al 2011 è stata Visiting Lecturer presso University College London, UK; dal 2011 al 2012 è stata Visiting Researcher alla University of Surrey, Guildford, UK. Dal 2008 al 2012 è stata docente presso l’Università di Neuchâtel e attualmente è ricercatrice associata presso l’Institut de Psychologie et Éducation della stessa università.

I work on collaborative argumentation. For me, argumentation is a means to handle disagreement, to create dialogue spaces where persons can communicate and exchange their views in a reasonble way, and to resolve conflict. Argumentation is important for the society precisely because it is a reasonable dialogue that helps manage disagreement and build social relationships. Ultimately, this is the philosophy behind my research and teaching.

Together with my research group at USI, I work on argumentation as a means to resolve conflicts at different levels in society, with a particular focus on dispute mediation as an Alternative Dispute Resolution practice (see the monograph Argumentation in dispute mediation, John Benjamins 2011). Currently, I am directing a FNS project on reframing as a mediator's communication competence.

I am also interested in how argumentative dialogue is present in other domains such as the family, educational domains and public discourse. Currently, I am working on research project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation on children's argumentation (in collaboration with the University of Neuchâtel - I am Associate researcher at the Institute of Psychology and Education).

In the past, I have worked on the complex relation between argumentation and inner dialogue in the experience of international migrants. Such research line is markedly interdisciplinary and has been pursued in tight collaboration with the IPE at the University of Neuchâtel and with the School of Psychology at the University of Surrey.

In my research activities, the analysis of spoken and written argumentative discourse goes hand in hand with a fine-grained discourse analytical and linguistic approach considering semantic and pragmatic aspects of communication. I like interdisciplinary research activities and I love collaboration in motivated teams.